About Me

My name is Karen Buchsbaum. I am a Doctoral candidate in Environmental Studies at Antioch University New England.

I have over 15 of experience working in the environmental field. I have spent the last 10 years farming, working with farmers as an Extension Agent for University of Maryland, and as program manager and consultant for education and agriculture projects throughout the Washington, DC area. 

Through my work, research and documentary project, Harvests of Hope I have traveled all over the United States and other countries talking to countless farmers about their history, challenges and visions for the future of farming in their regions.  I systematically categorized what I learned and put it into a game.

Farmington Adapts, is a a role playing farm planning and strategy board game designed for both farmers and their communities.

I’m interested in how we can learn from and support farmers with dynamic and adaptive farm planning and by understanding how they make decisions about everything from economics to, sustainability, farming systems, marketing and distribution.

Games are increasingly used in planning to help develop and test models of complex socio-environmental problems and improve understanding of practical environmental challenges by offering opportunities to obtain first-hand experiences that may be otherwise too costly, difficult or dangerous to reproduce in reality.