CAN CLIMATE CHANGE BREAK THE

GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY SYSTEM?

The year is 2020 and the worlds

food system is under increasing
stress. Extreme weather and
political conflict are undermining
food production and creating
shortages. Prices are skyrocketing. Social unrest is growing.
Populations are at risk.
How will the world respond?
Front Photo Credits: Cargill, WWF, Michel Gunther, Steve Niedorf.

Food Chain Reaction: A Global Food

Security Game, a role-playing exercise
held in Washington, D.C. on November
9-10, 2015, featured thought leaders from
around the world acting as governments,
institutions, and private companies, and
simulated how they might respond during
a future crisis in the global food system.
The game brought together 65 influential
players from the United States, European
Union, Brazil, Continental Africa, India and
China, along with businesses, investors
and multilateral institutions.

Game play began in the year 2020 in a

world where population growth, rapid
urbanization, extreme weather and political
crises combine to threaten global food
systems. Over the course of two days, the
players collaborated, negotiated, made
decisions, and confronted trade-offs
while dealing with different consequences
resulting from their actions during the
period of 2020 to 2030.

Throughout the game, disruptions

to food production and accessibility
led to rapid price increases. This
undermined stability in vulnerable
countries and contributed to civil unrest
and violence. Players responded with a
diverse set of actions, such as new trade
and tax policies, adopting emergency
measures to aid populations most at risk,
and working together to offer regional
and multilateral solutions.

Several of the disruptions posed to the

players during the game also had links to
the increasing influence of climate change
on the global food system.
These included severe changes in temperature and rainfall patterns, environmental
degradation, unpredictable El Nios, and
water scarcities across several geographies
including in India, China, the Sahel region
of Africa, Russia, Brazil and North America.

This perfect storm of events could not

be addressed by the players with existing
policies, but required them to explore
new approaches and opportunities for
partnership and collaboration. They also
experienced the interdependent impacts
of climate and agriculture.
As the world population grows and
standards of living rise, producing
more food will present new demands
on the environment, while the changing
climate will make it harder to produce
the crops needed to feed more people.

Food insecurity presents complex political,

economic, environmental and global
security challenges. Food Chain Reaction
demonstrated that when climate change
is added to that already volatile mix, the
impact is greater and there are more urgent
consequences for the global food systems
that nourish human life.
The solutions required are beyond those
which any single nation or institution can
address alone; they demand collective,
global action.

Inside Photo Credit: Darren Higgins

LOOKING AHEAD
Food Chain Reaction was designed to help high-level decision
makers better understand the interdependencies within the
global food system and the cascading effects of decisions,
trade-offs and actions. Beginning in January 2016, the results
and lessons learned from the Food Chain Reaction game will
be shared with policy audiences around the world.
Food Chain Reaction: A Global Food Security Game was produced by World
Wildlife Fund and the Center for American Progress, with game design by CNA.
Funding and technical support for Food Chain Reaction was provided by Cargill,
with major support from Mars, Inc. Additional funding was provided by DuPont,
Louis Dreyfus Group, Sealed Air Corporation, and Thomson Reuters.
For the latest on global food security, as well as information, videos and
testimonials from the game, please visit: FoodChainReaction.org