The Trouble With Peddling at 'Farmers Markets'

Those who defend the reselling of wholesale produce at so-called farmers markets (for example, in Virginia and Arkansas) insist that the practice is the only way to give shoppers the variety they want. They also typically vow that wholesale goods, trucked in from who-knows-where, will be offered for sale by peddlers at the market only until genuine, locally grown produce comes into season.

Trouble is, the practice is deceitful and it leaves shoppers, who are drawn to the markets because they want to support local farmers and think they’re buying fresh-picked produce, feeling cheated (as has happened from Tomah, Wis., to Melbourne, Australia). There’s an even more insidious problem with allowing wholesale produce into farmers markets. It will in the long run actually limit the variety of locally-grown offerings by discouraging real farmers from innovating.

A recent story in the New York Times about farmers markets in Connecticut illustrates what can happen when vendors are allowed to sell only what they or neighboring farmers have grown. This year, the markets in Fairfield, New London and Litchfield stayed open through the winter for the first time, with little advance notice to the farmers, so the selection of produce was limited. But that will change. Farmers who sell at the markets, confident that they won’t be competing with produce trucked in from California or Mexico and resold by peddlers at the markets, have begun looking for ways to assure that they will have more to offer in the winters to come.

Within a year or two, consumers in Connecticut will be able to buy truly local produce year round. Real farmers will benefit, as well. Ed Gazy, for instance, has big plans for next winter for the half-acre that he has under plastic at his 20-acre Gazy Brothers Farm in Oxford.

He is already thinking in terms of lettuce, tomatoes, basil, garlic, spinach, arugula, beets and radishes for next year. “It’s a start to having a year-round income for a small farmer,” Mr. Gazy said.

Laura McKinney of Riverbank Farm in Roxbury agreed. “There’s less pressure to make all your money in the short growing period that there is,” said Ms. McKinney… She is already planning for next winter — more fall crops like celery root and cabbage, and using the farm’s new commercial kitchen to process tomatoes.

David Zemelsky of Star Light Gardens in Durham, who already grows greens all winter with about half his three acres under plastic, was one of only two growers at Fairfield [this past winter] with actual fresh green produce. He said that with high fuel prices, the market was more economical than delivering to restaurants. “If I can go to one place, and do all my business in one place, it’s much more effective.”

For Paul Trubey of Beltane Farm in Lebanon, the ability to have his goat cheeses in all three winter markets allowed him to quit his “day” job as a social worker instead of going into debt, the way he usually does in winter. “It’s been a great thing that’s made the business much more viable,” he said. “It helped my spouse be less nervous about me quitting my job.”

It certainly helps if consumers are educated about the difference between a supermarket and a farmers market. As Katherine Dyer, manager of the market in Fairfield, told the reporter for the Times, “I’m hoping that customers are patient and realize that we’re growing a new market and next year we’ll have more stuff.”

Comments

[Sally Parrott Ashbrook]

When Georgia went through the awful drought last summer, our CSA started offering "organic from further afield" in addition to the local offerings (which were limited by the water shortage). I respect that the farmers were trying to keep their livelihood going in a difficult time. But I'm also glad the offerings from further away were/are clearly labeled, because I buy from local growers/producers with purely local produce/items in mind.