Food Systems Undergraduate Workshop

Happy Soil Workshop: Systems Thinking Through Play

The Happy Soil Workshop was an interactive learning module designed to introduce students to food systems as complex, ethically mixed, and multi-scalar systems.

We used conceptual frames such as food system ethics (“who benefits, who pays the cost”), scale (industrial vs. local), and phases (from growing to disposal) to move students from abstract definitions into active systems thinking. The core activity, the Happy Soil Game, is an experimental, cooperative simulation that makes invisible dynamics such as soil health, externalities, trade-offs, and collective action tangible through gameplay, discussion, and negotiation.

Rather than presenting clear “good/bad” answers, the workshop emphasizes ambiguity, mixed realities, and reflection, encouraging students to grapple with ethical complexity in real-world food systems.