A man who works for a company that produces artificial food goes to a festival in his home town where a saint’s statue miraculously generates vast quantities of natural food.
This story plays with the meaning of a “miracle”: the food that Marty’s company produces is miraculous in its quantity, safety, and price; the food that the saint produces is miraculous in both its sudden bursting into reality and its sensuality compared to the artificial food. Its developing-country setting, where famine and unsafe food are recent memories for people who suddenly have access to cheap and abundant artificial food, makes the story particularly poignant – what are the true costs of feeding everyone? What are the true costs of not feeding everyone?