A county commissioner in Limestone County, Alabama, apparently doesn’t understand what the “farmers” part of “farmers market” means. The clueless commissioner, Jason Black, recently introduced a measure to allow anyone to sell anything at the Limestone County Farmers Market, “whether it’s socks, goats or yard sale items.”
An anything-goes policy used to be in place, but yard sale items were banished from the market last year. Apparently, plenty of farmers and shoppers like it that way, according to an article in the Decatur Daily. Black’s proposal was rejected without a second vote.
Commissioner Stanley Hill explained that he has nothing against flea markets. But a farmers market “should be a place where people can go down and get their fresh, locally grown vegetables.”
Trisha Black, executive director of Spirit of Athens, led an email campaign last weekend against lifting the ban. “If it’s not just going to be farmers, don’t market it as a farmers market,” she said, explaining in an email to the county commission that dumping yard sale stuff into a farmers market “gives the perception that we are a second-hand community.”
At least one farmer spoke in favor of an anything-goes policy, explaining that it would at least bring more people into the market. But a farmer named Kenneth Robinson said the additional foot traffic didn’t do him any good. “I couldn’t sell anything when the flea market items were there,” Robinson said, according to the Decatur Daily. After yard sale items were banned, he added, “I sold everything I picked last year.”
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