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“Farmers don’t want to waste or utilize
inputs incorrectly,” Saik said. “It’s impor-
tant for people to understand that when
they see farmers working in their fields,
those farmers are making conscious deci-
sions to grow the safest and most reliable
crops in a sustainable manner.”
Saik founded the central-Alberta-based
company Agri-Trend, which advises farm-
ers on crop production and marketing.
These days, however, he spends a great
deal of time working with and speaking to
farmers around the world. Journey 2050
also takes a global approach. Students
follow three farm families from Canada,
Kenya and India. While the crops change,
the need to maintain healthy soil, use nu-
trients efficiently and minimize the farm’s
environmental footprint remain the same.
Anyone can play the game online at
However, the Journey
2050 committee also provides ways for
students to have a more in-depth educa-
tional experience. Teachers in and around
Calgary can take their students on a free
daylong field trip to the Calgary Stampede
grounds, where educators walk students
through the principles behind sustainable
agriculture and then let them compete
against each other as they play Journey
2050 on tablets.
Robyn Kurbel, education and program-
ming co-ordinator for the Calgary Stam-
pede, runs the field trip. In the 2014/15
school year—the game’s pilot year—Kur-
bel said 5,700 students participated in
the field trip, adding that the program is
booked until the end of the 2016 school
year with an estimated 7,000 students
who experienced Journey 2050 in 2015/16.
“The kids are usually dead quiet when
they’re playing the game, which is im-
pressive considering that 12-year-olds are
usually never quiet at the same time,” said
Kurbel, a former high school science and
math teacher. “You’ll walk around and hear
the kids talk about how the game is addict-
ing, but they’re learning something as well.”
Teachers can also book guest speakers
to come to their classrooms and do a
shorter version of the field trip. As well,
there is an entire suite of lesson plans,
classroom activities and mini-tests that
teachers can access online and present to
their students, even if they themselves do
not have an agricultural background.
Chantal Goudreau, a Grade 9 science
teacher at St. Matthew School in Calgary,
is one such teacher. She took advan-
tage of the opportunity to have a guest
speaker from Journey 2050 present the
material to her class before the students
played the game.
“I know that if I present this program
or have a speaker come, my curriculum
objectives are being achieved,” Goudreau
explained. “But what’s great is that it’s
a different way than I would be able to
present it.”
She appreciates the hands-on learn-
ing about practical issues that the game
provides. “It’s teaching the kids about
real world problems that we’re facing,”
Goudreau said. “They end up making choic-
es in terms of how they want to improve
soil health, and this translates into sustain-
able agriculture and what that means for
our population 30 years from now.”
The game doesn’t stop with practical
production issues on these farms either.
Students learn about how food waste
around the world cuts into global food
supply. They also gain a better under-
standing of how urban sprawl reduces
available agricultural land. Finally, they
see how a career in agriculture can be an
option for them, even if they didn’t grow
up on a farm.
“At the end of the game you can build
your own character and it spits you out
different options of careers you could
have,” Goudreau said. “As they play this
game, they get interested in these issues
and they realize they like this and could
do it for the rest of their life.”
Verhaeghe stressed the importance
of education both for farmers and their
families as well as for people who may
have never been to a farm. “If we’re going
to sustainably feed the world, we have to
have educated people invested and work-
ing in agriculture,” Verhaeghe said, adding
that, at Agrium, for example, everyone
from information technology experts to
human resources professionals play a role
in the process of producing food.
Whether playing Journey 2050 guides
students to a career in agriculture or not,
everyone needs food, and an informed
eater is essential for the continued success
of agriculture around the world.
“Agriculture is the glue of civilization,”
Saik said. “Consumers have a very large
role to play in educating themselves in the
facts and the science involved in agricul-
ture today.”
As Verhaeghe sees it, Journey 2050 is
a 21st-century way of educating the next
generation about 21st-century challenges.
“Agriculture has never been taught like
this before so it’s a really new opportunity
for schools. It’s cutting-edge; there’s not
another program like this.”
The Food Issue 2016 47