An entertaining AP story reports on the popularity of FarmVille, a game application on Facebook that allows users to manage virtual farms and sell crops. People praise the game for being fun and simple. The AP suggests that it may be also be instructive:

Since its launch last summer, the cartoonish simulation game [...] has become a Facebook phenomenon, luring in everyone from urbanites [...] to actual farmers while gently nudging people to think more about where their food comes from.

I applaud FarmVille for disseminating knowledge about the origins of food without help from preferential local food laws. Advocates of farm-to-school programs and gardening subsidies cite learning about food as one of the main benefits of those policies. It’s good to see that a voluntary activity like playing FarmVille can be just as educational — at no cost to taxpayers.