In discussion on Tuesday, our group decided that, for now, our research question is "Why buy local?" This leads to other questions: What are the benefits? What are the disadvantages? What are the obstacles?
We began to brainstorm possible obstacles to buying local food at farmers markets. Overcoming shoppers' established routines is difficult, especially when a modern suburban shopping mall offers them all the convenience of one-stop-shopping. If they stop at the farmers market for produce or meat, when and where will they buy their toilet paper? We invented a drive-thru farmers market, only partly as a joke.
Another challenge is the knowledge gap. How do people find out if there is a farmers market near them? I learned about the Medford farmers market through the local paper and through Twitter, but other members of our group don't read the paper or get their news from Twitter. They suggested word of mouth and roadside signs as ways they get their information.
Since we know the Kirby's have been floating the farmers market idea for three years, we want to ask them "Why now?" Have they been at it for three years, or did they just decide that now was the right time?
Finally, we discussed the form our documentary would take and the sources we will use. We think we want to do "on-the-street" interviews with shoppers near grocery stores to ask them about their shopping habits and feelings about farmers markets. We also want to speak with a nutritionist or food science expert to either back up or refute claims that farmers market organizers sometimes make. Other sources we will use are Food Inc., Michael Pollan, (possibly) a farmer, and the philosophy of the slow food movement: good, clean, and fair.
We began to brainstorm possible obstacles to buying local food at farmers markets. Overcoming shoppers' established routines is difficult, especially when a modern suburban shopping mall offers them all the convenience of one-stop-shopping. If they stop at the farmers market for produce or meat, when and where will they buy their toilet paper? We invented a drive-thru farmers market, only partly as a joke.
Another challenge is the knowledge gap. How do people find out if there is a farmers market near them? I learned about the Medford farmers market through the local paper and through Twitter, but other members of our group don't read the paper or get their news from Twitter. They suggested word of mouth and roadside signs as ways they get their information.
Since we know the Kirby's have been floating the farmers market idea for three years, we want to ask them "Why now?" Have they been at it for three years, or did they just decide that now was the right time?
Finally, we discussed the form our documentary would take and the sources we will use. We think we want to do "on-the-street" interviews with shoppers near grocery stores to ask them about their shopping habits and feelings about farmers markets. We also want to speak with a nutritionist or food science expert to either back up or refute claims that farmers market organizers sometimes make. Other sources we will use are Food Inc., Michael Pollan, (possibly) a farmer, and the philosophy of the slow food movement: good, clean, and fair.
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