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WendyGR
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Farmers markets carrying non-local produce
in Green Living
I'm researching a story and wondering how you feel about farmers markets carrying non-local produce? The one I normally go to allows it but requires people to post the state the produce is from.
Re: Farmers markets carrying non-local produce
I don't necessarily have a problem with it, but I do think it is important for them to disclose clearly where the produce comes from.
That's the problem with the "big" farmers market in my area--it does allow some non-local produce and vendors. I have seen signs at most booths that say things like "We grow 51% of the produce sold" or "75%" or "100%". It's a little frustrating to me, trying to be a conscious consumer, to have to sort through it all, especially when this market gets a high volume of customers. Ours does not require the farmers to mark which items they grew, what they didn't, and doesn't require them to specify WHERE they got what they didn't grow either. I wish they did.
Then again, "local" is different to everyone. The state of NC is pretty large and thankfully produces diverse crops. Southern NC/Northern SC can give us peaches, Northern NC/Southern VA can give me cherries and Western NC can give me apples. Eastern NC gives us seafood and nuts. We're smack dab pretty much right in the middle of the state. I wouldn't call all of this "local" for us, but then again, it could be just a matter of semantics if I were to be in an actual debate with someone.
We do have a local market that is significantly smaller and I believe it does only allows farmers within the city/county limits to sell there. Crafts people and bakers don't have the same restriction though--we have a lot of people that sell jewelery from beads they bought at Michael's to have a spot. It's frustrating!!
It kind of bugs me... why would I go to the "trouble" of choosing to shop locally if/when the produce I get there is the same stuff I could get at the convenient, air-conditioned store that's on my way already? On the other hand, if it's something my family likes (DS = world's biggest peach fan) and not just something that would go with dinner, I'm more likely to get it even if it's not local. And if that is the case, I choose AS local as possible. For us, that might be produce from Canada vs. California. It's not a huge deal, I mean, I can avoid them if I really feel strongly about it, but I think it sort of goes against the principle (if there is one) about the farmer's market in general.
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I think it is ridiculous. I don't go to the farmers market to buy strawberries from California and other things from Mexico. Hello that is what the grocery store is for. Plus the prices at these booths are ridiculously lower than the local produce. It is impossible to compete.
I have noticed over the years that there are more and more 'grocery store' style merchants at the market. (ours is an outdoor market 3 days a week in the spring/summer).
I noticed this at my local FM at the beginning of the season, like May and early June (tomatoes from FL, Corn from another state, etc.) but the vendors all seemed to be pretty good about being up front that the produce wasn't local.
In Northern climates, local produce is pretty slim pickings at the beginning of the season. So glad July is here and there is a greater selection.
I completely agree with J&J, and the last sentence is why. A booth selling, say local tomatoes, has to price them so the farmer can make a living. A booth next door selling non-local tomatoes raised in a huge CA monoculture and picked by migrant workers will have lower prices. It makes it impossible for the local farmer to compete. That to me is wrong. It defeats the purpose of the farmer's market: To eat produce grown by farmers in your area.
I feel the same way about organic and converntionally-raised produce at the Farmer's Market. The farmer I work for at my Farmer's Market is the only one who's organic. I watch our stand get less business than the other produce stands because our prices are a bit higher. It simply costs more to raise produce organically because you get less yield per acre without chemical fertilizers, weed killers, and pesticides. I know some really big markets, like San Franciso, have a separate organic-only market because of this price disparity.
I'm lucky enough that all the Farmer's Markets in our county are run by one organization, and that organization is producer-only. Meaning that I am buying from the farmer himself when I shop at my Farmer's Market. They should all be this way. Allowing vendors to sell wholesale produce from other areas reduces the payout for the entire market. There are more "grocery store" style mechants at the market b/c they're realizing they can make more at the market than at the grocery store, because people are already used to paying slightly higher prices for what is *supposed to be local produce*.
ETA: We're in Northern VA, but we have several vendors at our market from PA, they're about 2 hours each way away. They make enough money at our market for that drive to be worthwhile. That is fine with me. I consider any farm that's within driving (not semi-trucking shipping) distance to be "local."
I don't see the point of a market allowing non-local producers. Local can be pretty broadly defined--there aren't really any farms in DC so we have producers from MD, WV, VA and PA at our market.
Isn't that the entire appeal? Knowing where your food is coming from and how far it has traveled? I can go to the grocery store any old day if I want produce from California.
I guess I think it depends? The poster who is in Ohio and sees produce from PA or Indiana--this wouldn't bother me either..(I lived in Indiana and remember going to Kings Island--the "meeting place" of three lovely states!) But if I was in OH and saw California..I'd give the side eye.
I'm in CO..peaches and cherries are a big deal here, but they also have farms in Utah, if I saw some of that fruit at my farmer's market---I wouldn't be too upset. It comes from the Western slope. In a lot of cases the border between Utah and CO is a river or a tiny road..I can see how it happens.
I actually found this article today, which will interest the op. It came from the Countryside Conservancy website, which runs a few of my local farmers markets:
http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/06/21/too_many_farmers_markets/index.html
One of the bigger farmers's markets in my area has the rule that things have to be grown in a 200 mile radius. In the spring and early summer selection is more limited. I guess I prefer that to having to figure out if I could be buying the same produce at the groccery store.
I don't think its a simple answer.
Did they just pick up a box of mass-produced lemons, mark them up, and drive them to the market (with their own produce?)? Or is it a quality product, made by another small producer, maybe someone they know?
Why are they bringing it to market and how? I can't see how driving stuff very far, in the quantities sold in farmer's markets, would be that profitable. For me, local is through Washington, into Oregon and BC, and that can mean pretty far.
It wouldn't be what I'd want to see primarily at the market, and I'd expect it to be of the same standards of anything else - produced in a sustainable ethical way, from a smaller producer, high quality - and there to be a reason its there -- high quality product, friend of a local farmer, etc.
If its just Joe Schmoe selling cartons of Dole fruit he picked up on the way to sell to the suckers that walk around and buy fruit at high prices, no.
I agree. Last year I bought a box of peaches at a farmer's market. After I got home I found that one or two of them had the grocery store's "grown in Mexico" sticker on them. I was furious. I paid considerably more than I would have at the store, but less than other booths with their homegrown fruit. I never thought I'd have to check for that kind of thing. I was horrified that someone would buy fruit at the grocery store to sell at a farmer's market.
I'm also in ohio and I flipped out on my friend who is big in the "local" movement when I saw this at our local farmers market last year.
She was telling me that the farmers who sell produce with stickers have to make a living. We are close to Detroit where we live in NW Ohio so this particular farmer drives up to detroit and buys it off a ship that comes in and sells the produce during the early spring to offset his costs during the down months.
That said I still don't like this farmer anyways I give him the side eye often for some of his produce decisions...(like bananas!?)
I personally buy from the farmers that I've talked to at the market and have told me a little about their farms. I normally buy from a guy who farms out of MI, (but he drives it to Ohio a few times a week). He's awesome. Then again like I said in NW Ohio he's only about 10 minutes from the state line.
I wish our market made it mandatory to post where produce was grown. The market I go to is in a relatively large city and there are many vendors that don't sell locally grown food.
Many of the local farmers post big signs stating that they are local, but I basically have had to learn who is legitimate and who isn't. I get mad at myself when I choose the wrong vendor!
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