An article about the iconic Easter Market in Detroit MI with input from from director Dan Carmody and the editors at Treehugger who make some very good points about why markets should matter to planners and why good planning is still necessary for the Rust Belt:
“…the advantages rust belt cities will have in the future, with their water, their transportation infrastructure of rail, road and canal; their temperate climate in a warmer world.”
An interesting view of grocery stores using “alternative concepts” as a marketing ploy. (cheat sheet-some see right through it)
Am I being whiney and ungrateful? Yes. Wegmans responds to every item on my consumer wish list. It has consistency and dependability. It won’t be sold to some large chain that will destroy its quality, as was the case with Kings and Zagara’s. But that’s the problem. It is the large chain. It’s the specialty market gone corporate. In the tradition of American cooptation of the alternative option, it has made the alternative option into standardized fare.
New book on financing food-based businesses seeks your capital raising stories.
Important to remember where we sit within the global system in areas that really count.
Map
My Toronto colleague Wayne Roberts has written an excellent piece on the miles it takes to get food to you. Even though I can imagine how many of these that most of us have seen, this one really breaks it down so “civilians” can get the enormity. Another good piece to add to your market newsletter…
A great quick story about some entrepreneurial bakers that vend at the 14th and U Washington DC market run by Robin Shuster. Using shared space, they are building their business slowly but pretty darn well it seems by the article. That Robin was the spark for their business does not surprise me; having met her, I can verify she is a classic market organizer- part connector and visionary and full-time urger!
Robin runs both the 14th and U Saturday market and the Bloomingdale Sunday market as well in DC. Her excellent website is found here
Post story
(This Post story may require an account to access by the way.)
Another example of a farmers market manager being recognized for community engagement. Diane has been tireless in her work to create healthy activities along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, even as she rebuilt her own life after Hurricane Katrina took her house. Diane (and her business partner at Real Food Gulf Coast, Dita McCarthy) show the level of partnership that is possible with city governments and business communities that want markets.
Ocean Spring MS-The prestigious HOSA Bob & Virginia Meyer Award for 2011 was awarded to Ocean Springs Fresh Market organizer Diane Claughton on Saturday evening, December 3rd at the HO HO HOSA event in the Ocean Springs Community Center. The stunned Claughton received a huge ovation by the large crowd of nearly 200 attending the annual event. The award comes with a bronze plaque and a $5,000 cash award.
When announcing Claughton as the Meyer Award, HOSA President Melanie Allen said the Committee who made the choice for the 2011 Meyer Award was unanimous in selecting Claughton as the recipient. “We all recognize that Diane was instrumental in creating this successful Fresh Market event that is now a regular part of Saturday mornings for many people & families, said Allen “By being at the Depot location, she has created an event that brings shoppers downtown who buy from the local growers & vendors at the Fresh Market, and then these same people also eat breakfast at one of the restaurants downtown and then buy gifts at our specialty shops as they stroll our streets. The value of the Fresh Market has real economic impact for the City. It also teaches us the value of eating local fresh foods as they grow and become available season to season. Diane has a regular schedule of cooking events and interesting classes that provide free community education at the Fresh Market as well.”
Diane Claughton started Ocean Springs Fresh Market in 2004. A former librarian and chef, Diane started the Fresh Market to help supply consumers with quality, locally grown or prepared food products, to support local sustainable agriculture and to educate consumers about the health and social benefits of locally grown or prepared food. She is also co-founder of Real Food Gulf Coast.
HOSA: the Historic Ocean Springs Association is an active community organization whose mission is to make public improvements using donated funds. The HOSA Bob & Virginia Meyer Award is presented annually by HOSA. The cash award presented is income on funds that the Meyer’s donated to HOSA for the purpose of giving an annual award for “any endeavor that helps or improves the ambiance of Historic Ocean Springs” as the selection committee guidelines state.
Though she confessed to being “Gobsmacked” when she was announced as the Meyer Award winner, Diane said she “would like to thank HOSA for the award, which I feel is also an award to the vendors, past and present, of the Fresh Market. I would also like to thank the Ocean Springs Chamber of Commerce for allowing the Fresh Market to take place in their parking lot, and the City of Ocean Springs for the wonderful redevelopment of the Chamber parking lot. I thank the HOSA organization on behalf of everyone involved with the Fresh Market for recognizing what our little Saturday market brings to Ocean Springs.”
The 2011 winner of the HOSA Bob & Virginia Meyer Award Diane Claughton is presented the HOSA check for $5,000 as part of her honor by HOSA president Melanie Allen.
In 2009, I went to Puget Sound to film sustainable oyster farming at Taylor Shellfish. Those short videos are to be found on the You Tube channel of marketumbrella.org. The company works with small oyster growers like the amazing Evan and John Adams of Sound Fresh Oysters who have varieties that they only bring to the Olympia Farmers Market.
Taylor also grows their own and encourage home growers with a waterfront oyster garden kit that they sell one day a month, to help people understand how oysters develop. (Go to the Go Fish chapter and look for the oyster videos.)
YouTube channel
I have never forgotten how the Taylors (and Oyster Bill!) build the future of their ecosystem with their techniques and can only hope that some of their innovation can rub off on my own oystermen of Southeastern Louisiana so we can save our dying oyster industry here.
However, the issues are constant, and one grave threat is explained in the article link. When will environmental destruction finally hit home for humans? What amount of food will we have to lose before we address it?
I am beginning some independent research on market types and would love to hear from a few markets that:
1. Have existed for more than 5 years and are their own independent farmers market organization started by community members.
2.Have existed for more than 5 years and are their own independent farmers market organization started by farmers.
3. Have existed more than 5 years and run their farmers market under another organization’s fiscal agency and were started by farmers.
4. Have existed more than 5 years and run their farmers market under another organization’s fiscal agency and were started by community members.
5. Have existed more than 5 years and run their farmers market as a for profit business and have an advisory board of farmers and/or shoppers.
This research is to assist state, regional and national market organizations with designing their resources and will lead to more research on typology of markets. Typology of markets can help individual markets with comparing and contrasting data and can also assist investors in understanding the capacity and potential of markets in the future. This is work that I began while with marketumbrella.org in New Orleans and have continued while doing some other research for the Farmers Market Coalition and will be shared with both organizations.
I will offer the finished case study to you as a report you can use for your organization and also link your site to the website I create for this data.
Please email me at Dar Wolnik at gmail to schedule 20-30 minutes for the research questions.
I am also attaching a link a quick (less than 10 minute) survey if that is better. I’ll follow up with markets that complete the survey.
Survey
Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Representative Chellie Pingree of Maine and 35 original co-sponsors introduced the Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act (S. 1773, H.R. 3286), a comprehensive bill intended for inclusion in the 2012 Farm Bill. The legislation helps farmers and ranchers by addressing production, aggregation, processing, marketing, and distribution needs to access growing local and regional food markets. The bill also assists consumers by improving access to healthy food. The measure provides secure farm bill funding for critically important programs that support family farms, expand new farming opportunities, create rural jobs, and invest in the local food and agriculture economy.
“We applaud Senator Brown and Congresswoman Pingree for introducing this legislation,” said Helen Dombalis, a Policy Associate with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. “The Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act revises and expands existing federal farm programs to ensure that they effectively foster local and regional food system development. The bill invests in communities—when consumers are connected to and invested in where their food comes from and agricultural producers meet this demand, local economies reap the benefits.”
The bill includes provisions that cut across ten titles of the Farm Bill, including proposals that address conservation, credit, nutrition, rural development, research and extension, food safety, livestock, and crop insurance. Some of the specific proposals within the bill include:
Local Marketing Promotion Program
The legislation will establish $30 million a year in mandatory farm bill direct funding for what is now the Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP). The newly refashioned Local Marketing Promotion Program will do everything FMPP does, but also will provide grants to scale up local and regional food enterprises, including processing, distribution, aggregation, storage, and marketing.
School Meals
The bill will improve institutional access to local and regional foods through a series of provisions regarding school meal procurement. For example, through a “local food credit program,” originally championed by Representative Pingree in her Eat Local Foods Act introduced earlier this year, School Food Authorities could opt to use up to 15 percent of their school lunch commodity dollars for making purchases of foods in their own communities, from their own farmers and ranchers, instead of through USDA’s nationalized commodity food program.
Rural Development
Funding for Rural Development programs has declined significantly in recent agriculture appropriation bills, and these programs are at risk during the farm bill reauthorization. The Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act boosts rural investment by increasing the Business & Industry Loan funding set-aside for local and regionally produced agriculture products and food enterprises from five to ten percent. The legislation will also provide authority for specific types of local and regional food system funding under Rural Business Opportunity Grants (RBOG), Rural Business Enterprise Grants (RBEG), and Community Facility Grants and Loans.
Specialty Crop Block Grant Program
Within the Specialty Crop Block Grant program, the bill proposes an annual allocation for local and regional specialty crop market development. Although the program is already in place to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops, which include fruits, vegetables, and tree nuts, there is no explicit focus on specialty crops marketed in their local and regional areas. This legislation would change that.
For more information on the Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act, see the entire press release
HERE
Posted on: December 2nd, 2011
An excellent reference for all farmers markets. This link will take you to Wholesome Wave’s program page, where a pdf of their survey is available. This will tell you the impact of their double value coupon projects and also give some very helpful demographics.
Wholesome Wave
Another film from the director of “The Farmer and The Horse” to back:
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 
