What, then, is the purpose?

Research
Storytelling
Anthropology
Environment
Studying
Human Subjects
Code of ethics

What the hell am I getting myself into?

Maybe a bit ambitiously, I threw myself into an application for undergraduate research this summer. The research is my own, it's funded and it's scientific...at least supposed to be.

I designed my research around the NYC Greenmarkets; the farmer's markets that are spread throughout the City of New York. As a representative of a vineyard and wine producer, I've spent a fair amount of time behind a table selling our product to the customers of the market. As an anthropologist, I've become enamored with the complexities of the market and the potential impact it may have on the communities it serves. The development of the Greenmarket for local producers is also quite intriguing for the fact that it is being taken as a serious business development. I'm not familiar enough with rural farmer's markets (although I'm from a rural agricultural region in Upstate NY) to determine how different the NYC Greenmarkets are, but this is a question that I will be addressing in the study.

My original approach with this study, in regards to the consumers, was to investigate their how the Greenmarkets impact their diets. Do folks spend the majority of their food budget on the seasonal items at the markets? Do they merely attend the markets during summer and fall seasons? Where is the rest of their food coming from? Are most customers shopping at large supermarkets or fair trade markets, does the production location play a role in their decision?

Of course many of these questions will be asked throughout interviews and will address specific issues, but I've become side tracked with these specifics and derailed from the intent behind the study. I also think the intent may have changed. I don't want to merely produce a study that becomes useless beyond the Greenmarkets. There are much larger questions to be addressed and issues to ponder. My professor put this in perspective for me by relaying that this could lead into a PhD dissertation topic and that it would then serve as a small part. But, what then, would be the larger part? I'm confident that I do have an idea of what I would like to have included in this overarching work. As of now, I'm having trouble placing this study in that realm.

Food is clearly important to every living being. Humans of course, while maintaining similarities in our approach towards food, address the issue in completely different ways than any other species. Humans also vary intensely between cultures and socio-economic levels - among many variables - in our approach towards sustenance.

Quality of life. Rushed lifestyles. Slow food movement. These are some of the other broad topics that are inherently associated with food and farmer's markets. Approachability. How accessible are farmer's markets to varying socio-economic levels? What role does the NYC Greenmarket play in the larger movement and the essential shift in our way of life that I believe is necessary. How does this relate back to our experience of reality and our impact on our surroundings and the environment.

One of my personal dilemmas, brought out in situations such as this, is impatience and lack of accurate forethought. I know that in order to make progress on a larger project or personal puzzle it may take incremental focus and a breaking down of proceedings, however I do not yet understand this very concept. Especially because of my insecurities regarding my memory, (it took me about 8 minutes to remember the word 'insecure') I fear that I would become so deranged, take so many tangents and open up so many new avenues and interests that I would never come back to the larger picture. Realistically, because the larger movement and theme overrides the particulars in my personal importance it's unlikely that I would not return; it's nonetheless a challenge to free myself from these restraints. Instead, I'd rather attend to a multiplicity of agendas, albeit a shortsighted outlook. 'Appreciation of the journey and all that it has to offer' - an idea that deserves consideration.