Alternate Script


IT SEEMS THAT THIS IS THE  GENERAL FLOW THUS FAR 4/21/2010

HISTORY OF FOOD

PROBLEMS WITH FOOD SYSTEMS PRESENTLY

POTENTIAL OF LOCAL FOOD TO SOLVE PROBLEMS

REALISTIC VIEWS OF THE FUTURE PROMOTING A REGIONAL FOOD SYSTEM

 

NARRATOR - Welcome to Baltimore! (Pan of us eating, all of us in turn welcome the viewer to Baltimore, i.e. Zoe would say "welcome to Baltimore" then Jen, then Pilar, etc. in voiceover over a montage of the city.)

 

(each person can read one of the following during the opening shot - voiced over, because in the shot we will be munching on food)

1: We're the BFED team. (do we say b-f-e-d or baltimore food ecology documentary?)

2: Some of us are new to the city, while some of us have lived here our whole lives.

3: We've been brought together by a mutual love and fascination for food and for Baltimore,

4: and by the Maryland Institute College of Art, where we first met and where this project begins.

5: We've been around enought to know there's more to food in Baltimore than crabs.

6: We have an idea that there's more to food than meets the eye,

7: we could never have imagined what we were about to discover.

8: We want to find out what it means to eat in Baltimore,

9: where our food comes from,

10: what impact our diet has on the city, the enviroment, and the world.

11: This is our story.

 

We want to start at the very beginning - we hear it's a very good place to start. We were able to spend some time with an expert on the history of food in Baltimore. If anyone knows Baltimore's food culture, it's John Shields. He's a chef, the host of the TV show Coastal Cooking, and the author of many great cookbooks about the Chesapeake Bay. We caught up with him at his restaurant, Gertrudes, in the Baltimore Museum of Art. 

 

JOHN SHIELDS - BALTIMORE AS A FOOD HUB - THE CHESAPEAKE BAY AS A PROTEIN FACTORY

overlay b-roll shots: watermen, historical shots of harbor/bay, general pan of the inner harbor

 

NARRATOR: The city of Baltimore was once a "food hub," receiving food from all over the world and then shipping it out to much of the northeast. But what about the people? Where did Baltimoreans do their shopping?

overlay b-roll shots: historical shots of people in Baltimore  

 

JOHN SHIELDS: MUNICIPAL MARKET SYSTEM OF OLD, HAS EVOLVED INTO MODERN DAY FARMERS MARKETS

 

NARRATOR: Municipal Markets aren’t the only thing that have changed a lot in this city. The heavy industry is gone, the canneries are gone. If you're going to see anything bobbing in the Inner Harbor it's more likely to be trash than watermelons. Today this city struggles with poverty and high rates of crime and violence, and a bad reputation.

overlay b-roll shots: abandon industrial buildings in Sparrow's Point (town built for Bethlehem Steel workers), generally the south side of  city

 

For every bad thing you may hear about Baltimore, there are as many people and institutions working to make the city a better place. we still call it Charm City.

overlay b-roll shots: ???? what we show will be implying the "good" people and institutions  - maybe a fast sequence of b-roll shots from participation park, waverly, our daily bread

 

How does this new, different Baltimore eat? Where do Baltimorians get their food today? The Waverly Farmer’s market in Charles Village is one of the latest latest incarnations of the ages-old Municipal Market system. It's a place where local growers sell their food directly to consumers in an outdoors setting.

overlay b-roll shots: FOOTAGE OF WAVERLY FARMERS MARKET

 

While the market is bustling with people, the crowd doesn't reflect the diversity of the city. Although much of the food is reasonably priced – even cheap – there are a lot of pricey specialty products that seemed to target the middle and upper classes - people who have both the time and resources to choose where their food comes from. Poverty affects X% of the population of Baltimore, and the offerings of most Farmer's Markets do not accomodate Food Stamps or other forms of federal assistance. Where are the majority of people in Baltimore getting their food?

 

opening with shot of Santoni's from the outside with Rob Santoni's opening statements layered over

SANTONIS - BRIEF HISTORY OF; HOW HAS CLIENTELE CHANGED?

 

NARRATOR: Santoni’s supermarket serves a more racially and economically diverse clientèle than the Waverly Farmer’s market. Santoni’s is one, 50,000 square foot store and Baltimore is a city of over 600,000 people. There aren't many places like this serving people in Baltimore.

overlay b-roll shots: inside of Santoni's market

The supermarkets that are here - Save-a-lot, Giant, Safeway, Eddie's, Whole Foods, Superfresh - exist only along the north central corridor of the city, a limited scale of accessibility for those residents living in the east, south and west sides. Corner stores abound, but little to none of these stores carry fresh food.

overlay b-roll shots: ANIMATION of maps locating supermarkets

Most Baltimoreans are left with food choices that are highly processed and low in nutritional content, with few large-scale or chain supermarkets to meet their dietary needs. Where did all of these supermarkets go?

 

MARK WINNE - THE FLIGHT OF SUPERMARKETS FROM URBAN TO SUBURBAN AREAS - overlay text of name and title on shot

 

NARRATOR: Areas like Baltimore City that have experienced this flight of supermarkets have a name: FOOD DESERTS.

overlay b-roll shots: one solid shot of a food desert in Baltimore ... could be a running shot of rowhomes

 

MARK WINNE – Food Deserts

 

NARRATOR: Joyce Smith, a community food advocate in South West Baltimore, spoke to us about the reality of food deserts in Baltimore. She is currently wrapping up a 3 year Open Society Institute fellowship that she was awarded for her work with food systems in South West Baltimore. 

 

JOYCE SMITH - discusses difficulty of finding food in Baltimore

 

NARRATOR – Farmer’s markets provide fresh food, but typically serve the upper-class minority of the city, while the greater population of Baltimore utilizes a handful of supermarkets and a bunch of poorly-stocked corner stores.

PERHAPS THIS IS THE POINT FOR THOSE GDIV FOOD DESERT GRAPHICS, IF WE CAN ACCESS THEM

Is there hope that either stores or markets could better serve Baltimore’s population? We asked Rob Santoni about where the food in his store comes from:

overlay b-roll shots: contrasting shots of farmers market and food deserts

 

SANTONIS - HOW FAR A DOLLAR IS SLICED (TRACES WHOLE CHAIN OF HOW FOOD GETS FROM GROWER TO CONSUMER)

 

NARRATOR - Most products, like the Del Monte can, come to the store through a wholesaler, in this case, Supervalue - a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Minnesota. Many of the highly processed foods come through wholesale giants that serve a national base of customers.

 

COOSEMANS - DEFINITION OF WHOLESALE

Overlay text introduction: Jimmy Farrell, Cooseman's, MFCA

 

However, Santoni's produce (with emphasis) mostly comes from the Maryland Food Center Authority - the MFCA - located in Jessup, just southwest of Baltimore City. We talked to two vendors who have a long history at the MFCA: Cooseman's Produce and NAFCO.

 

     NARRATOR: Cooseman's and NAFCO are wholesalers, but they do more than just shuffle produce through the MFCA.

 

*****NAFCO - How they transform fish (someone needs to sort through NAFCO footage and find this)

COOSEMANS - The art of packaging

 

     NARRATOR - fish like this comes from all over the world.

          we need b-roll footage here to contextualize what "fish like this" is - very confusing

 

 

NAFCO - Fish from Chesapeake & from all over the world 

COOSEMANS - NJ is closest, but b/c of seasonality have to look further south - Florida & Mexico

 

COOSEMANS - HOW LONG DOES A WHOLESALER HAVE THE FOOD

*******NAFCO - How long their process takes.

 

NARRATOR - Most of our food travels hundreds of miles to reach our plates. The amount of financial and personal investment in this system is mind-boggling. The scale of the international food system is inherently shaky, something we discussed with John Shields earlier.

 

JOHN SHIELDS - DOMINANT FOOD SYSTEM IS RISKY - saudia arabian oil field attack story, within 4 days no food in supermarkets

GREG STRELLA - If you said "lets make a global food system" in the 60's - people would have though it's impossible. But that's what we live in today. And it's a healthily functioning system, except it doesn't create health for everyone that supports it.

JOYCE SMITH - what i've noticed about the country's diet - quick fast an in a hurry - mcdonald's slogan - how do i interpret that? - does that mean i can feed my kids a sausage biscuit for a dollar? - children don't eat homecooked meals - generation of families that believe its okay to eat out 5 days a week - a societal problem, schools, no home ec. - people neeed to be aware our food system have changed.... 

 

 

NARRATOR – At the Waverly Farmer’s Market, a lot of the food has traveled a much shorter distance. We know there is food being produced not too far from the city, right here in Maryland. We talked with David Smith, who runs Springfield Farms, located just north(?) of the city. (over shots of Springfield Farms.)

 

DAVID SMITH - ABOUT SPRINGFIELD FARMS, IMPORTANCE OF LOCAL FOOD

 

NARRATOR - A lot of people support the idea of "local" food and the kind of farming that David Smith is doing. People are genuinely excited about urban farming and growing food on a smaller scale, in backyards and community gardens. Look no further than the crowd at STEW, a Baltimore project where money is donated to charitable causes and everyone shares a banquet of locally-sourced food. We talked with STEW organizers Matt and Daine. 

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DAINE & MATT - WHY LOCAL FOOD RULES

Daine & Matt - local food is a better product "Why would I not by the better product and if it just happens to come from a couple miles away? that's fantastic I'm supporting a local economy, supporting someone who lives in my community."

Matt - not more expensive than a grocery store, if you buy in season it's more economical, "Buying local becomes the answer"

Daine - "I'm sure there's an economic argument for the local thing, but it's a qualitative thing...the food's a better quality the relationships are quality." 

 

NARRATOR - What does the word "local" really mean? It certainly is a matter of pride for a lot of people. are they all talking about the same thing?

shots of participation park and other urban farms 

 

 

KATE CLANCY - WHAT DOES "LOCAL" REALLY MEAN?

1:00:00Local - no formal definition yet, means what it needs people to mean, different def. used in different farmers markets that correlate to different distances

 

NARRATOR - Maybe everyone is thinking of something slightly different when they use the word "local." This doesn't change the reality that small farms, and urban farms right in the heart of the city are producing food that doesn't travel through the industrial systems that exist to support our supermarkets.

 

A LITTLE WEIRD NARRATIVE TO CLIP TRANSITION... CAN BE CLEARER

KATE CLANCY climax oooooh

8:32:00 depending on different radius distances for "local," many regions in North East would not be able to feed its population - talks specifically about NY

 

10:40:00 the largest need in the diet is carbohydrates, will mostly come from grains

11:00:00 we are not likely to end up growing ie lots of wheat in cities

11:20:00 urban ag. can't solve all of our problems b/c doesn't fit our dietary needs, doesn't mean urban ag can't contribute a lot of our food

12:00:00 we don't have any models for how much food will be able to grow in cities

10:11:00 regional food system would include food grown in urban areas

perhaps another montage of the city? The first montage could be of the dirty ol' town, and this one be comprised of springtime shots and urban farms and good hopeful stuff, landing on the Montessori school:

 

NARRATOR - We are not going to replace our national, industrial food system with local food alone, and local food will not be the end-all food answer in the future. This isn't to detract from the local food movement. local food is good for communities in many ways. people are excited about eating fresh foods, about cooking and eating together, and about taking care of the land that they live on. Greg Strella, a local farmer, introduced us to another benefit of local food. Great Kids Farm, a new venture by the Baltimore City Public School System is a local farm postulated on production and the potential relationships that growing food can foster. 

 

GREG STRELLA

the promise of urban Ag is not to be self-dependent, but to make connections locally and work to discover and connect people who are doing great things. About 12 field trips a week come out to help at the farm. The montessori school has taken advantage of this opportunity.

 

DENZEL MITCHELL: the montessori school: about how local food has helped this school - the process of making the food and then teaching them about the nutrition... advanced dishes, risotto, soups - really giving them some tools to work with as humans so they dont have to rely on packaged foods.

Installation of the raised bed gardens, edible... just started working with. each of the classrooms has their own bed to manage.  two beehives - ketchup and mustard. two chickens, laying hens. 

 

ALLISON SCHECTER - childrens response has been tremendous. asking parents can we buy brussel sprouts. 

DENZEL MITCHELL - one of the greatest successes, children bring it home, they volunteer to cook dinner, recreate a recipe they made in the kitchen.

 

 

GREG STRELLA

how production for consumption would be stupid: how they could grow all lettuce, but this wouldn't benefit anyone - After a huge huge process, would take so much energy that couldn't involve the kids, be a stress on the environment and infrastructure, and not even producce enough to feed kids today. 

Instead we've chosen to create a CSA that presently and in a very real way supports 50 families, education in classrooms - 12 - 2 farmers markets to get the food into the communities - to support chefs - and to generate opportunities everywhere along the way for our students to be leading that effort in partipating meaningfully and getting everyone involvedi n the process to contribute back into it in a way that sustains the program. that to me is a great success - all that allows tony geraci to go to farms in county that can actually feed kids in our schools on a daily basis and show that we're commited to that process everyday. 

 

more from them, because this is a excellent example of how local food systems work.

 

Here we need to transition into talking about how we got into this mess to begin with -

Why doesn't food work like it used to? Both Joyce Smith and John Shields talked about a Baltimore where gardening was widespread, and fresh, healthy food was a staple of everyday life. Now we're faced with environmental degredation, disease and malnutrition, all of which are tied to the diet we have chosen as a people, and as a city.

 

JOHN SHIELDS

28:40:00  a lot comes from an over-reliance on protein - we didn't used to eat per capita so much fish/meat/chicken, that was for rich people, most people ate a little protein - put hamhock/little crab into big pot and would serve 10-12people, this puts stress on land & water - there needs to be a whole change in how we approach food, have to have one foot in past and one in future

 

JOYCE SMITH

Story of growing up - father said meat makes ya dumb.... i was like WOW ... we ate better when we were poor!

 

DAVID SMITH

12:50:00 there is middle ground b/n small farms and industrial agriculture, we as a population eat way too much meat - we need to re-educate population about eating more vegetables, need to can/freeze to get through winter, we need to get people to back off of meat

9:00:00 explains how many meals are in a single cow.

 

animation segues into shots with voiceovers:

shots of Springfield farms, maybe great kids farm

 

NARRATOR: Local food won't solve all of these problems, but does provide many opportunities for reconnecting with food on personal and community levels.

 

JOHN SHIELDS

The number of young people going into farming - small plots of land - taking less stress on protein factory

participation park shots

 

JOYCE SMITH

When young people come into the community - i'm like this isn't new!

We've been making community gardens for Years

When I started the operation reach out  south west garden, it was amazing

benefits of CSA

 

01.18.06.24 - when you talk about accessibility, to me, i meet iwht a lot of young people college graduates, both white and african american, who say to me "we're gonna come in and show the low income people how to grow produce"...container gardens are not new for my age/generation!

01.18.53.00 - i just feel like, we got away ... and it's a practice that is dying in a lot of urban communities...

disenfranchisement - if you're poor and still surviving, you have some skills, so how can we relate those skills to something positive rather than something negative.

 

 

01.20.40.29 = For me, learning how to garden in my own backyard, and taking it to the community – I learned that there were a lot of older seniors in the community that came from a sharecropping and gardening background –

01.14.05.03 - the operatation reach out south west plan is about reaching the community

01.21.31.01 – how do you communicate with your seniors and your young people? For me, my granddaughter, younger than I am, got me started – one I learned about gardening and became successful, I found myself really wanting to share my knowledge –for people to become more aware and involved

01.21.53.07 - When we started the orsow community garden – that happened. You had older people coming out, to say “oh this is the way we did it”

01.22.11.27 – how to use compost, how to not us grow of the leaden chemicals – because that has an impact on the soil – that’s why for me this whole access, availability, urban gardening is like building a firm foundation – and basically for me is like going back toi basics, or getting some of the skills, or reinventing or finding a reuse of the skills that our grandparents and foregrandparents have used to really look at how we’re eating.

 

 

 

MARK WINNE

4:40:00 something as simple as a garden helps people help themselves, build self-esteem, when work w/community creates community bonds, so people feel helping community while helping themselves

shots of the harbor, Jones Falls

 

(end voiceovers) NARRATOR: we should remember that, after all, it isn't BAD that we can enjoy apples year-round, imported from all over the globe - it is the methods of production, transportation and distribution that are disconnected from people's lives and causing harm. Our global food system is failing because it relies on outdated  technologies and expectations.

 

 

 

 

KATE CLANCY

RHETORIC - 

KATE CLANCY - 30:40:00 as soon as you start using efficiency or vertical integration people think - oh that's bad, b/c that's what the dominant food system does - but we all have to be efficient, can't let the dominant food system take away those terms

 

Change is inevitable. The systems that are present now will change, and we will be forced to adopt new methods of production. The ways we interact with food will be different. We can be excited about the fact that people are so involved right now in Baltimore's local food systems- that there is a push to reform and change and learn, that this change will happen on our terms. While locally produced food and urban agriculture cannot replace the national food system, the momentum building around backyard gardens and farming in vacant lots in the city will propel us into a better future. Places like the Great Kids Farm are working to educate a new generation of students who will carry their knowledge of food with them into adulthood. We are raising ourselves out of the mire.

 

 

 

27:30:00 regional food systems - a lot of work that has to be done is to bring together the right political people in these regions to strat now looking at the regional water supplies, at watersheds, so that people in watersheds - even if it's just the people with leadership, have to be thinking right now we have to save a lot more farmland, if we can't save it locally b/c of the politics, we need regional land use planning

shots of the bay, from the waterman's perspective

 

JOYCE SMITH ALSO TALKS ABOUT POLICY RECONNECTING TO PEOPLE, THE NEED FOR CITY OFFICIALS TO SUPPORT THE GRASSROOTS EFFORTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

MARK WINNE

11:40:00 have been @ this work for 40 years, have never seen this much enthusiasm as now, I must be dreaming

10:45:00 hopeful about future of food b/c so much interest in it, hot topic, how many books about food? stories? films? restaurants talk about where food comes from on menu? now read menu tells stories where food comes from, people falling over each other to talk about where/how/how healthy food is, what does to enviro - we are a food crazed society

JOYCE SMITH

Talks about the future of food in Batimore neighborhoods

DAVID SMITH

11:00:00 mentions Baltimore City Public schools - local food, farm, overall David is very positive about future of food in Baltimore City

JOHN SHIELDS

38:00:00 when looking @ future of Balt. food economy, all little things - aquaculture, small farming, cheese makers, farmers markets - our food future has little dots on the map, and soon all those dots will be connected and that will be the future of the balt. food scene

 

this would be a good animation.

 

 

OHHH SHIIIIIT

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SCRAPS SCRAPS SCRAPS SCRAPS

COMB

5:00:00 Chesa influenced by human development, affects runoff to bay, by fishing methods, nets that scrape the bottom disrupting oyster/sea-grass beds, industrial pollutants, ag pollutants, fertilizers, ecosystem not equipped to deal with

6:45:00 biotech allows to get away from taking resources from Bay and grow fish, shellfish in sustainable bio-secure systems, grow in pristine environment

9:15:00 still will always be wild fisheries but those can be slowly replaced/largely supplemented by growing same fish in recirculating facilities/aquaculture facilities

shots of indoor facilities

 

2:00:00 in this facility demonstrating you can grow sustainable seafood in an urban location, we're in downtown Baltimore, can be very close to a distribution network such as the BWI airport, retail areas such as Gessup retail market, have an urban proximity that can be used for commercial purposes, show to investors, can be done in old reclaimed brown-field buildings, old warehouses, you can use what exists, you can use urban areas where labor, you can create jobs, can use municipal water supplies and energy grids, all can come together to make cost-effective sustainable seafood

7:40:00 can know your seafood not high in mercury and PCBS

ALGEA KITCHEN

How that crazy shit works