John Helming, who resells wholesale produce at a so-called "farmers market" in Tomah, Wisconsin, defends the practice on grounds that it's the American way, and his family has been doing it for nearly a century. Henning tells the Tomah Journal, according to a July 9 report:
“The U.S. is built on competition and if I can sell more tomatoes for less, I will. I think the more people that come to sell, the more buyers. I have no complaints about the market and I’ve seen more people come these past years. ”
Helming, who says his family grows a large garden and mixes some of their own produce with the stuff picked up at a wholesale auction house, insists he "enjoys the business of it and likes to socialize with people." According to the paper, he "claims that though he doesn’t grow it personally, it is of good quality."
Some real farmers in the area think Henning and his ilk flagrantly violate the "spirit of farmers markets." He also unfairly undersells real farmers, stealing customers who were drawn to the market thinking it is a place where they can buy produce picked yesterday by the very person who is selling it. This spring, about 20 farmers who sell at farmers markets in town tried to get authority from the City Council to start a new “homegrown and homemade” market. They were turned down, for reasons that the Journal didn't explain.
The nearby town of Sparta has a successful “homegrown and homemade” market, the newspaper reports. Town officials there held community meetings about the market before it was launched, and learned that townspeople wanted a growers-only market. It was organized with help from the University of Wisconsin Extension and with the participation of the Chamber of Commerce.
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