Monopoly - Food Democracy Edition

Describe your idea and concept of your work in relation to the festival outlines:

The issue that I’ve chosen to interpret is Agribusinesses’ vs. small-scale farmers. I’ve chosen this topic in order to explore the power relations between the two. It is evident through my research that Agribusinesses’ dominate the peasant farmers even though their methods of producing food is considerably unsustainable as compared to the traditional approach that these small scale farmers use.

What kind of communication approach do you use?

The way I’ve chosen to communicate my topic is through the popular game of Monopoly. To me this seemed an appropriate use of the game, as the idea is to buy land and bankrupt other players, which is the favoured approach by Agribusinesses’ and large companies as they and their stakeholders priorities money and profit over community health and wellbeing.

What are in your opinion concrete benefits to the society because of your communication?

The benefits of my approach of interpreting Monopoly as a power struggle between corporations and farmers is that it create a more personal connection with the audience or players. As the players are experiencing the game in a first hand experience, they also make the connection that the game is actually a real life event and it creates empathy in a way that they can relate to, even though it is merely a game to them. Furthermore, as it is a social game, it creates a basis for dialogue to begin as they experience it together and can reflect on it as a group.

What did you personally learn from creating your submitted work?

Before I undertook this project I had very little knowledge about how much power large food companies have and what the effects were on not only the rural communities and farmers that they are competing against, but also the effect on the global economy and also global warming. I learnt that their method of producing goods is unsustainable and if they continue with business as usual, the problems that our society face, such as poverty, famine, land displacement etc., are only likely to worsen.

Why is your work, GOOD communication WORK?

This project is ‘Good’ communication because it highlights the dominance of power that agribusiness’ and large companies have over smallholder farmers and how certain factors and company business factors can negatively affect the farmers. As Monopoly is a social game it provides a base to stimulate dialogue and discussion between the players.

Where and how do you intent do implement your work?

The board game would be placed within certain social environments as to encourage the community to play and learn. Ideally, it would be implemented within Café’s, learning facilities, libraries etc. The posters would be placed in high level traffic areas that are nearby to food outlets and shopping malls, as the target audience would be people that are purchasing their goods from large company supermarkets.

Did your intervention had an effect on other Media. If yes, describe the effect? (Has other media reported on it- how? Were you able to change other media with your work- how?)

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