Food Loss
and Waste

With support from

Food Loss
and Waste

Can you change the future by creating policies to tackle some of the greatest challenges facing global agrifood systems?

We need to
change the game.

We need to change the game.

“Change the Game, Change the Future” is a new game platform that will help policymakers and the public learn the role data can play in addressing these tradeoffs and help them choose the most effective policies. The online decision-making platform was jointly developed by UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and The Lexicon, a U.S.-based non-profit organization whose Green Brown Blue activator mobilizes domain experts and builds tools to tackle some of the greatest challenges facing our food systems. It was introduced during a week-long flagship event of the World Food Forum, a youth-led movement to help shape the future of food and agriculture.
“We have to feed 2 billion more people by 2050 and save the only planet we have. This is possible only if we look at the food systems holistically and consider all the elements and their relationships. This game platform is designed to encourage people to adopt this ‘systems’ approach.”
Maximo Torero Cullen
Chief Economist, FAO

Latest data from FAO.

The online game platform mixes real time data from over 190 countries with interactive animations that depict local cultures across the globe. Through playing the game, both policy makers and the public can learn to manage complex, real-life trade offs while seeking a balance between economic growth, social progress, and environmental protection. Beneath the game’s surface, advanced quantitative global modeling tools analyze these tradeoffs and provide synergies with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Explore the game.

“Change the Game, Change the Future” lets players choose one of 17 regions, from Western Africa and the Middle East to Southern Asia and the Andes. After selecting a region, players are asked to make interventions based on three policy domains: institution, infrastructure, and behavior. To make the most informed decisions, players can also seek advice from government ministers and experts, but they quickly learn that making decisions for the benefit of one region may lead to adverse effects halfway across the globe. At its core, the game’s message is clear: to meet the challenges of the future, governments, companies, and the public must all learn how to navigate multiple perspectives and consider what’s at stake in balancing the tradeoffs that must be made to strengthen global food systems.
“Data on spreadsheets don’t often make for the most compelling stories. To make people care and move them to action, we use game theory and storytelling tools that put a face and a place on data, then show the motivations that drive impacts beyond regional boundaries.”
Douglas Gayeton
Co-Founder, The Lexicon

How are the data from over 190 countries being used beneath the surface of the game?

Data can describe problems. Understanding how different data interact can help solve them. In this game, we brought together real-time data, economic modeling, and more than a couple million equations based on people’s behavior to quantify tradeoffs, so players can work on minimizing them. The economic model that serves as an engine for the game is actually used to inform policies in the real world. We also wanted to emphasize that data should guide public and private investments to transform agri-food systems.

Each time there are new data available, an update will be made available to download. This means that even if you make the exact same decisions in the exact same region two years from now, your score may change since the data have been updated to reflect the current state of the world.

Frequently Asked Questions

Agrifood systems transformation is a complex issue. Why did you choose to present this concept using a game platform?

Transforming our agri-food systems so that they can feed 8.5 billion people sustainably by 2030 is a critical milestone to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Most countries often have clear objectives–such as ending hunger or making healthy diets available for everyone–but the complexities of these decisions are difficult to consider, and ministries often act in silos. This can lead to unintended consequences, including negative impacts on land, water, biodiversity, and equity. We believe that a game using data and storytelling tools can help players understand the complexities and consequences of their choices, and make them move to action.

What are the main ideas and lessons that the game addresses? What do you hope players take away from playing the game?

Transforming our agri-food systems so that they can feed 8.5 billion people sustainably by 2030 is a critical milestone to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Most countries often have clear objectives–such as ending hunger or making healthy diets available for everyone–but the complexities of these decisions are difficult to consider, and ministries often act in silos. This can lead to unintended consequences, including negative impacts on land, water, biodiversity, and equity. We believe that a game using data and storytelling tools can help players understand the complexities and consequences of their choices, and make them move to action.

Why are food loss and waste the focus of the first version of the game?

Food loss and food waste are major contributors to global warming and agri-food systems inefficiencies. Tackling them can deliver a triple win by feeding more people with healthier diets, generating income for agri-food systems workers, and conserving and protecting natural resources. So we began with food loss and waste to show how agri-food systems can be made more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable. Future versions of the game will address different challenges that agri-food systems face.

How did you collect data from over 190 countries for this game?

Most of the data are from the United Nations, with a lot of agri-food systems data coming from the Food and Agriculture Organization. There is also household survey data to capture certain elements, like poverty and hunger, at the country level, as well as some World Development Indicators from the World Bank. We wanted to bring all these rich data together into a single model.

Why is the world divided into 17 regions?

We grouped the nearly 200 countries into 17 regions to facilitate gameplay and provide different experiences. In the game, the player is in charge of a fictional representative country of each of these regions. Every region has its own unique set of strengths and challenges that will determine which decisions will have the greatest impacts and which will lead to unintended consequences. For example, a region may struggle with food insecurity and poverty but could have rich biodiversity and potential for agricultural production. Balancing these opportunities and challenges is a key part of the game.

Why are the dimensions of sustainability so important to play the game, and where did the concept come from?

It developed over decades, as countries realized economic growth alone wasn’t sufficient and that development had to be inclusive to address inequality and protect the planet for future generations. Eventually, this led to the notion of “sustainable development,” in which economic, social, and environmental priorities are balanced.

How did you decide what policy choices to offer to the player? Why did you choose these three policy domains and nine policy options?

The policy choices are focused on agri-food systems throughout the production, distribution, processing, and consumption phases. To make the most informed decisions, players can seek advice from government ministers and experts, but they quickly learn that making decisions for the benefit of one region may lead to adverse effects halfway across the globe. What players need is a well-balanced policy intervention, not a hypothetical miracle solution. Read more here.

How is my score calculated?

During the game, your choices impacted a number of economic, social, and environmental variables, like the number of people suffering from chronic hunger or the amount of land deforested or saved from deforestation. These variables are aggregated into six main indicators (GDP, jobs, food security, poverty, emissions, and biodiversity) and gathered into the three dimensions of sustainability. 

The scoring procedure follows two steps. First, we measure your performance on each of these indicators on a -10 to +10 scale, relative to each region. For example, a +10 on food security means that you’ve achieved the maximum performance that the region can within the game. It doesn’t mean that you’ve solved all food security problems, but that you’ve made the best possible choices based on the options given to you. This game is about actions related to tackling food loss and waste, but obviously just dealing with food loss and waste will not solve all the problems. 

The next step is about aggregating these performances. First, a simple average is taken across the two indicators belonging to each dimension of sustainability. Finally, each of these dimensions is weighted by the percentages indicated by your preferences to get a final score.

Why are the outcomes screens divided into food loss and waste, regional sustainability, and world sustainability?

There are many concepts that the game addresses and multiple outcomes screens help break these down, with each screen zooming out to a larger scale. The player is first shown how they performed on the challenge of reducing food loss and waste within their region. Next, the player is shown how their choices for addressing food loss and waste impacted the overall sustainability of their region. Finally, the world sustainability screen shows how the player’s choices have impacted sustainability globally. This score is based on the potential of what their region could do for the world, so even a small region can have a high score if they have done everything in their power for global sustainability.

What is the point in playing the game multiple times?

Playing the game multiple times within the same region can demonstrate how different decisions can lead to different outcomes for food loss and waste, as well as sustainability. The tradeoffs in scores reflect tradeoffs in real-life policymaking, which is an important concept for problem-solving and critical thinking. Playing the game in different regions illustrates how even the exact same choices can lead to different outcomes, depending on the conditions and resources specific to each region.

The production team brings together very different skillsets and backgrounds. Why did this group come together?

This project is a partnership between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and The Lexicon. FAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Their goal is to achieve food security for all and make sure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. With over 194 member states, FAO works in over 130 countries worldwide.

By joining forces, FAO and The Lexicon were able to combine powerful storytelling tools and advanced quantitative modeling to convey the wealth of knowledge and data to demonstrate how certain choices can solve challenges faced by agri-food systems.

Why does the game not address fisheries and aquaculture?

Although fisheries and aquaculture are vital to the nutrition and livelihoods of many people and the biodiversity of life below water, this game focuses on farming and ranching. Food loss and waste issues related to fisheries involve a particular set of challenges that go far beyond what could fit into this game’s narrative.