Food system mapping is the practice behind the artifact: inventorying those assets and the relationships between them, then reading the result for concentration and for gaps. The map is what you publish; the mapping is what tells you a county has farms, no processor and a single licensed kitchen forty minutes away. Community organizations, municipalities, researchers and food entrepreneurs all use it for that.
A useful map is maintained, sourced and correctable. Each entry should say where its information came from and when it was last checked, because food businesses open, move and close constantly — a map that silently ages is worse than no map, because it sends people to closed doors.
Food Web’s asset map is a live query rather than a fixed list: entries are added, corrected and archived as they change, so what it shows today is not what it showed last quarter. Open the map to see what is recorded near you, and suggest anything missing.
