Truly Local

Big Business Comes to Santa Monica Market

An increasing percentage of the produce sold at the thriving farmers market in Santa Monica, Calif., winds up at high-end restaurants and gourmet grocery stores scattered all over the country, reports Russ Parsons in the Los Angeles Times. That’s because wholesale produce companies have become major buyers at the market, held each Wednesday and Saturday, where I have been a regular for years and years.

That is not exactly what farmers markets are supposed to be for.  They are supposed to be venues for sales directly to consumers. But farmers markets are also supposed to help generate business for local farms, and if possible, revive entire local food economies. And if the market in Santa Monica is doing just that by helping its farmers hook up with some big customers, who can complain about that?

Well, chefs can complain. Many of the leading chefs in Los Angeles have been major local supporters of the city’s farmers markets, particularly the well managed one in Santa Monica, for years. Now, they often have to watch as wholesale guys cart off cases full of the best stuff. A number of chefs expressed their concerns to Parsons for his story, “A Food Fight Over the Cream of the Crop.”

“Though no hard figures are kept, some growers say that as much as half of what they sell at the market is bought by produce companies. As a result, what had long been a kind of informal meeting place for many of Southern California's foodies and chefs is no longer quite so clubby. What chefs once regarded as a combination of culinary laboratory and kaffeeklatsch -- a place to find new ingredients and ideas and swap gossip, sometimes seemingly in equal proportions -- is more and more a place for big business.”

Santa Monica market manager Laura Avery, who has run the operation since 1982, just a year after it opened, is caught in the middle of the conflict. She is considering some innovative solutions. She told Parsons that one idea under consideration is to create a separate market for wholesalers, either at a different location or earlier in the morning at the site of the regular farmers market.

“There is certainly a wide range of opinions among farmers, among chefs and among the produce companies,” she said. “They're all trying to get more small-farm produce into restaurants, which is great. But we want to be sure to keep stuff on the tables for regular customers and smaller restaurants who come every week… Certainly, we're victims of too much good stuff, of too many happy customers. But I think we can make it work.”

Carbon-Footprint Hype Debunked

Here's a recent piece from the New York Times reporting on a study that punctures some of the overblown claims often bandied about these days about how eating locally grown food reduces greenhouse gas emissions. That may be true in some cases, but not always, according to researchers at the University of California in Davis. Too many other factors affect how energy efficient any particular consumer's food shopping practices are. The article concludes:

"Certainly, there are many reasons for eating local food — from supporting local farmers to a desire for fresher, potentially tastier food. The research in California, however, offers the prospect of a more nuanced debate on eating a low-carbon diet. In the meantime, [Gail] Feenstra, [a food system analyst at the university] said, the research has already led her to one conclusion: Don’t drive your sport utility vehicle to the farmers’ market, buy one food item and drive home again. Even if you are using reusable bags."

Limits Put on Market That Strayed From Mission

The "farmers market" in the Old Town section of Temecula, Calif., got a new, five-year lease on life. The city council on a 4-0 vote gave the managers of the sprawling market, Gale and George Cunningham,  the right to continue using city property for the weekly Saturday markets, ending a brouhaha that had simmered for months. Merchants in the neighborhood had complained that while it was billed as an outlet for local farm produce, the market had mutated into a sprawling, anything-goes street bazaar that was unfairly competing with them.

The city sought to address the concerns of local merchants by imposing limits on the market designed to turn it back into what it was meant to be, as the North County Times reported on Nov. 7.  The farmers will be certified, and nonagricultural and nonfood vendors will be allowed to sell only handcrafted items, health care products, and other items related to the theme of the farmers market. That leaves the door open to all sorts of merchandise, but to make sure it doesn't get out of hand, the new deal with the city requires the Cunninghams to submit a quarterly list of vendors and a detailed list of the items they sell to the city for review and approval.

The market could have spared itself a lot of grief if it hadn't strayed so far from its mission in the first place, said Phil Strickland, writing in the Nov. 12 North County Times.

Let's acknowledge that it is no longer a farmers market in the best sense of the words. If it was, the contract probably would have been approved with nary a word, save for the yea votes. But, because of apparent lax management and a lack of city enforcement, the farmers market has violated the rule regarding the nature of what can be sold. [The new rules are] good, but of little consequence if the city doesn't keep a close, in-person eye on the vendors, at least for now.

Indeed, the Cunningham's attorney, Alicen Wong, already seems to be angling to widen a loophole for vendors peddling various and sundry stuff. Before the ink on the deal was even dry, she had asked the city to possibly broaden the list of approved merchants that could be categorized as "guest vendors" to sell their goods two Saturdays per year, according to the North County Times.

Are Farmers Markets a ‘Broken Model’?

The San Francisco Bay area has more thriving farmers markets – and successful market farmers – than just about any other region anywhere. But the proliferation of markets and market farmers has not necessarily made life any easier on the farmers who sell at the markets, as the San Francisco Chronicle recently reported. One farm featured in the story, Terra Firma Farm, a mainstay in the Berkeley farmers market for 15 years, is one of a number of prominent area farms that have recently retreated from farmers markets. The Chronicle explained:

“In late July, at summer's peak, Terra Firma posted a ‘dear friends and valued customers’ letter announcing that it was done for the season. From now on, the Winters-area farm will make the trek to the Berkeley market just a few months in late spring and early summer.

“ ‘Sales have gone down as the number of produce sellers has increased and the diversity of items on everyone’s tables has increased. This is great for shoppers but makes life rough for us,’ the letter explained.

“The farmers' market, says Paul Underhill, one of the three farmers who co-own Terra Firma, ‘is by far the hardest way for us to make a dollar…. The basic model, in my opinion, is a broken model’.”

The story named other farms that have recently pulled out of the Berkeley and Ferry Plaza markets, two of the Bay Area's flagship farmers markets. The good news is that Terra Firma and other entrepreneurial small farms are now well enough established, thanks in part to their farmers market customers over the years, that they have other outlets for their produce.

Other farmers quoted in the story weren’t as burned out on farmers markets. They explained how they have adapted to the competition by innovating, constantly looking for new crops to grow and new ways to add value to them. But they all agreed it’s very hard work. On market days, many California market farmer will get up well before dawn to start packing their trucks, drive several hours to the city to sell produce for half a day, then pack up and drive back to the farm, arriving not much before dark.

Flea Market Vibe Comes Back to Bite Farmers Market

A massive farmers market in Temecula, California, has swelled in size since it was launched in 1991 with 13 vendors. Today, 70 merchants offer their wares to an estimated 4,000 people on Saturdays, and 300 vendors are waiting for a booth, according to an article in the Riverside Press-Enterprise. What do all of those vendors sell? Just about anything except antiques, whether it comes off a farm or not. That has raised hackles with some local business owners, who complain that itinerant vendors unfairly compete with them and drive away their customers on what used to be a busy sales day. Some local merchants are planning on taking their grievance to the City Council.

"It's gone from a farmers market to a flea market," said Jack Keaton, co-owner of Jack's Nuts on Fifth Street, one of the business owners who is mobilizing opposition to the market.

In a statement prepared for the City Council, the group of peeved merchants stated:

"If this favoring of outsiders over city-owned and operated businesses continues, as the city appears intent on doing, it will be a ghost town surrounding the Farmers' Market on Saturdays."

Market manager Gale Cunningham told the Press-Enterprise that to allay merchants' concerns, she "tries" to limit products to handmade items and farm-related goods. And the market's web site promises that the produce at the market is grown by those who are selling it, as required by the state laws governing farmers market. But the market managment seems to pass the buck to the state regarding responsibility to assure that the law is actually enforced:

" 'Certified' means by the state of California. It's supposed to ensure that the produce are [sic] grown locally, sold by the grower and they meet all state quality standards."

Grower-Only Market Thrives in Santa Barbara

More than a decade has passed since the Santa Barbara Farmers Market Association won a crucial legal fight against a farmer who was challenging rules that sharply limited sales of produce grown by someone other than the vendor selling it.

This market continues to illustrate the virtues of a strictly enforced, growers-only approach to running a farmers market. Propelled by the intensive competition, growers offer an astonishing array of high-quality produce. They have gained a large, intensely loyal customer base in the process.

Here's a report on my most recent visit to the Santa Barbara Saturday market.

New Reg Makes It Harder to Boot Cheating Farmers

The California Department of Food and Agriculture has proposed some amendments to the state regulations governing farmers markets. Here's the notice of proposed rulemaking. Note that the public comment period closes in just two days.

Here is a link to the direct marketing section of California's Food and Agriculture Code. The California law is considered the best in North America at defining farmers markets and those authorized to sell at them in such a way that peddlers, theoretically, should be locked out. Here, from the state agriculture department's web site, are answers to frequently asked questions about the regulations.

The changes now proposed pertain, for the most part, to processed food items sold at farmers markets. But another proposed change could have an effect on ongoing efforts to keep peddlers of wholesale produce from infiltrating farmers markets in California. It is a provision giving "reasonable due process" rights to those "farmers" who are flagged for an infraction of market rules.

Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against due process for the accused.  Do they have no due process at present? If so, give 'em some. I just hope this doesn't allow wrongdoers to get off the hook for technical, procedural violations of their rights.

Amend Food and Agricultural Code section 1392.9 to read:

(e) The operator of a certified farmers’ market shall provide reasonable due process to certified farmers’ market participant prior to an imposition of a fine, suspension or expulsion from a certified farmers’ market.  A market participant shall receive a written Notice of Intent to Take an Action if the action includes a fine, suspension or expulsion from the market. The Notice shall state the specific reasons for the proposed action.  The Notice shall be delivered in person or mailed to the market participant prior to an imposition of a fine, suspension or expulsion from the market unless an immediate suspension is necessary to protect the public health, safety or welfare.  The Notice shall advise the participant that he or she has fifteen calendar days to submit a written appeal of the proposed action.  If an appeal is submitted in a timely manner, the governing board or its designee shall arrange a date and time for the appellant to appear before the governing board or its designee for an administrative hearing.  The administrative hearing shall provide the participant with an opportunity to present evidence and argument regarding the reasons stated in the proposed action and the appropriateness of the proposed action.  The administrative hearing shall result in a written decision upholding, reversing or modifying the proposed action. The decision shall be issued within fifteen calendar days of the conclusion of the hearing.