Managing Global Resources for a Secure Future

Despite decades of education and outreach aimed at lessening the impact of agriculture on the environment, the impact is still felt. One approach to improving adoption of conservation practices, is to combine teaching the social challenges involved in implementing solutions with teaching the conservation practices. The authors assume that agricultural impacts to the environment follow a “tragedy of the commons” model. A simulation game was created where each player is a farmer who makes a series of choices about farming practices, either conservation or conventional. The consequences of their choices result in either positive or negative impacts to the environment (public) and the farm economy (private). Farmers must work together to implement conservation practices to protect resources. However, if farmers make choices based solely on farm economics, the environment will degrade and the external costs will eventually be felt by the farm economy. The natural progression in the “tragedy of the commons” and in this game is for soil, air, and water resources as well as society to degrade. If farmers work together by forming agreements, they can achieve long-term sustainability and economic success.