http://maps.ers.usda.gov/FoodAtlas/

It’s a pretty fascinating tool…pounds of meat consumed per capita per year, access to grocery stores, WIC redemptions (pictured), and farmer’s markets are available down to the county level. We spent a good chunk of the evening playing around with it. It’s a good lead-in to Blog for Food month

I admit to having a bias here… as a member of the Oregon Farmers’ Markets Association board, I’ve overseen grants that have gone to farmers’ markets this year to help fund several of the projects mentioned in this article. So, I’m definitely supportive of the idea of helping people at all income levels afford access to quality food. I think it’s awful that those with the least resources end up eating the worst food… especially because those are the people who probably won’t have the resources down the line to deal with the health issues caused by poor eating habits.

But speaking as a farmer, and a person passionate about the dangers of our industrial agricultural system, I was appalled at some of the comments left on the article. It seems to me like there is a perception that farmers markets are some sort of scam where farmers can charge exorbitant prices for food.

Here are some quotes…

It’s a travesty that it’s so much easier for me to get strawberries from southern California than northern Canby.

From an economics standpoint, farmers markets are highly inefficient.

The buyer does not really have a clear picture if they are getting better value (lower price and/or higher quality) from booth A than booth B.

…all the banging on doors, trying to sell luxury while most people are just trying to survive is just plain shaking the wrong end of the dog.

Of course what people never say in these touchy feely articles is that the vast majority of low income households are single parent, and even if that parent is responsible and does know how to shop and cook where will the time come from?

The problem is that the farmer’s market has become SO POPULAR that the vendors are able to charge higher than appropriate prices due to the sheer number of people coming out to shop.

Well, let me discuss some of the points here…

It’s a travesty that it’s so much easier for me to get strawberries from southern California than northern Canby.

I don’t know where that commenter lives, but it’s actually just as easy for me to get locally grown strawberries as to get ones from California. Easier in fact, because I just walk down the street from where I work, thereby getting a nice break, some exercise, and excellent fruit all at once. (And the California strawberries never taste anywhere near as good as fresh Oregon berries grown less than 10 miles from the farmers’ market.)

From an economics standpoint, farmers markets are highly inefficient.

Hmmm, really? Let’s use California strawberries as an example. Strawberries are grown on a large field, with huge equipment used to spray the plants. Farm workers are paid minimum wage to stoop in the hot sun and pick the berries. The berries are probably put in some other piece of large equipment to be washed, sorted, and packaged into plastic containers. Then the strawberries are loaded onto a truck, shipped 1000 miles to a supermarket, unloaded, and put on a market shelf. Then we pay $2.50 to $5 (depending on whether they are organic, on sale, etc.) to buy them. How many people handled those berries? And where does the money go? Mostly to the market, and the distributor. Very little actually goes to the farmer, and even less to the farm worker. And the cost of all that fuel and machinery? I guess you could say that the cost is small since it’s spread across millions of containers of strawberries.

But efficient? I guess if you are talking economies of scale, it may be more “efficient” to have fewer large scale farms growing produce. But what have we lost in this “efficiency”? And is efficiency the highest good in agriculture? What about environmental sustainability, the retention of farm land on the urban border, the viable family farm, not to mention the amazing flavor and texture of a berry not transported from 1000 miles away?

The buyer does not really have a clear picture if they are getting better value (lower price and/or higher quality) from booth A than booth B.

First of all, how does a supermarket shopper know if they are getting a better value by choosing one type of apple over another? There is absolutely no way, since supermarket shoppers can’t ask the grower personally. These days, we can find out what country supermarket produce was grown in, but unless you shop at a smaller chain (New Season, Roths, etc.) I’ll bet it’s a slim possibility that you could even find out the name of the farm where your produce was grown. And in most cases, you don’t have any choice over variety of a vegetable… it’s one variety fits all… usually the variety that stores and travels the best.

If you don’t know the difference between one grower and another at a farmers’ market, maybe you could start by asking a question of the farmer. Ask them what variety of cucumber (or tomato, or apple) they are growing, and why. If they can’t answer, well, maybe you don’t want to buy from them. But if they can, that makes you a much better informed and confident consumer than if you had just purchased your cucumbers (or tomatoes or apples) from Winco. Isn’t the opportunity to talk with the person who grew your food worth something extra? And if you do have the chance to talk with the person growing your food, doesn’t that make you more willing to pay more? To support their farm, their livelihood, or even their ability to buy clothes for their young children?

And even you don’t (or can’t) care about talking with a farmer, or about learning about your food, even if you only have a very limited amount to spend, isn’t it more satisfying to know that your precious dollars are going directly to the person growing the food, rather than to some middle manager in a long corporate food chain?

…all the banging on doors, trying to sell luxury while most people are just trying to survive is just plain shaking the wrong end of the dog.

Okay, I admit, this quote made me mad. Since when is good, local food a “luxury”? A boat is a luxury. Computer games are a luxury. A Lexus is a luxury. A $100 purse is a luxury. A $50 restaurant meal is a luxury. But quality whole foods, grown conscientiously by hardworking local people? Is that really a luxury? How is it that some people feel that good food is an indulgence? Is good health an indulgence too? I doubt most people would say so, yet health and diet are intertwined. What a sad commentary on how accepting we are of our industrial agricultural system if paying a little extra for some vegetables is considered a luxury.

Of course what people never say in these touchy feely articles is that the vast majority of low income households are single parent, and even if that parent is responsible and does know how to shop and cook where will the time come from?

I have all the sympathy in the world for single parents… as the mother of a 2 year old, I can only imagine how difficult it must be. But as the main food preparer in our household, who works late several nights a week, I have one bit of wisdom here… make large meals and eat leftovers. I often make a beef and vegetable stew on a Sunday afternoon that can be eaten for 2-4 days with rice or pasta. It probably takes me 20-30 minutes max to prep the stew, and I cook it while I’m home doing laundry or other chores. You can make other things as well… soups, etc. If you’re time limited on watching the stove, use a crockpot (cooks while you’re sleeping or at work) or a pressure cooker (stew in ~30 minutes!). As a very busy working mother, I refuse to believe that people can’t make good food. I guess if you’re working 3 jobs, perhaps meal prep could be a bit difficult. But if you have kids, I’ll bet they could substitute some meal prep for some of the time spent in front of video games or tv.

I just don’t buy the “no time” argument for most people. I know that personally, when I buy a packaged convenience food, it’s more often because I’m choosing it…it’s not that it is really necessary. I could save time by buying prepackaged milk for my toddler instead of filling his sippy cup with milk. I sometimes do buy individual servings of applesauce or crackers. And I could buy other prepackaged foods. But I read labels, and I know that most “convenience” foods are filled with artificial flavors and colors, as well as corn syrup, and tons of ingredients that I don’t fully recognize, but that don’t seem to belong in my food. I’d rather take that 30 minutes on a Sunday to prepare a meal that will last several days than to fill my Winco cart with foods that are of dubious quality.

The problem is that the farmer’s market has become SO POPULAR that the vendors are able to charge higher than appropriate prices due to the sheer number of people coming out to shop.

A few years ago, we stopped raising and selling eggs. At the time, we were charging $4/dozen for eggs at farmers’ markets. Some customers liked to tell me that we were charging too much. Apparently they thought we were getting wealthy charging that price. The reality was that we never made a profit during the years we raised chickens. Despite the long hours we put in to provide quality food for our customers, the labor costs, the rising cost of organic feed, and the rising cost of gasoline made our operation economically unsustainable. In order to keep producing eggs, we would have had to raise our price to at least $6/dozen, and we knew that we’d have a tough time getting that, especially when there were other egg producers around who didn’t use organic feed, and were getting the same price as us. We could have lowered our standards, but felt strongly about not using genetically modified corn, and decided to get out of the egg business.

So, are higher prices at farmers’ markets caused by the rising popularity of markets? I doubt that. I would be more inclined to think that if prices are higher, it’s because prices are higher for everything these days. And the price of food in various markets differs based on the economics of each community. Yes, some markets have higher prices/fancier products/etc. than others. Markets in urban upscale neighborhoods are likely to have higher prices than lower income neighborhoods, or than markets in rural areas. And yes, I have seen the same product by the same grower at different prices in different places… But you can’t tell me that it’s not fair for growers to expect a decent price for their product. And if you ask your local vegetable grower what they earned last year, I’ll bet it’s much closer to the poverty line than the income of most of their customers.
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While I agree that fresh produce at some farmers’ markets is more expensive than what you can buy at Winco or another discount store, I’d argue that when you buy food at farmers’ markets, you are doing more than just putting food on you own table… you are:

1) supporting a local farmer/family
2) keeping your food dollars in your community, county or state (depending on where the food was grown)
3) helping ensure the viability of local agriculture (imagine if we were completely dependent on food trucked in from out of state… now imagine gas prices going back up to $4/gallon…how much will that spinach cost at Spicer Brothers?)
4) participating in a food system that is inherently safer than the large-scale agricultural food distribution system (Like buying recalled beef? Keep on shopping at large grocery stores…it’s only a matter of time before the food in your freezer will be part of a recall.)

Americans are used to spending a small percentage of our income on food, and not enough people understand the true cost of the industrial agricultural system we have today. It may provide cheap food, but the true cost of our industrial food is not cheap…

And I’ll continue to believe it’s a good thing to help low-income shoppers access quality food at farmers’ markets.

I agree that as farmers markets have grown in number, size and popularity over the past 10 years, the likelihood has increased that some vendors may not be from the idyllic small family farms that customers may have in their minds as they make their purchases.

But I think the implication that markets are trying to pull one over on customers (such as leading them to think that all the vendors are small-scale or organic) is false. Customers can and should talk with individual farmers to find out their stories and practices. And they can choose not to buy from the large-scale, non-organic vendors if they wish.

I think the article’s leading question misses the mark about markets. I don’t think that most farmers’ markets truly are just a “grocery store with a taco stand” – they are essentially different from grocery stores in that customers can go up to the farmer and talk with them directly about their philosophy and practices. When’s the last time you were able to do that at Safeway or Fred Meyer?

Another implication of the article is that some farms are losing revenue at the markets, at least partly because of the processed and value-added food sellers who may be using items from far off places.

There are several aspects to this issue. One is the question of whether markets should allow non-farmers at all. That is an issue addressed either at the state-level, such as in California where farmers’ markets must be state certified, or at the individual market level in Oregon, where each market has its own vendor rules. Does a farmers’ market lose its integrity by allowing in non-farm vendors? I would argue that it doesn’t, as long as it keeps its focus on locally-produced foods or crafts. I do cringe when I see an Avon lady at a farmers’ market, but I don’t have a problem with the local bakery selling scones.

Assuming that markets do allow processed foods (or crafts/art), another question is whether markets should have rules about where the ingredients in those processed foods come from. In Oregon, many markets require value-added foods to have ingredients that are local, or come from some specified radius of the market. (I’ll have a follow-up post on the question of what is “local”). I think that this is a good idea, and I’m personally disappointed when I hear about markets that allow in products from far away.

Something that the article doesn’t address is the reality of a market’s location, timing and customer base. Some markets are geared more toward tourists, business people out on lunch break, etc. These markets may not be places where customers are really going to buy the bulk of their weekly vegetables, but probably will purchase flowers, fruit, snacks, etc. If farmers are not making money at these markets, it’s probably because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

However, many markets do have customers who attend weekly specifically to purchase their food from vendors who they know and trust. I doubt that many farmers at these markets lose revenue because of the processed food or craft vendors, or even because of the larger, “commercial” vendors.

In general, my experience has been that vendors sometimes lose sales when their market has too many vendors selling the same product. This doesn’t mean that the markets have lost their integrity, but that market management needs to do more to understand and balance the desires of the customers (for variety and choice) against the needs of the vendors (for sustainable sales). I think that managers need to (and most do) keep a close watch on their market’s product mix.

Another reason why farmers may have poor sales is when their farmers’ market is a poor fit with their community. A grower raising organic vegetables and selling them at urban market prices is unlikely to have sales levels that meet their needs and expectations if they are selling at a small rural market. This is another area where management is key. Farmers’ market managers (and boards) cannot afford to wear rose-colored glasses when planning their markets. They need to look closely at local demographics and buying trends, and make sure that their markets align with the customer base.

Despite the fact that some farms may have seen their revenue decrease at farmers’ markets, I think there is a much stronger argument to be made that many farmers (like us) have been able to build their business by selling at markets.

And while it might be nice to have all your eggs in one basket by only selling at farmers’ markets, most savvy farmers understand that having only one sales outlet leaves you vulnerable. It’s a much more sage strategy to have multiple outlets (restaurants, CSA, etc.) so that if there is a downturn in one, your business can still survive.

I think the Mother Jones article does have it right when it suggests that informed customers…

…actually have to find out exactly who’s behind every folding table, how their business is really doing…

As farmers’ markets have grown and changed, contact with the farmer remains critical to understanding how our food is produced. And the opportunity for that contact is beauty of farmers’ markets.