market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Market Farming
List archive
- From: "Del Williams" <delannw AT dlogue.net>
- To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
- Subject: Farmer's Market Rules
- Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2001 08:00:01 -0600
The concerns about allowing resale seem to be:
(1) The potential for non-growers to buy non-local produce at wholesale
prices
(and therefore the market isn't exclusively promoting locally grown)
(2) The potential for vendors who resell to undercut prices of vendors who
are growing
their own and selling their own produce.
(3) The potential for resale vendors to bring out of season produce to the
market.
(4) Unscrupulous vendors
In reference to (1): I like the idea of farmers' markets that consist of
growers/farmers/bakers/etc. I gather that most of you do too. So, if all
of your vendors are growers then #1 is irrelevant. Verification is easy
too. Do they have a farm? Does the market manager actually visit the farm
to verify production?
In reference to (2): If all your vendors are growers some vendors are
reselling locally grown produce, there is no reason to expect that resold
produce should be priced differently. The reseller still has to make a
profit. My 25% gross profit margin was minimal because my local producers
got 75% of the sale price. I sold at regular market price and usually
higher than other vendors at the market because what I selected for resale
was of higher quality, special, or had limited availability. There's no
reason for any business of any kind to reduce prices for this reason.
People sell at lower prices for other reasons.
Pricing is really a different issue and tangential to this discussion. If
you are talking about allowing wholesale at the market, that is also a
different issue. Unless your market has rules about pricing this is
something we deal with regardless of whether it is a grower only market or
otherwise. It's called price/quality competition. I recall one Saturday
last summer when I was selling green beans at $1.50/lb. The next booth (a
grower) was selling at $1 a lb. Further down was another grower who was
selling at $.75 per lb. I only sold 40 lbs. that Saturday but I felt that
mine were superior in a number of ways and, apparently, so did a few
customers. Nevertheless, not one of us was wholesaling or reselling. (I
have been known to ask other vendors why they are selling so cheaply if I
think their pricing is killing the rest of us but in the end, I think it
would probably be illegal to fix prices at a farmers' market. You could
probably have a rule about minimum and maximum pricing.)
In reference to (3): The example of resellers bringing in produce that was
out of season is irrelevant to the discussion of allowing the resale of
locally grown produce. If melons are showing up a month early you know it
isn't local and the market manager can easily inquire about the source. If
you have a "local only" rule and it is understood, then this won't happen
unless your violators are stupid and you are too. Anyway, it doesn't follow
logically.
In reference to (4): If you believe that your fellow farmers' marketers are
a bunch of sneaking, thieving, dishonest rats and that they will certainly
squeak through any crack in the rules then you have a number of problems on
your hand. If you are the only honest vendor then all the rules in the
world aren't going to help you in the den of thieves. If there are just a
few untrustworthy vendors then your market manager needs to work on
maintaining compliance and having a good set of clear, understandable and
enforceable rules. In other words, the market manager will have to do the
job of managing. That's the job.
The fact is, if you don't have a method of enforcement or verification then
what is the point of the rule? Is there a way to effectively police the
source of produce sold at farmers' markets? Nothing really stops any grower
from putting a bushel of tomatoes grown by a neighbor on the stand alongside
the tomatoes the grower actually planted and harvested. Who has the burden
of proof here? If the market rules state and define LOCALLY GROWN ONLY,
then a market manager can and should set up policies and procedures for
assuring compliance just as sure as there should be rules and procedures for
verifying compliance at a SELL ONLY WHAT YOU GROW market.
Market managers have to be concerned with rule compliance just as any
manager of any other business should be. They don't need a tough skin, they
need to know how to manage. In my experience, the best managers are good at
dealing with people, period. Furthermore, it is a heck of a lot easier to
manage people when the rules are clear and everyone knows and understands
their rationale and the consequences for rule violations. Rules for
farmers' markets, in the end, aren't any different than rules in any other
work area including rules about sexual harassment, violence, stealing,
getting to work on time, etc. It is the manager's job to inform vendors
about the rules, make sure they understand the rules, consequences for
violations, etc.
If your market vendors constantly violate "local produce only" rules and get
away with it there is something wrong with your organization. Frankly, it
isn't any different than working in a company where employees are constantly
late and nobody seems to get punished for it. If you know and the market
manager knows and does nothing about it then you deserve the chaos that will
result from it.
By the way, to say that local frmers who don't want to do retail sales
should find other ways to sell their produce (to wholesalers, restaurants,
etc.) is illogical if you are attempting to support and promote local farms.
If the goal is to support and promote local farming then resale of locally
grown produce makes sense.
In the end, to argue that allowing no resale at your market ensures that no
resale actually occurs is absurd. If you don't have verification processes
for rules then you are inviting the unscrupulous to violate any rule.
Del Williams
Farmer in the Del
Clifton IL
-
Farmer's Market Rules,
Del Williams, 02/10/2001
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
- Re: Farmer's Market Rules, mckemie, 02/10/2001
- Re: Farmer's Market Rules, Joan Vibert, 02/10/2001
- Re: Farmer's Market Rules, mckemie, 02/10/2001
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