US - Mexico food system skit

Almost every day I enjoy working at the Community Food Bank, but some days are particularly enjoyable. Yesterday was one of those. For our monthly "skill-share" meeting in my department, a few of my coworkers shared an activity they had developed which educates people on how the issues of food, job security, health, and immigration are all related. It is an activity that they intend to package so that different groups can use it as an educational tool. Simply put, I thought it was stellar, and would have loved to have done this activity in a college class.

The skit/activity reminded me somewhat of a murder mystery dinner, where every person has a role to play and certain guidelines to follow. For example, I was a small farmer in the US, (hence the hat) and I earned my income by picking up corn one kernel at a time and putting it in a cup. The man in blue next to me was a large farmer in the US, and you can't see it in the picture but he got to use heavy machinery: a spoon. After each monthly cycle (four minutes) was complete, I would sell what I had harvested to the person representing Cargill, a corn buyer, and I would receive a subsidy from the USDA. I also had to renew my contract with Monsanto for using their patented corn seeds. If I failed to renew this contract, the person playing Monsanto could sue me for using their patented seeds without authorization. Lastly, I then had to purchase food for myself from the store owner, who was selling processed foods for a considerably lower price than fresh foods. Then the next cycle would begin. Though the large farmer was doing all right for himself, pretty soon I wasn't earning enough to buy even the processed foods, so I took out a loan to buy some equipment: a fork. At the end of the entire exercise I was in a lot of debt and barely breaking even each round. I also received a note from my "doctor" who said I had developed heart disease, probably as a result of all the processed food I was eating.

So far, an interesting exercise, but it was even more complex than this. The people in the background of the picture were on the Mexican side, picking corn, selling it to a corn buyer who would make foods and sell them to store owners. The black partition with pictures on it represented the border. After a few cycles, both sides regrouped and our facilitators explained what happened in 1994: the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. This removed some of the government assistance Mexico was providing to its farmers, and lowered the barriers to trade between the two countries. Also, border security was strengthened (represented by pushing the black partitions closer together). As a result of NAFTA, the corn buyer on the US side started selling her corn to Mexico for incredibly cheap prices, so much so that the Mexican corn buyer stopped buying her country's own corn at all. This, understandably, was hard on the Mexican corn farmers, and a couple of them talked to the "guide" who promised to, for a price, transport them through the partitions (read: border) to find a job on the US side. So there you have it: food system, immigration, economics - all represented in an hour-long exercise.

Ok, so I just read through my above description and have to admit that it's a bit confusing, even to me. Systems, such as the one around corn, are so complex and have so many different players and variables that perhaps they're almost too confusing to convey through text. Not impossible, but difficult. That's why I thought this skit was so brilliant, because it allows someone (like me) to understand something very complex in a manner that's, well, fairly easy to understand.

I like my job :)