Friday 25 November 2016

Tastie Parody Video

'Tastie' Parody Video:

As part of our group work for a 3rd year Geography module 'Geographies of Material Culture', we have produced this short parody video to illustrate some of the material-social connections apparent within the production-distribution chain of pepper.

Our inspiration for the subject came from group discussion of the concept of escape. We tied this to food, and consequently found our way to pepper given that it is used in countless meals/recipes, yet has received relatively little attention in the midst of material culture studies (to our knowledge). In terms of the video format, we were inspired by the many 'Tasty' videos seen across various social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter. This style of video is short, sweet, and to the point. Aspects that we hope to have mirrored in our parody account (although perhaps with an added sprinkle of bitterness).

Footage of a peppercorn sauce recipe is interspersed with footage (video/audio) taken from various videos found mainly on YouTube which were converted into workable format and stitched among our own clips. Therefore we would like to thank these websites and the individual video resources that have provided us with workable material.

Video footage:
·         Retrodag1 (2013) ‘The Spice of Life – Pepper: The Master Spice – BBC production narrated by Edward Woodward’, YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuZujx-LMfg&t=886s last accessed 23/11/16)
·         Teresa J. Perreault (2015) ‘The Spice Trail season 3 – Episode 1 Pepper and Cinnamon – BBC Documentary’, YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAfiduVxE2I&t=1307s last accessed 23/11/16)
·         UNG Agriculture (2011) ‘Cambodia Agriculture: Black Pepper Farming with SoilBio1 Fertilizer’, YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwxkqnxKqGI&t=44s last accessed 23/11/16)
·         Our own footage shot by Oliver and Jack

Images:
·         ‘Tastie’ (Tasty) header image (photo-shopped) (http://www.digitalintervention.com/2016/04/30/tasty-videos-are-a-feast-for-the-eyes/ last accessed 23/11/16)
·         McCormick ‘Pure tastes evil’ (Pure tastes better) end image (photo-shopped) (http://www.jamesianmurphy.com/mccormick/ last accessed 23/11/16)

Transcript:
·         “In the last five years, there have been as many as 200 suicides among pepper farmers.” (21’50”) Kate Humble in Teresa J. Perreault (2015) ‘The Spice Trail season 3 - Episode 1 Pepper and Cinnamon - BBC Documentary’, YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAfiduVxE2I&t=1308s last accessed 23/11/16)

Acknowledgements:
Video production: Livvy, Jules
Information gathering: Oliver, Jack, Livvy, Ginny, Caroline, Lily, Hannah, Jules
Blog production: Caroline, Ginny, Hannah
Recipe footage: Jack, Oliver
Design input: Lily, Jack, Hannah, Caroline, Ginny, Livvy, Oliver, Jules

'Tastie' Parody Video Disclaimer:

This video has been put together entirely in the spirit of parody and does not seek in any way to be demeaning and critiquing of any of the brands mentioned and/or alluded to. We have complied with the legislation stating that "[t]here is an exception to copyright that permits people to use limited amounts of copyright material without the owner’s permission for the purpose of parody, caricature or pastiche.” (HM Government, 2014, np; emphasis added).

We hereby heed parody to refer to "an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect." (Anon, 2016, np). In keeping with the notion of comedy, we understand that if our content is not considered funny, "it's not parody" (Baker, 2014: 134), however we maintain that our aims are strictly geared towards entertainment and comedy. It is important for us to clarify this 'grey area' (Baker, 2014) in order to prevent any offence(s) emerging from our work.

We hope that you will enjoy it as much as we intend it to be entertaining.

References:

Baker, V. (2014) 'Humour on record'. Index on censorship, 43(4): 134-136.

Anon (2014) ‘Exceptions to copyright’, UK Government Intellectual Property Office, 18 November (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/exceptions-to-copyright last accessed 23/11/16)

Anon (2016) 'parody Google search', Google, (https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=define+parody last accessed 25/11/16)

Thursday 24 November 2016

Demand to know the Price of Spice Poster



What about pepper?

Description about pepper

Pepper is ‘one of the most popular and oldest spices in the world and nearly everybody eats it every day’ (Cave, 2015; np), often referred to as ‘The King of Spice’ (Alan, 2012; np). Throughout history pepper has been used as for its flavour, as a medicine, and even as a currency, making it a ‘prized spice since ancient times’ (Alan, 2012; np) referred to as ‘Black Gold’ (Cave, 2015; np). Black pepper is from a flowering vine; the berries are then picked, extracted (through stamping on the pepper, breaking the stem from the berry, Cave, 2015) and dried. It can take three to four years for peppercorns to develop, and it is during the drying process when the peppercorns shrivel and darken (Alan, 2012).
Black pepper is native to the Malabar Coast of India (Norman, 2016) and is ‘extensively cultivated there and elsewhere in tropical regions’ (Alan, 2012; np), including Indonesia, Brazil, Vietnam and Malaysia (Costigan, 2005), with each country produces different varieties. The discovery and trade of Pepper was instrumental in the opening of ‘spice trade routes to India and South-East Asia in 1488’ (Costigan, 2005; np). The pepper market is extremely competitive, with Vietnam currently the largest producer (Alan, 2012). The cultivation of pepper is a ‘labour intensive process… still requiring hand picking and, in many areas, cleaning and sorting by hand’ (Costigan, 2005; np), exemplifying how important it is to uncover where our Pepper is produced.
“McCormick & Company” is the largest manufacture of spices and herbs, including pepper, namely under Schwartz (Wikiedia, 2016). The company’s revenue is more than $3 billion (Pinto, 2011), highlighting the market value of the spice trade. The company’s slogan is ‘Pure Tastes Better’; something that we played with in our subvert. As we questioned how ‘pure’ their pepper is.  
We decided to illustrate Pepper’s past through a ‘Tasty’ style video, a growing trend on social media, and the use of a Subvertisment. Through the reconfiguration of a ‘Tasty’ video we are undertaking Détournement, luring individuals in through what they find familiar and then unearthing the processes behind the Pepper (Malitz, 2012), rehumanising the cultivation process and hopefully making individuals think. This is then reinforced using the subvertisment, which aims to visually reiterate what is shown in the video.   

Issues with supply chain transparency
Individuals are often surprised to know the conditions in which peppercorns are cultivated (Cave, 2015). This raises issues with supply chain transparency, something we wanted to address in our video, through paralleling the process of creating peppercorn sauce alongside the steps of cultivation using flashbacks during the cooking process.
In McCormick’s 2015 Corporate Social Responsibility Report they stated how their vision is “To grow our business globally, while driving positive change to the environment, without our communities, and for our employees” (McCormick Corporation, 2015; 2), employing over 200 diverse companies from all backgrounds; something they seemed to be proud of. Yet, when contacting Schwartz, we were informed that they could not share further information about their suppliers, highlighting the issues with supply chain transparency.
We felt as though it was important to illuminate issues within the supply chain of pepper as we found it almost impossible to locate exactly where peppercorns were produced. It was a common theme to look at the back of a peppermill and be able to only find “produce of various countries”, or being unable to contact brands in the search for more information. This frustrated us, and therefore we decided to expose what we did know; the physical process of making pepper, and the issues within the chain. These issues will likely surprise individuals, as they are not something you would immediately associate with something as innocent as pepper, but we felt as though it was important to educate others so they could make an informed choice about their pepper consumption in the future.

Issues with pepper
There are a series of injustices within the cultivation process of pepper, as pepper provides a low standard of living, contrasting to its high marker value (Costigan, 2005). A common theme from the research was how women workers tended to be neglected in the Pepper industry, despite being instrumental in the cultivation process, due to the low skill set required (Joseph and Viswanathan, 2016). Arun (2012; np) argued how the markets and financial services were not ‘responsive to the ‘needs’ of women farmers’, as it is often assumed that the male family members will bring in an income. This is reinforced through the gender norms and stereotypes in the Pepper producing countries, as a women’s place is continually rooted in the home (Arun, 2012).
An increasing issue with Pepper is dependent on climate, as food from India to Indonesia is vulnerable to ‘harvest failures, food price crashes and price fixing’ (Johannisson and Bengtsen, 2011). As pepper is a cash crop it is at a heightened vulnerability to these failures. Moreover, the farmers are more vulnerable as pepper is often produced on small-scale farms, often subsistence farmers, with few workers with a high dependency on the crop (Johannisson and Bengtsen, 2011). The price crashes of pepper in the 2000s, and price fluctuations in general (Steenbergs Organic, 2007), has been associated with an increase of suicides amongst pepper famers, notably in the Wayanad District in Kerala (Johannisson and Bengtsen, 2011), due to the increasing competition from Vietnam (Raman, 2005). In 2004 in Wayanad approximately 100 farmers committed suicide (Raman, 2005), illustrating the scale of this issue, and concerningly this number is only set to rise. These suicides are the result of financial strain brought on by pepper farming, often due to unpaid loans, described as ‘pay or die’ (Johannisson and Bengtsen, 2011; np). These suicides are described in harrowing narratives, including 20-year old Neethu 'One morning we awoke and found my dad having hanged himself in the bedroom, right here' (Johannisson and Bengtsen, 2011).    
It could be argued that these issues would not be so widespread if the supply chain was more transparent, and if companies like McCormick took more responsibility and accountability for their actions, as this may take the financial strain off some farmers. Therefore, these issues are indicative of why we felt like we needed to engage in activism to expose the injustice occurring.

Solutions  
It is important to note that there are other options when buying pepper. Instead of buying into the global pepper produce, sourced from all over the world, you can choose to by pepper from one region, or even from a certain farm; supporting the local economy directly. An example of this is Wayanad Pepper from Parameswaran’s estate (Norman, 2016). This 20-acre estate is a mixed-plantation, growing a variety of produce, including pepper. Jill Norman visited this plantation in 2016 and noted how ‘the quality of this single pepper stands our because it is so carefully farmed and processed’ (Norman, 2016; np). Furthermore, not all pepper plantations are suppressing places driven by financial strain. For example, Sorn Sothy, a professional from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, bought a 10-acre farm with over 800 pepper sticks (Bethune, 2014), selling a higher-priced Kampot Pepper, which is now protected under the World Trade Association status of protected Geographical Indication (Kampotpepper, 2016). Illustrating how pepper quality can be upheld in an ethically sound way.
These peppercorns are available to buy in the UK in well-known shops including Lakeland, indicative of how consumers do have a choice, and subsequently they can choose to support the “Little guy” (Campbell, 2011; np) illustrated in these examples, rather than the big companies like McCormick with a poor supply chain. Therefore, we are hoping that through our video and subvertisment that we can influence pepper consumption habits, and make individuals think about what they are putting on their food and the people behind its production.

Reference List
Alan, S. M. (26/02/2012) Black Pepper: A Hot Spice, Pakistan and Gulf Economist, 31(8), last accessed 13/11/2016, http://www.pakistaneconomist.com/ 
Campbell, J. (2011) Spice of Life, New Straits Times Malaysia, 19th June, last accessed 13/11/2016, http://www.nst.com.my/  
Cave, J. (2015) Bet You Didn’t Know Where Peppercorns Come From, The Huffington Post, 20th October, last accessed 10/11/2016 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/where-does-pepper-come-from_us_56252705e4b02f6a900d2541
Costigan, J. (2005) Berries with bite, The Age (Melbourne Australia), 27th September, last accessed 13/11/2016, http://www.theage.com.au/
Johannisson, F. and Bengtsen, P. (2011) Special report Pepper: how our favourite spice is tainted by a deadly legacy, Ecologist, 25th January, last accessed 14/11/2016, http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/1217570/pepper_how_our_favourite_spice_is_tainted_by_a_deadly_legacy.html
Rajazenan, D. (2016) Employment and livelihood of workers in natural rubber, black pepper and cardamom plantations, in Joseph, K. J. and Viswanathan, P. K. eds. Globalisation, Development and Plantation Labour in India, Routledge, Abington: 109-130
Kampotpepper (2016) last accessed 23/11/2016, http://mykampotpepper.asia/
Malitz, Z. (2012) Détournement/ Culture Jamming, in Boyd, A. eds. Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution, OR Books, New York: 28-31
McCormick Corporation (2015) 2015 Corporate Social Responsibility Report, McCormick  
 Pinto, V. S. (2011) McCormick open to more JVs, acquisitions in India, Business Standard, 20th June, last accessed 23/11/2016, http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/mccormick-open-to-more-jvs-acquisitions-in-india-111062000069_1.html  
Norman, J. (28/03/2016) A Visit to a pepper plantation, website accessed 17/11/2016, http://www.modernsalt.co.uk/visit-pepper-plantation-2/
Raman, S. (12/05/2005) Misery of India’s Spice Farmers, BBC, last accessed 23/11/2016, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4536961.stm
Bethune, M. (2014) How the World’s Best Pepper is Grown in Kampot, Cambodia, Serious Eats, last accessed 23/11/2016 http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/04/how-the-worlds-best-pepper-is-grown-kampot-cambodia.html
 Steenbergs Organic (2007) Fairtrade Sourcing, last accessed 23/11/2016, http://www.steenbergsorganic.net/article.php?articleid=42&section=4

Wikipedia (11/06/2016) McCormick and Company, website accessed 23/11/2016 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCormick_%26_Company