Finalist in the Science & Nature - Long Form, Limited Series and Editing categories!
Produced by Day's Edge Productions for PBS
Editors: David Hutchinson, Austin Andries, Andy Laub, Angel Morris
Shopping for groceries doesn’t feel like a world-changing activity. But the Human Footprint of the supermarket – a 20th century marvel birthed from innovations in retail design, food production and packaging technology, advertising, and transportation – is all around us.
Through supermarkets, we have access to a vast variety of foods, conveniently packaged on store shelves for efficient shopping. Yet despite this abundance, we spend far less of our income on food than anyone could have imagined a century ago.
But supermarkets have a dark side; in pursuit of convenience and low cost, we’ve given control of our food system to corporations, embraced global supply chains that conceal horrific labor and environmental abuses, and created ultra-processed foods that cause chronic disease.
In Human Footprint: Shelf Life, Shane goes on a global journey to understand the origins, consequences, and future of the modern grocery store. Along the way he meets experts – from the legendary host of Supermarket Sweep to the 2022 Apple Grower of the Year, from investigative journalists to community organizers, and from engineers to enslaved migrant workers – to reveal the true story of supermarkets.
The modern grocery store is an extraordinary innovation. But much of its promise is wasted, fueling corporate profits rather than human wellbeing. Can we harness what makes us human – our vision, our cleverness, and our adaptability – and make grocery stores better? It’s a critical step toward building a better, more just, more sustainable world.
- Runtime55 minutes
Finalist in the Science & Nature - Long Form, Limited Series and Editing categories!
Produced by Day's Edge Productions for PBS
Editors: David Hutchinson, Austin Andries, Andy Laub, Angel Morris
Shopping for groceries doesn’t feel like a world-changing activity. But the Human Footprint of the supermarket – a 20th century marvel birthed from innovations in retail design, food production and packaging technology, advertising, and transportation – is all around us.
Through supermarkets, we have access to a vast variety of foods, conveniently packaged on store shelves for efficient shopping. Yet despite this abundance, we spend far less of our income on food than anyone could have imagined a century ago.
But supermarkets have a dark side; in pursuit of convenience and low cost, we’ve given control of our food system to corporations, embraced global supply chains that conceal horrific labor and environmental abuses, and created ultra-processed foods that cause chronic disease.
In Human Footprint: Shelf Life, Shane goes on a global journey to understand the origins, consequences, and future of the modern grocery store. Along the way he meets experts – from the legendary host of Supermarket Sweep to the 2022 Apple Grower of the Year, from investigative journalists to community organizers, and from engineers to enslaved migrant workers – to reveal the true story of supermarkets.
The modern grocery store is an extraordinary innovation. But much of its promise is wasted, fueling corporate profits rather than human wellbeing. Can we harness what makes us human – our vision, our cleverness, and our adaptability – and make grocery stores better? It’s a critical step toward building a better, more just, more sustainable world.
- Runtime55 minutes