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[Homestead] Farmer's Markets Go Beyond Green

From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
To: "homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org" <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [Homestead] Farmer's Markets Go Beyond Green
Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 08:06:26 -0500

By <http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=JULIA%20MOSKIN&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=JULIA%20MOSKIN&inline=nyt-per>JULIA MOSKIN
Published: May 24, 2006

IN 2004, Nina Planck, who had just been dismissed as director of the New York City Greenmarkets, wrote in an Op-Ed article in The New York Times: "Perhaps it is time Greenmarket itself had some competition."

Next month, that meditation will materialize when Ms. Planck opens two outdoor food markets in Lower Manhattan. Every Saturday, these "hybrid" markets, like weekly markets in Europe, will offer more diverse products than a strictly defined farmers' market. With local makers of guacamole and sorbet selling alongside organic farmers, Ms. Planck is striking a symbolic blow at the farmers-only Greenmarket model.

"I think the farmers' market movement has failed consumers in not making it possible to buy everything they need for Saturday night dinner," said Ms. Planck, whose tenure at Greenmarket was short and tumultuous. "It's time to be more inclusive. It all helps local farms find a market."

Many in the alternative agriculture movement are surprised to hear that Ms. Planck, a vocal and frequent defender of the American family farm, will be running a market that could sell guacamole made from Costco avocados.

"It can be very confusing to the public when farmers' markets start looking more like supermarkets," said Randii MacNear, manager of the farmers' market in Davis, Calif., and an expert in farm marketing. "What's the message?"

American food shoppers who seek alternatives to agribusiness have never had so much choice about how to spend their food dollars. But they are still adjusting to being pelted with information on how to eat well. In its February issue, Consumer Reports magazine assessed the relative pesticide contents of organically and conventionally grown produce, and found that for many fruits and vegetables, the difference was imperceptible. Is this reason enough to forsake expensive organic bananas and broccoli?

And what if your shopping agenda has issues other than health, like saving family farms, sustainability and soil conservation?

"For a long time it seemed very simple," said Rena Mikulski, a school administrator in Brooklyn, who was shopping for greens at the Union Square Greenmarket last Wednesday. "Organic was good. Farmers' markets were good. Everything else was not good. Now I don't know how to choose anything. Is it local? Is it sustainable? Is it organic? Which is better? I don't know."

The hand-wringing among organic farmers that greeted Wal-Mart's announcement last week that it would begin stocking large quantities of organic produce reveals the tumultuous state of the alternative agriculture movement. In the 1960's, the movement began with far-out notions such as shortening the food chain between farmers and eaters, and entertaining the possibility that agribusiness might not have consumers' best interests at heart. At that time, both organic labeling and a national network of urban farmers' markets seemed like remote possibilities. Now that both of those have been achieved, consumers, farmers and food policy experts are at a point of soul-searching.

The rest of the story is at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/24/dining/24mark.html?ex=1148961600&en=b7798fcde7bc0513&ei=5087%0A

From tracy9j AT frontiernet.net Mon May 29 00:18:50 2006

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I've been doing a lot of reading online, too, but I really like to read print material better. I also agree with you about the UTNE. I'm thinking I like Mother Jones, however I've only read a few.

I'm not sure what kind of internet connection you have, but you can play and/or download MP3's of Diane Rehm's show at
http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/

P.S. I enjoyed your personal laundry "tail".

Tracy Julian
in East North-Central Minnesota
Where it is still 85 degrees at 11 pm

----- Original Message ----- From: "Gene GeRue"

Print media is too slow for current events but better for deeper
insight. I read current news online.

**Snip**

I vacillate on keeping my Utne Reader subscription.

**Snip**

I regret that down here in the holler I don't get NPR reception. I
miss The Diane Rehm show. One of these days I will take the time and
spend the money to get one of the satellite radio services.

[Homestead] Farmer's Markets Go Beyond Green, Gene GeRue, 05/28/2006