9
What's making farmers markets grow?
The Wednesday farmers market in Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles features local fruits and vegetables from surrounding areas.
To view this content, Javascript must be enabled and Adobe Flash Player must be installed.
TEXT OF STORY
Bob Moon: Ah, who doesn't love a ripe rutabaga in the summertime? OK, the ripest produce of any kind, for that matter, which really speaks to cutting out the middlemen, and buying your fruits and veggies straight from the farmer. There's good news out today if that's your preference: The USDA reports a bumper crop of farmer's markets. They've shot up by 16 percent in the last year.
Marketplace's Adriene Hill went to find out why.
Adriene Hill: It's early in the day at a small farmer's market in downtown LA. This is one of more than 6,000 farmer's markets in the country -- the number's more than doubled in the last decade.
Fernanda Torres is selling plums and peaches for $2.50 a pound -- more than twice as much as the local grocery.
Fernanda Torres: A lot of customers complain about the price.
Even so, business has been good -- in spite of the price premium.
Torres: At the end of the day, after they try the sample, they fall in love with the fruit because of the taste.
Yahru Baruti's there picking out plums.
Yahru Baruti: We like to buy locally, so we know where the produce comes from. And also, oftentimes, the produce is organic.
Wayne Howard is the chair of the agribusiness department at Cal Poly.
Hill: Are farmer's markets really for wealthy urbanites?
Wayne Howard: I'm afraid that's one of characterizing it.
Howard says there are markets everywhere, so it's not just city-dwellers buying fresh produce. He says a lot of it has to do with food shows on TV. A lot us want to be chefs using only the freshest ingredients. And all that demand is good for farmers, who get to cut out the middle man.
Howard: I knew a cherry farmer up in Ontario, Canada, who said he sold 5 percent of his cherry crop through a roadside stand in a local farmer's market, and that accounted for 50 percent of his total revenue.
Howard says the huge demand for farmer's markets does open up the possibility that some people are selling fruits and vegetables they didn't grow. You've got to ask, where'd that tomato come from?
I'm Adriene Hill for Marketplace.
Moon: By the way, if you think farmer's markets are just coooool as a cucumber, we'd like your help putting together a slideshow picturing your favorite farmer's markets. You can check out the photos so far and offer your own submissions. See our slideshow.
I must confess to being a little disappointed by the farmers' market piece. As some other commenters noted, farmers' markets are not all that expensive. At our market dairy, cheese, and meat are more expensive than the supermarket, but many vegetables, like red peppers, are significantly cheaper. EBT and debit cards are accepted, making it easier people from all walks of life to buy there.
If indeed, on average, markets are more expensive than stores, it would have been nice to here why. Food in supermarkets is unnaturally low-priced because of our world food system.
Additionally, if you want to explore local food, but just can't afford the farmers' market, buying directly from farmers is another option. I can get all my produce for the week plus a half-bushel of juicy beefsteak tomatoes for canning for about $20. There's no way I could get that kind of deal at the supermarket.
Stop by any large vegetable stand and survey the variety of vegetables and fruits. Could the farmer have grown all those varieties? Start a conversation about what farm grows. You'll find the plums were were bought wholesale and you know that because there are no plum trees on the property.
Not all farmers grow everything they sell and the kids selling the produce are generally not knowledgeable about the culture and practices of pesticide applications and fertilization. Be a good consumer. But asking doesn't always get an accurate answer - observe the environment and get to know the owner.
I agree with Stacy Miller's comments. But I have to add that you didn't do enough research even by today's standards. If you had, you'd have discovered that 1) grocery store produce often appears cheaper because it is offered as a loss leader; 2) farmers' market produce is not always more expensive if you compare like products. Organic in grocery stores is not cheap, and they don't offer the opportunity to discover the agricultural practices of non-OG farms that might be the perfect fit for a given customer; 3) Market customers can negotiate bulk deals for canning at lower prices; 4) Markets are expending notable amounts of resources in order to bring SNAP and a whole range of other assistance programs to market so that everyone has a shot at the good stuff; 5) If a nectarine costing 50 cents a pound less than the FM price is rock hard when you buy it, won't actually ripen but only gets softer yet remains tasteless, is distained by everyone in the family (except the dog) who tries one, and then the rest goes bad, have you really saved 50 cents a pound?
The Rochester Public Market or "the market" as it is called by us locals is one of the cultural crown jewels of Rochester, NY. It is not some new upstart as a result of a food trend. The market has been around for more than 100 years in the same central location.
Rochester is a city divided along rigid physical, socioeconomic and cultural lines and the Public Market is our one great unifier. It allows everyone from the mother of 4 with an EBT card, to the suburbanites, to the disaffected art school hipsters with their $1000 SLRs, to the elderly Eastern European women willing to hip check you over the best bunch of radishes; to buy the food they need for about half the price of the local super market chain. In contrast to the market in yesterday's story, the Rochester Public Market is our cheaper alternative.
Not all the food is organic. Not all of it is local. But everyone has their favorite vendors whom they have weeded out from all the others because their tomatoes are pesticide free or their carrots were picked fresh that morning and are still covered in soil to prove it.
While I applaud your coverage during National Farmers Market Week, this story seems to greatly simplify the price issue at farmers markets. Farmers markets offer a value which extends beyond the dollar sign: high quality, freshness, diversity of products you’ll never see in a grocery store, the opportunity to actually meet the folks who grow the food you feed your family, and the confidence that every dollar you’re spending is benefiting your local economy rather than a distant corporate CEO.
In addition, 20% of farmers markets now accept SNAP/EBT benefits, and last year low-income seniors and WIC mothers redeemed more than $40 million dollars in WIC and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program vouchers.
Learn more about what farmers markets have to offer farmers, consumers, and communities at http://farmersmarketcoalition.org.
Jacksonville's year-old Riverside Arts Market has a farmer's market section with about 20-30 farmers each Saturday...the local newspaper said the market had over 500,000 visitors last year! Great to see such community support. www.riversideartsmarket.com
