It’s in the rules to play dirty in this new soil-themed board game
It’s in the rules to play dirty in this new soil-themed board game
It’s in the rules to play dirty in this new soil-themed board game
By Zayna Syed
January 31, 2023
Summary
Scientists who research soil by day and play board games at night designed a new activity they hope will make their jobs easier to explain to their family, and even more importantly, the world.
Tanvi Taparia, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen, studies how soil biology affects plant health and growth, which in turn affects how much food farmers can produce.
She helped design a board game, wittily named Dirty Matters, that illustrates soil's role in achieving food security, clean water, and carbon storage, three of United Nations sustainable development goals.
One day a friend, who researches microplastics in soil, floated the idea of creating a board game on the subject.
Understanding soil might be more urgent than ever.
While many of the farmers she speaks to for her research do take steps to boost their soil health, some of them don't seem to realize exactly how degraded their soils are or how agrochemicals affect them.
"It gives them a high yield and that's good from an economic perspective. But from a more long-term perspective, that is not sustainable. It takes thousands of years to make [new] soil." Fertilizer overuse is one of the more catastrophic cards you can draw in Dirty Matters.
Reference
Syed, Z. (2023, January 31). It's in the rules to play dirty in this new soil-themed board game. Popular Science. Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.popsci.com/environment/board-game-dirty-matters-soil-science