Students Step into Food Crisis at Guelph Food Fight

What happens when students are asked not just to study the challenges facing food systems, but to step inside them and make decisions with competing priorities, limited resources and no easy answers?

Nearly 50 students gathered at the University of Guelph for the inaugural Guelph Food Fight, an immersive policy simulation developed by Arrell Food Institute (AFI).

Part Model United Nations and part role-playing game, the Food Fight places students into a fictional but plausible food crisis shaped by climate change, geopolitical instability and an emerging infectious disease. Rather than observing from the sidelines, participants assume the roles of governments, producers, community organizations and other food-system interest holders and are compelled to respond as events unfold around them.

The simulation was developed by Dr. Evan Fraser, executive director for AFI and professor of geography, who served as the game master throughout the weekend.

“This event was born out of a desire to lean heavily into experiential education and create a simulation of real-world decision-making,” Fraser says. “It’s only by taking some of our energy and using it to step outside of the classroom and engage in this sort of role-play exercise that we will equip students to be effective leaders in a world beset by massive disruption.”