Jack — Grace Jelsnik

In the 1980's, the family farm was struggling. The economy was bad, overseas demand for American produce had dwindled, market and land values decreased, interest rates increased, debts incurred during the prosperous early 1970's were coming due, and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) promised increased competition for goods. Banks foreclosed on loans, and many a multi-generation family farm was sold at auction, often to corporate farmers possessing the wherewithal to ride out drought years. Genetically engineered seed, GMO's, was in the works, with its resistance to drought and disease, but its cost was prohibitively expensive, well beyond the means of the traditional farmer. This allegorical parody of the trials faced by the traditional family farmer looks at a five-pronged battlefront: banks, corporate farmers, trade, government policies, and GMO's.