“THE ‘NEW NORMAL’ IS VOLATILITY.” Molly Jahn, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin Team: Adjudication Cell
Simulated Responses
The Center for Naval Analysis, a think tank for the U.S. Navy, hosted a food crises simulation that involved government officials, industry stakeholders, and international NGO's. The simulation game played two food crises over a ten year period from 2020 to 2030. This simulation is called the Food Chain Reaction.
The ability of the actors in this simulation illustrated a key feature, that they were not prepared to handle the food crises. It was only after the second crises did all actors work together proactively to avoid disaster. All actors are currently working to revise their planning and work proactively by addressing their knowledge gap, the productivity gap, and the collaboration gap.
This work is being done at the upper levels of industry and government. One of the issues that was key to not acting promptly is what is called institutional resistance. This is similar to normalcy bias, in which a disaster is underestimated and that things will not be that bad. Despite the findings of the Food Chain Reaction being made public, little has been done to work toward being prepared. The Secure Your Food Program is meant to help you prepare, in advance of these likely outcomes.
The ability of the actors in this simulation illustrated a key feature, that they were not prepared to handle the food crises. It was only after the second crises did all actors work together proactively to avoid disaster. All actors are currently working to revise their planning and work proactively by addressing their knowledge gap, the productivity gap, and the collaboration gap.
This work is being done at the upper levels of industry and government. One of the issues that was key to not acting promptly is what is called institutional resistance. This is similar to normalcy bias, in which a disaster is underestimated and that things will not be that bad. Despite the findings of the Food Chain Reaction being made public, little has been done to work toward being prepared. The Secure Your Food Program is meant to help you prepare, in advance of these likely outcomes.