These are Creatures which tap for mana
The Gentleman of Life is also in this deck as Hildibrand Manderville, and you will definitely want to find him
These purposes include trade statistics, internal taxes, trade policies, monitoring of controlled goods, rules of origin, freight tariffs, transport statistics, price monitoring, quota controls, compilation of national accounts, and economic research & analysis
It protects one of your cards, disrupts a combo, and occasionally brings a token or twowhats not to love
The reason I place Food lower than a Tapped Fish is because in Limited and indeed in 60-card formats too an artifact token that requires mana to gain 3 life is generally going to be worse than a creature token which can chump block more than 3 damage