Cropland Capture as a game consists of only three buttons: your left, down, and right arrow keys. From there, you are shown rectangles of pieces of land taken from Google Earth (a related plug-in is required to play) and you have to press one of your three arrow keys to indicate whether or not it is usable cropland. According to the website’s FAQ, they are using the FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization’s definition of cropland; cropland includes “annual crops annual crops (e.g. maize, wheat) and perennial crops (such as coffee, tea, palm oil, fruit orchards, etc.)” while pastures are for livestock and forest plantation are for timber.

Though it sounds simple as a game, they are addressing a greater issue about the future. In their calculations, by 2050 our population should increase by another 2 billion – which provides a problem in how we are producing food. By making a game where people are practicing science at its simplest (bare observation), everyone can help identify potential locations for crops and even help identify the impact of climate change on Earth’s croplands.

These clips of images from Google Earth are shown to multiple players are their accuracy is based on a majority rule; if the majority of players identify the patch as viable cropland, then it is so. It is not just aerial views from Google Earth being shone, there is an abundance of photographs from specific sites themselves.

It is tricky to resist the urge to hit yes for every slightly green image that appears, but through practice, it progressively becomes quicker and easier to categorize them. Areas that look dry and brown could be categorized cropland while certain areas that are green are not. There are little details that vary from picture to picture that manage to become the deciding factor.

Through a simple task of hitting an arrow key, players are helping to contribute to the prevention of future worldwide hunger as well as advancing the relationship between the general public and science.