AGRIBUSINESS AND THREATS TO TRADITIONAL FARMING

Transcription

1 AGRIBUSINESS AND THREATS TO TRADITIONAL FARMING SOCIAL JUSTICE & SERVICE LEARNING: LESSON 8 Quick Reference Abstract: Students warm up considering the original source of common processed foods. During the mini lesson, students read and discuss a short story about local farming competition in Haiti which illustrates the harmful impact on global agricultural companies on local farming communities. In the workshop, students work in small groups to dramatize the story from the mini lesson with short role-played interactions. Students close discussing the impact of big business in small communities. CCSS: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL SEL IL State Standards: Students Will Be Able To: 3A.5a. Apply ethical reasoning to evaluate societal practices. Make connections between global food access problems and the loss of local food control Empathize with people around the world who suffer from food insecurity Essential Question: What is the relationship between access to food and power? Materials: Preparation: What s In My Food? (1/student) Cut Role Play Characters Happy Rice in Haiti: Happy or Harmful? (1/student) Role Play Characters (1 set/8 students) Warm Up Mini Lesson Step-by-Step Procedures What s in My Food? 1) Share the objective of the lesson with students (see SWBATS above). Ask students if they need clarification. 2) Distribute What s in My Food? and explain: In our last session, we discussed food access problems worldwide. Today, we are going to transition to talking about the way big businesses based in developed countries, like America, impact the way small farmers grow local food in the developing world. To warm up, we are going to think about common processed foods we eat and how they connect with food grown from the ground. Complete What s in My Food? to test your knowledge. Any questions? 3) Give students 1 2 minutes and review answers (below). Ask: Are any of these answers surprising to you? How is it possible that we often don t know what ingredients are in our food? Facilitator s Note: The correct matches are: Cheetos (corn), Coca-Cola (sugar cane), Jell-O (pig bones), hamburger (cow), French fries (potatoes) Happy Rice in Haiti 1) Use the talking points below to introduce concepts of the global farming network: o As you can see from the activity we just completed, living in the city and being removed from farms, we often don t know where our food comes from originally. Today, our food comes from farms and factories all over the world. o In fact, it is the same global food culture which allows Americans to source food from all over the world that also impacts what farmers in far away countries are able to grow in their fields. 42 Min 5 Min 5 Min

2 Workshop Closing o Today we ll read a story demonstrating how people here and around the world rely on and are impacted by a global network of food. In this story, big business meets small communities. Your job is to understand its impact. We re going to take a few minutes to read the story of a Haitian named Jean. You re going to use information from the story during a role-playing activity later. Any questions? 2) Distribute Happy Rice in Haiti: Happy or Harmful? and read Part 1 aloud. Facilitator s Note: Locate Haiti on the map, in the Caribbean Sea near Jamaica, bordering the Dominican Republic. Explain that many Haitians migrated to the US. Big Business versus Small Farmers 1) Divide the students into groups of 8 and distribute Role Play Characters to each group. Have students choose which character they will play and put their names at the tops of their cards. Facilitator s Note: If you believe that this activity will be too complex for student groups to handle independently, do the activity as a whole class and choose volunteers to play the roles of the 8 characters. 2) Explain: You read Jean s story and thought about how Happy Rice impacts his family s farm. Now you are going to have an opportunity to role-play the story in more detail. Put yourself in the shoes of your character. Given the situation, what would you do? 3) Read the directions on Happy Rice in Haiti: Happy or Harmful? Part 2 and clarify any questions. 4) Give students 20 minutes to complete their role-plays and respond to the prompts in part 2. Circulate throughout the room while students work. Making Sense of Happy Rice 1) Facilitate a discussion using some or all of the questions below. The objective of this discussion is for students to analyze how globalization has affected small farmers and communities around the world. What are the differences between the relationship that Jean s parents have with the townspeople and the relationship that Happy Rice has with the townspeople? (Who are community members and who are tourists?) How does the company impact the Haitian farmers? The other townspeople? Jean? Is Happy Rice helping or hurting Haiti? Helping or hurting the U.S.? What advantages did Happy Rice have over the local rice farmers? Do you think the rice farmers could have talked to the president of Haiti? Why or why not? Was it a mistake for the local store owner to do business with Happy Rice? Why or why not? Who were the winners in this situation? Who were the losers? How could this situation be different? Could the small farmers have done anything differently? What about the townspeople? The U.S. Senator? The president and mayor in Haiti? What lessons can we learn about the importance of community members and tourists from this story? 17 Min 15 Min

3 Name: WHAT S IN MY FOOD? Date: Directions: Match the food product on the left to its main ingredient on the right. Cheetos pig bones Coca Cola sugar cane Jell-O cows Hamburgers corn French Fries potatoes

4 Name: HAPPY RICE IN HAITI: HAPPY OR HARMFUL? Part 1 Directions: Read the story below in preparation for today s role-paly activity. Date: Jean grew up farming rice because his parents were farmers. When Jean was a child, he helped his mother Lucia and father Marcus collect the rice and put it in bags for the local townspeople. During that time, people in Jean s village of Chabin, Haiti, could visit his family and buy a large bag of rice for less than $1. The money from those sales was enough for Jean and his family to have a home and food. Jean s parents even hoped that Jean could go to school one day with the money they earned farming. Jean s family was also proud that they could provide food to their community and were friends with many of their customers. When Jean turned 18, things began to change. One day, an international company, Happy Rice, based in the United States, began to sell rice in Chabin through the local store. Nobody in the town knew who owned the company or farmed its rice. Townspeople started buying all of their rice from the company because of its low price. Jean s family tried to lower the price of their rice, but they could not earn a living selling rice for $0.25. Gradually, Jean s family fell into poverty. They could not sell bags of rice because everyone in town was buying it from Happy Rice. Instead of going to school, Jean had to stay home with his family, working odd jobs to help out with money.at this point, Jean s family has lost its farm and they are trying not to lose their home. Part 2 Directions: You and your group members are part of a role-playing exercise. While role-playing can be fun and light-hearted, remember that this scenario is real life for many people around the world today! You will receive character cards. Choose who will play which character, read your card, and follow the directions below. The goal of each character is success! That will mean different things for different characters. For some of you, success will mean feeding your family or keeping your job. For others, success will mean getting very rich and powerful. Play out your role according to what is on your character card. 1) The Happy Rice representative goes to talk with his/her U.S. Senator to make a deal. What deal do they decide upon? Role-play this scenario and then explain the result:

5 2) The Happy Rice representative will go talk with the Haitian President so that Happy Rice can set up businesses in hundreds of Haitian cities and towns and sell rice there. What does the Haitian president decide? Role-play this scenario and explain the result: 3) Jean s father and mother and the Happy Rice representative both go to try and make a deal selling their rice to the store owner. Who does the store owner buy rice from? Why? Role-play this scenario and explain the result: 4) Marcus and Lucia talk to their neighbor Louis about their problems. Can Louis help them in any way? Roleplay this scenario and explain the result: 5) The local store owner meets with Happy Rice to discuss the new pricing. Louis, Marcus, and Lucia confront the store owner about the high price he/she is charging for rice. What do they all say? What s the problem? Who has the power? Role-play this scenario and explain the result:

6 Happy Rice Representative You create many jobs in the U.S. with your business. The rice is grown and packed in the U.S. creating 3,000 jobs. In order to set up business in this state, you want the government to allow you not to pay taxes for 5 years and to give you a million dollar subsidy to help with business costs. After all, you are creating jobs and helping the economy in this state! You fly to Haiti to talk to the President of Haiti. You offer him a new Mercedes Benz if he agrees to let you set up businesses in all Haitian cities. Now that you have a monopoly on rice in all Haitian towns, raise your price to $1.25 per bag. Lucia (Jean s mother) You have been selling your rice to the local store for years. You know there is a new rice seller in town, and you re worried about competing with them. However, you must sell your rice to the local store it s the only grocery in town. Now that you can only sell your rice for 25 cents a bag, you can t make enough money to feed your family. You decide to stop selling rice and look for other work. Marcus (Jean s father): You have been selling your rice to the local store for years. You know there is a new rice seller in town, and you re worried about competing with them. However, you must sell your rice to the local store it s the only grocery in town. Now that you can only sell your rice for 25 cents a bag, you can t make enough to feed your family. You decide to stop selling rice and look for other work. Mayor of Chabin You get a call from the president of Haiti! He tells you that a new company, Happy Rice, will be setting up business in your town. If you make them feel welcome, the president will promote you to governor of the state. ROLE PLAY CHARACTERS Louis Marcus and Lucia s neighbor You eat rice every day. It s healthy and you can buy a lot of it cheaply. Suddenly you notice the price is a little lower too! You talk with your neighbors, Marcus and Lucia, who are rice farmers and find out that they can no longer make a living selling rice because a new company in town can produce it cheaper. Suddenly, the price of rice is more expensive $1.50 per bag! You can t afford this! You barely make enough through your wages to feed your family. However, your neighbors no longer farm rice so there s nowhere else to buy it except for the one local store. U.S. Senator You are up for re-election. The residents of your state are angry because there aren t enough jobs. The economy is doing poorly. You re looking forward to a meeting with the top executive of Happy Rice because you are hoping they decide to settle in your state and bring in more manufacturing and packing jobs. You do whatever it takes to get them to set up business in your state. Local Store Owner At first you buy your rice from Marcus and Lucia. But then, the representative from Happy Rice comes to sell you rice. He can sell it to you for 25 cents a bag instead of 75 cents a bag. You ve been doing business with Happy Rice for a year now. Suddenly they raise their prices to $1.25 a bag so you must raise your selling price to $1.50 a bag to make a profit. All your customers are complaining, but you don t have anyone else to buy rice from. President of Haiti The top Happy Rice executive arranges a meeting with you and your officials. He wants to set up businesses in your country. The Happy Rice executive convinces you that the people of Haiti need to be able to buy rice for a lower cost and he can provide that rice, if you let him. The executive mentions that to thank you for helping, he d love to send you a brand new car.