A sobering reality for underserved areas.
Sterling Farms grocery, co-owned by Wendell Pierce, closes after just one year | NOLA.com.
Sterling Farms grocery, co-owned by Wendell Pierce, closes after just one year | NOLA.com
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farmers markets
Farmers Market Coalition: Discover You Can 2014 Farmers Markets
Congratulations to Farmers Market Coalition and to all of the farmers markets that will be supporting communities across the country LEARN ways to MAKE and SHARE farm-to-table meals all year long. The 2014 Discover You Can: Learn, Make, Share℠ farmers markets participating in this summer’s food preservation program:
Northway Mall Wednesday Farmer’s Market Anchorage AK
Rural Mountain Producers Exchange dba Fayetteville Farmers’ Market Fayetteville AR
Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles Hollywood CA
Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association San Francisco CA
The Ecology Center Berkeley CA
Orange Home Grown, Inc. (Old Towne Orange Farmers and Artisans Market) Orange CA
Larimer County Farmers’ Market Fort Collins CO
Florida Certified Organic Growers and Consumers Gainesville FL
Green Market Co-op Pinecrest FL
Forsyth Farmers’ Market Savannah GA
Statesboro Mainstreet Farmers Market Statesboro GA
East Lake Farmers Market Atlanta GA
Farm Lovers Farmers Markets Kailua,Honolulu,Haleiwa,Pearlridge HI
Moscow Farmers Market Moscow ID
Aurora’s Farmers Market Aurora IL
Logan Square Farmers Market Chicago IL
Downtown Evanston Farmers Market Evanston IL
Minnetrista Muncie IN
Carmel Farmers Market Carmel IN
Spin Markket Fort Dodge IA
Community Farmers Market Bowling Green KY
Portland Maine Farmers’ Market Portland ME
FRESHFARM Markets St. Michaels MD
Corey Street Farmers Market Boston MA
Texas Township Farmers’ Market Kalamazoo MI
Rochester Downtown Farmers Market Assoc Rochester MN
Minnesota Farmers Market Association Albert Lea MN
Oxford City Market Oxford MS
The City Market Kansas City MO
Greater Springfield Farmers’ Market Springfield MO
The Webb City Farmers Market Webb City MO
Omaha Farmers Market Omaha NE
Lancaster Market Lancaster NY
GrowNYC Brooklyn Borough Hall Greenmarket Brooklyn NY
Carrboro Farmers’ Market Carrboro NC
Columbus-Tryon Tailgate Markets Columbus NC
Farmers Market Association of Toledo Toledo OH
Countryside Conservancy Peninsula OH
Oregon City Farmers Market Oregon City OR
Phoenixville Farmers’ Market Phoenixville PA
The Food Trust Philadelphia PA
Hub City Farmers’ Marklet Spartanburg SC
Downtown Farmers Market Salt Lake City UT
ChiknEGG Productions, LLC Manakin-Sabot VA
Tacoma Farmers Market Tacoma WA
Kitsap Regional Farmers Market Port Orchard WA
Downtown Fond du Lac Farmers Market Fond du Lac WI
Thiensville Village Market Thiensville WI
Wyoming Food for Thought Project Casper WY
href=”https://www.facebook.com/discover.youcan”>DYC Facebook site
Farmers Market Legal Toolkit Project
As a member of this team, I’m pleased to share the news of this project being funded:
The Vermont Law School’s Center for Agriculture and Food Systems received funding to develop a Farmers Market Legal Toolkit (FMLT) and educate market leaders on various legal topics that affect them. The project will be conducted in partnership with NOFA- VT, who will assist them in collecting data on area farmer’s markets. The legal toolkit will include resources in three major areas: governance structure of farmer’s markets, liabilities related to use of EBT/SNAP systems, and general risk management.
Research Awards to Support Rural Communities | National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
(USDA Editor’s Note: The USDA press release mistakenly identified this project as the University of Vermont and the USDA research summary system mistakenly identified it as the University of Arizona, but it is in fact Vermont Law School.)
2012 Agriculture Census Released | National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
“In releasing the Census, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack called particular attention to beginning farmer highlights, including that 22 percent of all farmers are beginning farmers who have operated a farm for less than ten years and that the number of younger beginning farmers (35 and under) who report farming as their principal occupation has increased by 11 percent since the 2007 Census, to 40,499.
The Secretary also noted that 30 percent of all farm operators are women and that Latino farm operators have increased 21 percent since the last Census to 99,734. He also noted that organic sales from farms increased by 82 percent since 2007 to $3.1 billion in 2012.
USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, the agency which conducts the Census, highlighted in their release that 2012 set records for both the value of farm sales and the costs of production, with farmers and ranchers selling $395 billion worth of products at a cost of $329 billion, such that an average less than 17 percent of sales became actual income.
.. .They also pointed out the 144,530 farms sold directly to consumers, with total direct sales of $1.3 billion, up 8 percent from 2007.
2012 Ag Census
Census home page
Just listened to a very informative annual member meeting presented by the leadership of our national farmers market advocate, the Farmers Market Coalition as they shared the work done over the last year, outlined priorities for 2014/2015 and answered questions from the membership.
Here is the link to the recording of the meeting:
LINK
If you are not a member of this excellent organization, do consider it: everyone can be members, not just farmers market organizations:
Join here
Let’s be clear: Independent Contractor or Employee?
One of the projects on which I will be working (TBA soon) may help to address some of the employment issues that I see within food systems, especially markets. Here is one of those issues, how markets employ their market staff.
This is from the IRS website:
“You are not an independent contractor if you perform services that can be controlled by an employer (what will be done and how it will be done). This applies even if you are given freedom of action. What matters is that the employer has the legal right to control the details of how the services are performed.”
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The decision is based on three areas:
Behavioral: Does the company control or have the right to control what the worker does and how the worker does his or her job?
Financial: Are the business aspects of the worker’s job controlled by the payer? (these include things like how worker is paid, whether expenses are reimbursed, who provides tools/supplies, etc.)
Type of Relationship: Are there written contracts or employee type benefits (i.e. pension plan, insurance, vacation pay, etc.)? Will the relationship continue and is the work performed a key aspect of the business?
Why Some Communities Foster More Entrepreneurs Than Others – Richard Florida
I remember when some NGOs involved in farmers markets begin to use the term social capital a decade or more back to describe the benefits that markets extend to their community. Some partners raised their eyebrows when we used it, while others enthusiastically agreed and assisted markets in describing it and measuring it. Florida’s work was extremely helpful in that process.
Increasingly, the research shows that understanding and growing social capital is vital for entrepreneurial activity to flourish in lieu of a defined network. For rural and/or new farmers, this may be why the farmers market movement is necessary to their business planning, even with food hubs and other outlets wanting their products.
But new research shows there’s clearly more to the story than just individual skill, pluck, and ambition. The study, by Temple University’s Seok-Woo Kwon, the University of Missouri’s Colleen Heflin, and Duke University’s Martin Ruef, examines the relationship between self-employment levels and community support structures across America’s metro areas. Published in the December issue of the American Sociological Review, the authors argue that the strength of local social networks and trust — using the term “social capital,” popularized by Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam — plays a major role in whether a city is able to foster a culture of self-employment and entrepreneurship.
Why Some Communities Foster More Entrepreneurs Than Others – Richard Florida – The Atlantic Cities.
How the Local Food Economy Is Challenging Big Food
This is a good article, but I wonder why the writers of these feel the need to use that condescending tone towards farmers markets to talk about intermediate sales for growers?
I do feel like this is market organizers issue as well; that we need to embrace the need for the food system to grow past our boundaries and to understand what our markets offer and what they do not: Markets bring family table shoppers and producers interested in direct sales together; that action allows a great deal to begin and to grow and the work to properly manage those efforts is harder than organizers get credit for. That the many benefits of markets should be understood and shared with fellow food system organizers to better replicate and expand models into new arenas. That markets need to work with food hubs, micro-farms and Farm To Institution initiatives to allow some of our growers to supply those chains, and to safeguard the values of health and wealth equity and to keep inviting new people into the system.
There’s no template for food hubs, and every one is different. Some focus on working with retailers, gathering food from local farms, branding it and then selling it to grocers. Others partner with growers. The Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association in California’s Salinas Valley, for instance, began by consolidating produce from growers and coordinating distribution to stores in 2001, later adding farmer services like education and crop planning. By 2011 it had sales in excess of $3 million. Others still are expanding into light processing. Last summer, Eastern Market began buying excess produce from farmers at the end of market day during peak season and freezing it for resale over the winter.
How the Local Food Economy Is Challenging Big Food – Next City.
CFA study of direct sales and agritourism shows some ups and downs
From FoodTank: “On-farm enterprises that focused their business plans on local communities were labeled community-focused agriculture (CFA). This included farms that sell their produce directly to consumers and generate farm income through agritourism. According to the report, only 6.2 percent of all farms deal in direct sales, and around one percent report income from agritourism (all study figures are based on USDA statistics from 2007, the most recent year available).
Studying CFA influence on a national and county-by-county level, researchers found some surprising results. In New England and Mideast counties, regions with well-developed urban centers in proximity to CFA, direct sales increases were associated with increases in total farm sales, as well as personal income growth. Agritourism, on the other hand, was found to have a negative effect on total farm sales.
In the Southeast, increases in direct sales were associated with overall reductions in total farm sales. However, the reverse was true for the effect of agritourism on total farm sales, which was found to be positive in this region and in the Great Lakes.”
“Linkages Between Community-Focused Agriculture, Farm Sales, and Regional Growth”
Economic Development Quarterly 0891242413506610, first published on October 18, 2013
The Crunchy Cities Index – Support Farmers Markets
This is an exciting piece on the explosion of farmers markets, but I must confess that based on my own knowledge, I find the data to be less than precise. The USDA list of markets is not checked for accuracy and as it is up to market organizers to list and to de-list their own markets, most estimations believe that the list is far from accurate, even though the USDA does everything within its (limited) time to make it right. Even the definition of what can be listed as a market is loose; this may seem like nitpicking (after all more “markets” is good news isn’t it?) but since we know how the capacity of markets remains low partly because of low support among funders and policy makers, the lack of clarity may hurt chances to expand well-managed farmers markets or public markets that support local entrepreneurs.
What is also true is that many retail operations masquerade as farmers markets without directly supporting farmers or managing those involved in direct sales; regular operation, transparent governance and some direct sales for regional producers should at least be the minimum to being listed on this list. Don’t get me wrong; I like the idea of auxiliary and ancillary food initiatives that get regional food into more communities being listed somewhere and to be tied to efforts at flagship or sister market organizations, but we should get better at describing each of them with their own type so we can allow more to flourish.
The Crunchy Cities Index – Buy Local by I Support Farmers Markets.
DIGGING DEEPER: Food System Governance
I found as good description as any of governance in the column linked below:
“.. “managing, steering and guiding of public affairs by governing procedures and institutions in a democratic manner’…
And it shows partly why, within markets, the tension between the entrepreneurial activity and the public good role of markets is exactly why collaborative processes are necessary (italics added):
“These include the diverse goals, priorities, and values of the members of the chain, networks across sectors and scales, power relationships among many different players in the chains, and other factors. There also must be flexibility in order to negotiate accommodations to different priorities. In order to enhance their viability, new and established food supply chains need to think about utilizing open governance processes as they start up and scale up.
These are also called reflexive processes, in which people engage to discuss tensions regarding group objectives, recognize contradictions, and deal with differences in a respectful way (see DuPuis &Goodman, 2005; Hassanein…”
You Get What You Measure
I look forward to this measurement workshop, which I plan on attending. It is open to the public and the cost is very reasonable, so anyone in the Baltimore area might want to join or look at their other opportunities. I am currently involved in a few evaluation projects, at implementation (market) level and at the creation level-at least one with the Farmers Market Coalition. I hope to announce another of those projects soon on this blog (meaning as soon as the funder is ready to announce!). In the meantime, I hope many of you saw the announcement we made about the FMC/Knight Foundation Farmers Market Metrics Prototype project which is rolling merrily along:
The Agrarian Standard | Wendell Berry
Recently, I was working on a piece for The Nature of Cities blog, and wanted to re-read something that Wendell Berry had said about the agrarian culture; I found the 2002 Orion Magazine essay in which he reflects on the 25th year of publication of The Unsettling of America. I think the paragraph below is enormously descriptive of the tension that those of us involved in creating an alternative agrarian world work and live in:
To the corporate and political and academic servants of global industrialism, the small family farm and the small farming community are not known, not imaginable, and therefore unthinkable, except as damaging stereotypes. The people of “the cutting edge” in science, business, education, and politics have no patience with the local love, local loyalty, and local knowledge that make people truly native to their places and therefore good caretakers of their places. This is why one of the primary principles in industrialism has always been to get the worker away from home. From the beginning it has been destructive of home employment and home economies. The economic function of the household has been increasingly the consumption of purchased goods. Under industrialism, the farm too has become increasingly consumptive, and farms fail as the costs of consumption overpower the income from production.
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 