Truly Local

Getting ‘Radical’ in Dallas

The long-beleaguered Dallas Farmers Market, a venue that in the past has been cluttered with furniture and other stuff that has nothing to do with a farm, as well as lots of supermarket-type produce, is still trying to get it right.

 

It has tried to carve out space for local farmers to sell produce that they grew themselves but it also allows, as the market’s Web site acknowledges, other vendors to “complement these local offerings, with everything from Mexican avocados to Washington apples.” As other markets that have tried to mix locally-grown, direct-marketed produce with resold wholesale fruits and vegetables under one roof (for instance, in North Carolina and Arkansas) have learned, it’s hard to make that work. The truly local producers often have a hard time competing with mass produced fruits and vegetables, quit trying, and the quality of the entire market suffers.

 

Now, Robert Bagwall, creator of West Village, an upscale “urban village,” in downtown Dallas not far from the market, has come up with a shocking idea to improve the place. Make the farmers market a venue for local farmers, not an outlet for trinkets and food items from who-knows-where.

 

According to a story in the Dallas Morning News, “One of his suggestions is a radical rethinking of the whole downtown market, focusing on regional produce from regional growers, not vegetables imported from California. Everything sold at Farmers Market should be authentically local, organic whenever possible and rescued from the hodgepodge that currently clutters stalls, Bagwell says.”

 

A commentator seconded the wild-eyed notion:  “I agree with Bagwell. Get rid of the sellers who buy off the docks and lower the rent to local farmers and producers,” wrote jtt1955.

Farmers Markets v. Flea Markets in Dallas

City officials in Dallas, Texas, according to the Dallas Morning News, are struggling to come up with a permitting system that will help maintain the integrity of neighborhood farmers markets.

 

“Businesses and other neighbors of the markets worry that only a fine line separates a farmers market from a flea market,” while city officials want to assure that the goods offered for sale at the venues, which are supposed to be places where local producers sell locally produced foods, “are made in the Dallas area and not in China,” the paper reports.

 

The rules under consideration by the City Council would require that at least half the participants at a “farmers market” be food vendors. And the city would impose a fee structure designed  to give at least a slight edge to those who actually produced that food themselves.

 

Vendors selling produce they raised themselves would pay no annual fee. But nongrower vendor permits would go for $250 per year or $125 for a semiannual permit. This cost would be in addition to the usual $10 or $20 that market organizers charge in daily stall-rental fees.

 

The proceeds from the fees would help the city cover the costs of overseeing the vendors – that is to make sure they really are growing or producing what they are selling.  There is no mention in the Morning News article about how the rules would be enforced.

Farmers Market in Dallas Cleans Up Its Act

A farmers market in Dallas, Texas, has given the boot to vendors who sold furniture. Furniture at a farmers market? Yes, and it wasn’t even necessarily locally made. Some of it was imported from Mexico.

A majority of those who attached comments to a Dallas Morning News story about the change in policy favored the move. “Non-food items ruin farmers markets,” said one. “Thank goodness the farmer's market is finally returning to what it was supposed to be – a FARMER’S market,” said another. “The farmer's market is not a flea market,” proclaimed a commenter named HappyFarmer.

 

But a few complained. “I'm sorry to see the furniture and other specialty vendors go. Frankly, they made the Farmer's Market a much more interesting venue,” said one, apparently oblivious to the irony.

 

Another recent story in the Dallas Morning News made passing reference to a form of signage that could, if enforced, help consumers distinguish direct-marketed local produce from peddled merchandise that the vendor purchased from a middleman. “Local verified” signs at the market apparently can assure that the produce at least wasn’t imported from out of state. Whether it came from the farm of the person selling it is another matter.