“Mario Kart.” Image: Nintendo via ETX Daily Up
An American researcher and “Mario Kart” enthusiast suggests that governments should draw inspiration from the famous video game for sustainable development policies that encourage environmentally friendly agriculture. No, that’s not a misprint. From “Mario Kart.”
Racing along on the Luigi Circuit, you come to a dangerous bend where you skid on a banana skin dropped by one of your rivals, but you manage to land on your wheels and even win a Fire Flower. Having read these couple of lines, experienced gamers will no doubt recognize the familiar world of “Mario Kart.”
The long-standing and highly successful video game series developed in the 1990s has recently been the subject of a very serious study published in Nature Sustainability. The study suggests that governments should draw inspiration from “Mario Kart” to establish sustainable development policies that support poor farming communities, notably in Asia and Africa. But how exactly would that work?
‘Power-ups’ to encourage responsible agriculture
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Andrew Bell, an assistant professor of earth and environment at Boston University College of Arts & Sciences in the United States and the main author of the study, is a longstanding fan of “Mario Kart.” He played the game as a child, and then his own kids inherited his passion. But the researcher argues that the game is more than an enjoyable intergenerational pastime, it also has the potential to inspire sociological tools.
Bell began to mull over this idea on trips to Malawi, and Bangladesh and Cambodia. In the course of his research, he became convinced that policies which provide direct aid to farmers in the world’s poorest regions could also contribute to a reduction in overall poverty while promoting sustainable and environmentally sound agricultural practices.
