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market-farming - Re: Farmers' Markets (sign of the times?) (fwd)

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  • From: Betsy <blevy AT rsocsun.tamu.edu>
  • To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Farmers' Markets (sign of the times?) (fwd)
  • Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 10:46:58 -0700


Hi Martin -

here in Austin TX there was a small farmer's market (average of 4 or 5
vendors) in front
of a large natural foods grocery store (part of a chain that originated in
this city).
That was the reason given for having the market here - supposedly to attract
customers, I
think also to give a veneer of homegrown and folksy-natural with no added
investment.
Interestingly, Whole Foods recently shut the market down. The reason given
was the
legislation (based on incidents in California, I think?) relating to
sterilizing the
processing equipment used for salad mix, and getting certified for it. The
cost of
certification is laughably high, and local farmers couldn't afford it. Now
salad mix
cannot be locally grown - or offered in front of the store. I may have some
of the
details slightly wrong, but the timing of the whole thing seems significant.

Betsy

Martin Cooke wrote:

> Here in the UK, supermarkets claim to welcome farmers' markets because
> they tend to bring people in to the supermarkets too. This may change
> when FMs become more widespread and more frequent. I heard that the one
> which started up last year in Sheffield (pop 500000, 4th largest city in
> England) is currently limited to three a year. No wonder the
> supermarkets are not too worried yet. We have some way to go compared to
> what I read on this list.
>
> I very much doubt whether the 'who cares where the food comes from' line
> would cut much ice with most consumers here though. Trust in
> agribusiness and supermarkets is still at a low level after the numerous
> food scares we've had. Rather, they're falling over themselves to stock
> the greatest number of organic lines, although in practice the veg is
> almost never locally-sourced. Food miles is set to become one of the
> next big issues over here and being local is going to matter almost as
> much as being organic. Shipping organic apples (aka water) from the
> antipodes may be as damaging as purchasing non-organic apples from down
> the road.
>
> Martin
>
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