GLO-FORCE: Urban Food Systems Resilience

Food supply chains in urban regions are highly vulnerable to sudden disruption — as demonstrated by the 2025 EF3 tornado that struck the St. Louis metropolitan area, exposing gaps in local food distribution and emergency response networks. GLO-FORCE responds to this challenge by integrating three emerging technologies — blockchain for supply chain transparency, artificial intelligence for predictive analytics, and geospatial intelligence for spatial situational awareness — into a unified decision-support framework for food system resilience.

The St. Louis region serves as the pilot context, with the tornado event providing a concrete and recent case study for mapping where the food system failed, how quickly it recovered, and what interventions could have accelerated that recovery. The project draws on partnerships with local food security organizations, logistics providers, and geospatial technology firms to ground the work in operational reality.

The ultimate goal is a set of tools and protocols that can be adapted to other urban food systems facing disaster risk — giving emergency managers, food banks, and city agencies the situational awareness they need to respond faster and more equitably when disruption strikes.

This project is currently seeking funding. If you are interested in partnering or learning more, please reach out to Jake.