It’s a Friday afternoon in 1996, you rush home from school, you throw the backpack on the floor, and run upstairs to your room where you dedicate the next 48 hours playing Mario Kart 64. You play as Mario and race through Bowsers Castle, Donkey Kong in the jungle, Toad on Rainbow Road, as you race your way to 1st place in hopes of winning the Mushoom Cup Tournament.
As a player you race on courses designed to stimulate and excite the mind into thinking that you are winning. You collect resources in the shape of question marks in hopes getting the red heat seeking shells, mushrooms for extra speed, Starman, or the infamous dreaded blue spiked shell designed to take out the person in the number one spot.
By now many of you are wondering how Mario Kart and gaming principles apply to a new Ag Tech startup. Boston University College of Arts assistant professor Andrew Bell sees Mario Kart and more specifically Mario Kart Economics as more than just a racing game, He sees it as a guide to create more equitable social and economic programs that serve farmers in low resource areas of the developing world. When playing Mario Kart , resources are given out to every player, but it’s the players in the middle and the back that get the best resources to boost and propel them forward to a better position on the track while the players who do really well are given poor resources since they don’t need help; this concept is known as rubber banding and it is what makes the game addictive and fun for the player.
With the latest research conducted by the FAO, there are more than 608 million family farms around the world, occupying between 70 and 80 percent of the world’s farmland and producing around 80 percent of the world’s food in value terms. The new research conducted also estimates farm size:
- around 70 percent of all farms, operating on just 7 percent of all agricultural land, are less than one hectare
- while another 14 percent of farms, controlling 4 percent of the land, are between one and two hectares
- another 10 percent of all farms, with 6 percent of the land, are between two and five hectares.
The world can produce enough food to feed everyone yet it is estimated that one-third of all global food production is wasted each year, nearly 800 million people are still considered under-nourished due to food quality and lack of access, and many of these farmers are considered to be the poorest of the poor.
Can an Ag Tech startup really be built around Mario Kart Economics to solve some of these issues, where a company is working towards a global collective of supplying resources to those whose are in the middle and back and need the boost to propel forward? This is question we hope to answer, with any new start-up there will be challenges, setbacks, and failures and reGenesis Ag is no different; by establishing value added, lasting relationships we can launch pilot programs and build an organic ecosystem through our 3 digital platforms where we can “boost” farms,farmers, and other global stakeholders by connecting people globally to food and provide:
- data for transparent supply chains focused on food safety and food security
- resources needed to improve livelihoods
- increase economic opportunities to provide for a better quality of life through micro-loans and micro-investment.
- boost and increase trade in developing and emerging countries
- allow us to digitally tell the story from their farm to your plate.
reGenesis Ag hopes you will partner with us in building what the future of agriculture should look like as we continue to move forward in the 21st century.
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