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[Project] Tomatoes in the US and in the world #123

Open Palarisk opened 6 years ago

Palarisk commented 6 years ago

Pitch

Summary

I want to explore the US and world tomato market: who's the biggest producer, how has the market changed over time.

My data came from USDA and also from FAO

Details

Possible headline(s): Huge changes in the tomato market: China takes lead while Italy struggles (I don't know yet if Italy struggles , just an example)

Data set(s): http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsda/viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID=1210 and http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/?#data/QC

Code repository: https://github.com/Palarisk/data-studio/tree/master/code/01-tomatoes

Possible problems/fears/questions: I'm not sure yet wether I will concentrate on US or World market.

Work so far

I've explored the data and made two graphics:

screen shot 2018-07-11 at 12 26 35 screen shot 2018-07-11 at 12 26 47

Checklist

This checklist must be completed before you submit your draft.

zle2105 commented 6 years ago

I would flip the second chart to show the largest producers first and add the numbers in each bar.

Maybe add a portion about the changes in tomato production. You said that Italy struggled but there is no comparison.

Very interesting topic overall. First chart is perfect.

Katerinavts commented 6 years ago

This is an interesting topic. Since it is on diet and a lot of readers will be interested, I would make plots other than bar charts (it is fun).

Palarisk commented 6 years ago

Update

Content

screen shot 2018-07-12 at 16 19 20

Ok, so I decided to concentrate on the world level and look how the situation in world has changed since 60's. Here are the top5 tomato producers in 2016 and their performance since 1960. Huge boom in China!

As Katerina suggested, it would be also nice to omit the whole line chart and just use different sized tomatoes here: the exact numbers for different countries are not that important here, so maybe two tomatoes would be enough for each country: one for 1960 and one for 2016.

Data is once again from FAO: http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/?#data/QC

Any changes in direction or topic?

I decided to concentrate on world level and particularly China, although also the growth in India is remarkable. I omitted Italy cause it is not in top5 and isn't really strugling as I first thought, it just really steady and uninteresting.

Problems/Questions

If I would do this with different sized tomatoes, how would I do it? I don't usually like bubble charts cause it's hard to see and compare the exact differencies between different bubbles. And I don't really understand the logic in them: should the areas of the bubbles be directly related to the size of the value or what? (ie, if valueA=1 and valueB=4, should I draw a 1 x 1 square for valueA, and 2x2 square for valueB? And in bubbles it's so much harder to evaluate the area by just looking them?

Anyway for this graph those different sized tomatoes would work cause the main purpose is to show the HUGE growth in China.

Checklist

Katerinavts commented 6 years ago

I like the palette you used. Only one comment: is there a way to make it more clear that your graph is about "production" of tomatoes? I see it on y-axis, but maybe you could add a subtitle.

tsp2123 commented 6 years ago

Great work! But I'm interested to know: Is there data that can explain why China is increasing production? (something in your dataset?). I'm unsure how you would add the bubble graph. It's a very quirky idea, but if there is a good reason for it then go ahead! Otherwise, your line graph seems to tell the story. The only question is, why is China producing tomatoes at an astronomical level?

Palarisk commented 6 years ago

Update

Your project content: images/words/etc

screen shot 2018-07-17 at 22 42 36

Any changes in direction or topic?

As Katerina suggested, I added a subtitle to make it clear what this graph is about. I also changed the legend to reflect the TOP5 order of the countries. It used to be in alphabetical order but now when the subtitle says TOP 5 I think it would be misleading if the countries were not in top5 order.

Problems/Questions

I deleted the grid on purpose, since the most important thing here is the boom in china and since all the other countries are around 10 million tons or less it wouldn't really add any info to add grid. But do you think there should be grid? And what about the frames?

Checklist

jsoma commented 6 years ago

image

playfairbot commented 6 years ago

Hello! I'm a little robot, just having a little look around.

You need some feedback, let me summon @kidaemon, @pasiegrist, @Katerinavts for you

Palarisk commented 6 years ago

Final

Project visuals/text

screen shot 2018-07-20 at 22 29 25

Details

Headline: So many tomatoes: huge boom in China

Published website version: https://palarisk.github.io/tomatoes/

Code repository: https://github.com/Palarisk/data-studio/tree/master/code/01-tomatoes

Final data set(s): http://localhost:8888/edit/Documents/GitHub/data-studio/code/01-tomatoes/FAOSTAT_data_7-11-2018b.csv

What did you find to be the most difficult part of this project?

Scales: It's difficult to provide meaningful information on multiple things if there are huge differencies between the values: eg USA has somewhat doubled the production but in my final chart you barely notice it because the boom in China is so huge.

Are you satisfied with what you produced? Is there anything you would like to change or improve?

Yes, I'm satisfied. I'd like to add the reason for the huge boom in China to the chart, but I don't know it yet (it's definitely just not the tomatoes but much else has also been booming in China). That would need some more research.

Checklist

pasiegrist commented 6 years ago

I really like the small story you are telling us here. This tomato boom is crazy. Is it only for the local consumption or to the export a lot? And if yes where? These are questions you could answer in an additional graph.

Some styling inputs. I don't like the colouring of the countries. I'd choose grey and label them directly with Illustrator. You can keep a color for China though.

sarahslo commented 6 years ago

i think you found something strange here, which is cool. i'm also glad you dropped the dual axis idea, never do those, they are misleading and confusing.

it makes me wonder if china has become the biggest producer of other types of produce? and it makes me wonder who they export too? who imports the most chinese tomatoes? there's lots more you could do here, this feels like the beginning.

you did learn something important about scale, which is that when you have something massive it dwarfs everything else. what if, you took china out of the dataset and looked at the race between the other countries? if this were interactive you could add and drop datasets and add explanation as you did it, but even in a static form you could show us china overtook all the other countries. and if you look at all of them in isolation, who is struggling and who is falling off.

the top 5 are only the top 5 in 2015. not over time. good start. more please!