Our video will explore many of the different ways food has impacted and will impact the future of New York City. Some of the key topics we will cover include hunger, distribution, consumption and waste.
IDC 4001H February 4, 2014
Group 4 Professor Macbride
Yamel de Favela, Amanda Lederman
Jen Mukofsky, Jonathan Park, Sunny Xu
Video Proposal: The Future of New York City Food
For the final video project, our group will be focusing in on what we call “the future of food.” Our video will cover many different aspects, issues and solutions having to do with food in New York City. Some of the main topics we plan to explore include hunger and health, food distribution and food consumption. We will also be exploring the food economy of New York, and current and upcoming initiatives such as urban farming and perhaps how it relates to local agriculture and produce. Finally, we will research food waste, the issues pertaining to food waste management and how the future may impact food waste.
The entire video will be like a documentary, ranging 10-15 minutes. Each of the subtopics will last for a couple of minutes. In terms of data and information, we plan on using the class readings, as well as research from the library and online. Another important source of information will come from interviews. We plan on interviewing and speaking to a variety of different people including those who work in restaurants, groceries and perhaps soup kitchens as well. We also hope to speak to those who are professionally involved in New York City politics and perhaps is involved or interested in the future of food. We also plan on interviewing the general public of New York in order to gain a better sense of the public’s perception and opinion on the future of food.
We will also explore different restaurants and markets around the city and interview the owners and employees about the process of obtaining food, distribution of waste, etcetera. We will make this happen by initially email, phone calls, or asking them in person. We will also pay attention to the difference in approach and attitudes between small food shops and larger food franchises in terms of food distribution and waste in particular
Like any other project, this video will require everyone to be on board. Sunny and Jon have experience in video editing, so they will be in charge of editing and shooting the video. Yemel and Jennafer will be in charge of setting up and conducting these interviews. Amanda will be in charge of recording information and analyzing and organizing the data that we gathered. If one member does not put in much effort, we will confront them. If that fails, we will seek for the Professor’s intervention.
First of all, we will need to research the restaurants, markets, and other locations that we would like to research. This should be accomplished within the next month. In addition to that, we need to collect what data we need and what kind of questions we are looking to ask. Second, we will have to find the contact information and opening times of these locations. Third, we will contact these places and look for people that we could interview. Fourth, we will interview the people we contacted and record at these locations. Hopefully by mid-April, we will have all of our primary research, data and interviews completed. Lastly, we will compile the data and video.
The concrete evidence would be having the class readings, interview questions, location information, research data, and some footage. This report will be structured by having the data and information in a document, and the video footage on a USB drive.
Group 4: Nice! You all get the full points for this assignment. As with the Art video project, I suggest you try to narrow your scope to one or more particular food issues, if you can. This narrowing may result as you begin to do research and talk to potential interviewees. Also, think about the concept of the future as it applies to food and work on definitions of future issues: access, safety, sources, geography, technology, etc.
You may want to contrast current thoughts about food futures with older science fiction ones. Check out the synopsis of the movie “Soylent Green,” and maybe old episodes of the original Star Trek (where food is synthesized) for examples. Let me know if you have questions.