Subject: Unintended - but predictable - effects

Posted by Steve Bosacker on 2/2/2009
In Reply To:Unintended - but predictable - effects Posted by Armando Córdova Olivieri on 1/19/2009

Message:

Good stories are very important ways to help people think in new ways. Back in the early 1980s Wendell Barry, a philosopher farmer, compiled some of his essays into a book, The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays Cultural & Agricultural (1982). One of his essays traced the consequences of the Food For Peace Program, created by Congress in the 1970s. Mr. Berry went to Peru to see how farmers cultivate crops. Peru was short on wheat and people were hungry. The Food for Peace program brought in free wheat. The local price of wheat collapsed. Farmers stopped growing wheat and turned to a similar crop, barley. Barley is used to make beer. So Peru became self-sufficient in beer, but still lacked enough wheat and too many people remained hungry.

Those who are knowledgeable about an industry could bring their insights together to craft a reasonably good model of how the industry works (e.g. milk production). Then craft a compelling story or find a compelling story with real people and emotion that illustrates the consequences of policy decisions. Connect the espoused values driving the new policy with the realities people experience. If Congress people cannot connect emotionally to the story's new perspectives/situation, they will remain committed to their past perspectives and commitments.

A step up from this would be for Congressional hearings to call for the experts to work together to create a model of the industry being discussed, then craft a story to represent their findings back to Congress.

Steve Bosacker