Changing the Food Game

Changing the Food Game explores why so many production and trade systems have unsustainable behavior as their natural outcome. The author, an Ashoka fellow and leading figure in sustainable agriculture and commidities, argues that this is because of a series of feedback loops: wrong incentives in the market, failing correction mechanisms and vested interests that resist any change. The market transformation process as a change process recognizes different, evolving and maturing phases of development where there is a logic and pattern in getting from one phase to the next. As markets move through these phases, the need for coordination, cooperation and institutionalization around new best practice increases to eventually come to a level playing field. The main message of the book is to show that these processes can be initiated, can be facilitated and can be driven purposely if the dynamics of different phases of market transformation are recognized and applied. Focusing on sustainable agriculture and food production and incorporating interviews with 40 of the world's leading experts, this important book provides an explanation of the most important models of market transformation and system analysis. The cases show how these models can be applied to agricultural and food production commodity markets to successfully produce market transformation.