From FBS to state dashboards: A reproducible pipeline for dietary energy supply and import dependency monitoring in the U.S

The current paper investigates the patterns in dietary energy provision and dependency on importing food products throughout the last 60 years of U.S. states between 1960 and 2020 based on Food Balance Sheet (FBS) data. The study will seek to create a consistent pipeline that can convert FBS information to state base dashboards to support real-time tracking of food security. This analysis has highlighted the high levels of regional inequality in supplying dietary energy and some states have increased significantly with others being susceptible to any of the global supply chain shocks and especially those who have had high import dependency. The results imply that the degree to which the states are subject to the external disruptions is not strictly correlated with the import dependency; however, highly dependent states could be at the risk of adverse impacts. The present research shows the value of specific interventions in the vulnerable areas and the necessity of in-depth policies that can be focused on the local food production and diversification of imports. The reproducible pipeline that is created in the course of the research is a useful addition to the available tool of policymakers, which provides dynamic, information-driven data on food security. It can be extended to include the new variables which include climate change and the quality of food. Further surveillance with the help of such tools is essential to enhancing the U.S. food security and guarantees the resiliency of food systems against the background of the new global challenges.