The other day, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal carried a story about a group of farmers in the Tupelo area who are up in arms over the infiltration into area farmers markets of vendors who are only pretending to be farmers and are reselling wholesale produce to unwitting consumers. Some observers of this all-too-common form of fraud think there's nothing wrong with it. They insist consumers don't really give a hoot where the produce comes from, as long as they think it's fresh. Peddlers, of course, readily offer that self-serving excuse for what they do. Some "farmers market" managers, for their own self-serving reasons, pooh pooh concerns that resold wholesale produce is not what consumers want, or think they're getting. Others who should know better also seem to think farmers markets shoppers don't care whether they're buying fresh-picked, direct-delivered produce or not.
To those who don't get it, guess what? Consumers who shop at farmers markets certainly do care where their food is grown. That's why they're drawn to farmers markets in the first place. Carlie Kollath, a business reporter for the Daily Journal in Tupelo, is one such consumer. This is what she had to say in a recent column about the virtues of shopping at farmers markets:
"I'm a big believer in the idea that you can learn a lot about a community from its farmers' market. Not only do you find out about the local food, you find out about local life....You see the effects firsthand when it doesn't rain for a month and you know exactly where your money goes when you buy tomatoes from a local grower.
"More chain stores are realizing the appeal of farmers' markets and trying to emulate the feeling. The Kroger near Crosstown temporarily set up a farmers market display in its produce department this month. Wal-Mart has a chainwide promotion for local produce in its stores. But the chains are missing a vital element - the growers. I want to know who is growing my food, and a sticker with the country of origin doesn't cut it...."Produce from abroad can be sold cheaper than produce grown locally. True, this is the nature of competition, but deep down I feel like I have a responsibility to my community to support it. Spending money with local people - whether farmers, merchants or restaurateurs - makes our community better because it keeps the money here. It puts money in the hands of people who are going to spend it in the region, and not in a mall across the country."
Think she'd feel cheated if she learned that the produce she purchased at a Mississippi farmers market actually came from California, Mexico or who knows where?
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