A little background-Staff at marketumbrella.org were honored to be invited to the Australian Farmers Market Conference in 2009, where our ED was the keynote speaker and we also presented our 4M management structure and learned loads of new ideas to bring back. While there, we met some amazing market managers and farmers and saw markets and gardens galore…
The Australian markets were started about 12 years ago by Jane Adams, who came to America to study the open-air market system, chiefly the DC markets. So, a lot of similarities…
As you can imagine, our thoughts have been with the folks we met since the catastrophic flooding in Queensland and now in Victoria (where Melbourne is located). Here is the response from Sophie O’Neill, food activist in Victoria:
Dear Darlene
Thank you and Richard for your message. I have passed it on to the girls in the VFMA Office.
Whilst the floods in Victoria haven’t been as widespread and catastrophic as those in Queensland they still have certainly done considerable damage to several Victorian towns and producers. In fact Miranda was telling me on the weekend of one producer that was hit by the bushfires only a couple of years ago that has now been wiped out by floods at almost the same time of year – cruel and crazy times indeed. But as you know, farmers are made of tough stuff and will soldier on.
I hope you guys are all well and thanks again for your thoughts.
Cheers
Sophie
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 