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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
About FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Our 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. We believe that everyone can play a part in ending hunger.
About Green Brown Blue
The Lexicon is a US-based NGO that uses evidence-based storytelling, strategy, and mobilization to build movements that help people pay closer attention to how they eat, what they buy, and where their responsibility begins for creating a healthier, safer food system.
Green Brown Blue is a food systems solutions activator produced by The Lexicon with support from Food at Google. Its activators assesses the current food landscape, engage with key influencers, identify trends, surveys innovative work, and creates greater visibility for ideas and practices with the potential to shift key food and agricultural paradigms.
Change the Game Team
Change the Game, Change the Future features an unprecedented collaboration between members of FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and The Lexicon to create a platform that demonstrates the complexities of agri-food systems transformation. Meet the team behind it.
This website was built by The Lexicon™, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization headquartered in Petaluma, CA.
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To the extent possible under law, Green Brown Blue, a Food Systems Solutions Activator is releasing all its content under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO) licence.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
