Locally produced food becomes popular in Okinawa
SHOTLIST
Okinawa - July 2007
1.Ferry leaves port on Miyakojima mainland heading for adjacent Irabu Island
2. Sunflower
3. Bridge connecting Kurima Island with the Miyako mainland
4. Blunt-headed parrot fish
5. Fish caught by local fishermen being auctioned at the port
6. Woman collects the octopi that she has just purchased
7. Woman collects the octopi that she has just purchased
8. Man at auction
9. Moray
10. Atarasu Ichiba Farmers Market
11. Atarasu Ichiba Farmers Market Sign above entrance
12. Market interior
13. Goya (vegetable indigenous Okinawa.)
14. Local varieties of squash
15. Maita Takami (market manager with local producer.)
16. SOUNDBITE . (Japanese) Maita Takami, Market manager
The reason that we initially opened the market was to promote the consumption of produce grown locally in Miyakojima.
17. Papaya
18. Local varieties of squash
19. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Maita Takami, Market manager
I think that there is a national trend towards sale of locally grown, seasonal produced, seasonal produce, directly to the local communities in which they were raised. I see our role as bringing local producers together with local consumers.
20. Housing used to produce Goya (vegetable)
21. Goya plants
22. Goya
23. SOUNDBITE . (Japanese) Kawamitsu Yasuo, Farmer
Consumers can buy quality produce cheaply and feel secure about safety in a way that is not possible with supermarkets.
24. Locally produced vegetable
25. Set up Murayama Tatsuya, restaurant owner and chef
26. Goya Chanple an Okinawan staple
27. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Murayama Tatsuya, restaurant owner and chef
Nowadays all kinds of produce comes from all over the place, from abroad and from the mainland and as a result Okinawan identity has been diluted. Local people don't know where things originated, whether food is produced locally, from the mainland or elsewhere. So I think that what the Atarasu Ichiba farmers market is doing, that is selling local produce to local people is something that particularly young people can learn from.
28. Child reading explanation in market
29. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Murayama Tatsuya, restaurant owner and chef
The reality is that Okinawans no longer know Okinawa. I want them to know even a little about the place that they live, I want local people to know that produce grown in the Miyako Islands is seasonal. I try to reflect this in our menu. We use produce grown in the Miyako islands and use it in season.
30. Tofu marinated in Aomori
31. Preparation of dish
32. Muruyama Tatsuya slicing yellow fin tuna
33. Murayama Tatsuya
34. Plate of sashimi being prepared
35. Cucumber
36. Sashimi
LEAD IN:
Around the world more and more people are buying seasonal, local food in an effort to reduce transport carbon emissions, and promote local producers.
Atarasu Ichiba is a farmers market in Miyakojima in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, which has been encouraging the sale of local produce directly to the community.
STORYLINE:
Connected by ferries and bridges, the Miyako Islands lie a few hundred kilometres from the Okinawan mainland in the East China Sea.
The sea has always provided an important part of the islanders diet and many species of fish that they eat are not available in other parts of Japan.
Similarly there are many vegetables like Goya that are very much identified with Okinawan cuisine and have traditionally played an important role in the local diet.
War, occupation and social changes like the decline of extended families changed patterns of production and consumption in the Islands; factors compounded by the growing influence of large supermarket chains.
Approximately eighteen months ago a new supermarket called Atarasu Ichiba opened.
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