Foodgame 

in collaboration with Outsiders and Play the city. Netherlands, 2021 - ongoing

EU Agricultural Fund for Rural Development

Sinds 2023 embraced by Wageningen University and Cascoland and developed further together.

A scenario building game designed to bring farmers and city residents together for imagining sustainable food chain alternatives in the province of Utrecht

3 game meetings with 3 farming companies, 12 technical experts and 30 residents

Our food system is complex. It is made up of processes [production, manufacturing, packaging, logistics, consumption] that often span large parts of the world. We are confronted daily with discussions about our current food system. Often the question is whether our current system is sustainable, whether it is healthy for humans and animals, whether it is fair for food products at the beginning of the chain and whether it is sustainable in its current form.


Food game enables those joint conversations about how regional, sustainable and healthy food can be organized in the coming years. This edition of the food game has been applied to Utrecht West. Here we find Leidsche Rijn, the largest Vinex [urban expansion plan of Utrecht from the 1990s] in the Netherlands. Where the cows grazed in the meadow 30 years ago, the largest Vinex district in the Netherlands is now where more than 80,000 people have found their home. Only 3% of Leidsche Reijn's food comes from the region. Food Game brings farmers and neighbors from the region come together to explore future food scenarios. Ecological, technological or socio-economic solutions. Where are priorities, and what are tangible translations for the area?

I brought together Play the City team, Casco, The Outsiders and Travelling Farm Museum to create the FoodGame initially for the Utrecht region.

Game board

This is a 1:300 scale map of Utrecht West and includes GIS data on locations of pastures and farms, neighborhoods and districts and production centers etc.

Action cards

Players choose from nearly 70 action cards to communicate their position on future food system. These action cards are divided into five categories: production, consumption, logistics, waste and integral.

Scenario teams

Players choose a pre-selected theme that is closest to their point of view. They can also suggest a new theme

Session with milk farmer Harmelen, Province of Utrecht and Citizens, Utrecht

Session in Fruit farmer, Boer Goes, Molenaar and citizens, Utrecht