Although it might be better for the Chinese government to spend more time thinking about the environmental degradation of their country than sport, the idea of a “farmers games” does have its provocative side.
It sort of harkens back to county fairs with log rolling and bale tossing games. Games that show a different set of skill and worthiness.
It would just be nice if 4F activities were valued again…
Enterprising activists grafting fruit on to public landscaping:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-guerrilla-grafters-20120912,0,7511481.story
As reported earlier, the first market post-Isaac on Saturday was low-keyed but a real boost to the spirits. Much of the city was still without power and starting the post-hurricane work in the form of repairing tree and house damage. My friend and I biked from MidCity through Treme to the CBD. The market was small, small enough to allow those vendors that came to be able to work off the back of their trucks, but it was well designed. The only other Saturday market that exists in the city did not open so this was the only game in town for food, conviviality and news of farmers and fishers. These vendors have been through weather drama before, so when you come to their table and raise an eyebrow, they know to come to you and give you a short breakdown of any damage. Board President Margaret Beer was not only there as always on a Saturday, but making a point to ask each vendor how they did and taking a minute to discuss with me what she was going to do to comfort the family of the recently passed Jim Core, anchor farmer. Doing her job in other words.
After shopping and talking and visiting with everyone, we went across the street to the chocolatiers/coffeehouse Bittersweet Confections. Bittersweet is the first previous market vendor that has opened a storefront near a market. The owner had applied to be a vendor many times at the farmers market, but the committee (and myself, as the acting market manager at the time) had long worried about how the chocolates would last in the heat and other challenges of an open air market, so had regretfully turned her down more than once. Lucky for her, we began a winter fair trade/handmade/ recycled goods market that we called “Festivus, the Holiday Market for the Rest of Us” in 2003, where she was finally accepted as a vendor. Her goods and retail demeanor were so outstanding that the farmers market reconsidered and allowed her to come as a vendor, which has led to an well-loved full time business. This very Saturday was the first time I had spent time in her new location which is directly across the street from the Saturday market and the crush of market shoppers having coffee and waffles in their welcome a/c was a delight to see.
One of the faces in the crowd was Robin Barnes, who has become a very dear member of the market community since her arrival in Louisiana post-Katrina. She originally came to help with recovery as VP of an organization called Seedco Financial Services, which had helped small businesses find new locations, funds and a plan in post 9-11 lower Manhattan. Her insight and deep empathy for the plight of small businesses after disaster led her to Louisiana and to the market community where she was instrumental in the recovery of most of the family fishing businesses in our lower parishes and to African-American owned businesses throughout the city. Since her early days living in a sublet out of a suitcase, she has bought a house, made a life in our city and even named her lovely orange cat Satsuma L’Hoste after one of her favorite products and market families!
Now a Executive VP at GNOInc, she continues to find ways to include market small businesses in her multi-parish fight for economic viability. Seeing her this Saturday means that these stories will be shared with government leaders and more good advice will be given to the market from one of the few regional leaders we have.
The Tuesday market was slightly bigger, and included seafood for the first time since Isaac. 4 Winds Seafood was there (1 of the seafood vendors out of the regular 3) and said she did fine. Of course, she did fine because she and her family have moved away from their pre-Katrina parish St. Bernard to a slightly higher one (St. Tammany) where they are not in the flood-prone zone in their new parish. Also, her husband Ray had docked the boat well before high winds came. She brought some shrimp that had been harvested right before the storm and kept frozen with generators after freezing directly after harvest. This is how most of our shrimp is kept: a good way to see it directly is to watch one of the short videos I made while at marketumbrella.org under the Go Fish project name:
GoFish
I also noticed that the markets were having one of their market incentive campaigns, probably for SNAP users. The organization runs their matching programs very artfully I think: they work closely with their farmers product timing and their event plan to maximize small pots of money to bring new shoppers in and get some return visits in quickly. They usually run 4-8 different incentive campaigns each year and this year, even used Groupon to raise money for one of those campaigns. The Groupon funded the kids activities at the market-how it ties into incentives is that the organization runs one of their incentive programs year-round for kids; called Marketeers, kids receive a birthday postcard in the mail and they bring it to the market booth and get a 5.00 token. The Marketeers have an event on the first Saturday of every month.
Thursday’s market was also small but as welcome as one or two of these vendors only come to Thursday’s market so it was the first time they could check in. This is the smallest of all of the markets and still struggling to get its critical mass, as it’s the most recently opened (only a few years). Still, it’s across the bayou from my house and I appreciate the chance for a 3rd market day so always try to support it.
I ended the market week with cilantro hummus, Mississippi apples, Mississippi ground lamb, St. John parish tomatoes, St. Tammany baked goods and fresh watermelon juice, Mississippi goat cheese and fresh beans, Orleans parish peppers and honey and some strong CDM iced coffee. Now back to cutting those banana trees and picking up debris from the surrounding streets..
More news will slowly trickle from the lower parishes over the next few months, but only if someone is actively seeking that information. Of course, the market community will be among those staying in touch. I’ll be sure to share here too. Meanwhile, here is some early video from the edge of America’s land, Grand Isle.
Grand Isle
By Sunday last, we were all on edge but making the hard decisions. Because by Tuesday, we had to be where we were going to wait out Isaac. Isaac: the 2012 tropical storm, then hurricane that confounded all of the experts to its future path and strength and was unbelievably destined to make landfall 7 years to the day that Katrina came. So complicated and difficult Isaac proved to be to track that they were talking about retiring its name long before it hit land, which they only do when there should be one storm of that name to remember.
Later that day (Tuesday), when it seemed to make landfall in Plaquemines Parish with more ferocity than expected, bad news seemed sure to follow. In other words, someone in our watery region was definitely now going to have a big storm over them. The city has long feared a “direct hit”, or to be more explicit, a hurricane that came up the Mississippi River side of New Orleans. Lucky for us, the core strength of Isaac remained minimal and the track actually ended up slightly west of the city and the river. Unlucky for our region, this storm stayed put. Stalled more than once, dumping rain and punishing us with 60-80 mph wind for 48 hours. Imagine that formula.
“Shelter in place” is what the mayors call it when they don’t call for evacuation and want people to stay put and not expect that the city will open shelters. We mostly shelter in place for anything less than a Category 2 Hurricane. This one wasn’t even going to surely reach hurricane strength, so the cost and strain of evacuating 500 miles or more is unlikely for most of us city folks. And for those who grow our food, it is impossible to leave since their livelihoods not to mention animals would stay while they left…
For only a few of us, electricity stayed on throughout and allowed us to keep everyone that was literally in the dark up to date. Here is what I remember:
For the first 24 hours, all the news was wind and rain and worry. Like many storms (including Katrina) the bad news can often come after the eye has passed and inhabitants feels safe. Or, bad news can be much farther out from the center with the rain bands that come off the right upper quadrant of a storm which are often the most devastating. Hurricanes also come with storm surge from its days gathering speed on open water which is often the worst of the damage when it reaches areas like Lake Pontchartrain, which is actually an inlet of the gulf and not really even a lake, so you can see why the concern…..
So, by Thursday midday when the city was mostly over the worst of it, and impatiently waiting for the electricity lottery to be started up (oh, that is a WHOLE ‘nother story), the news came in that levees below the city were compromised (not the federally managed river ones, but interior levees) and when I heard Braithewaite, my blood ran cold. Citrus vendors that have been with the Crescent City Farmers Market since its beginning were possibly in trouble.
The video of boats with rescuers using axes to rescue people from their attic was so reminiscent of Katrina, I found myself sobbing, remembering 7 years ago to the day the arrival of Katrina. (Although the levee breaks of that terrible week were not known for a day or even two after the landfall of that storm, because authorities were not paying close attention to the water protection system!)
Slight difference-this time, it looks like those stranded were (mostly) being found in time, I firmly reminded myself. By the way, Google Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser to hear about what a real character and leader does during times of disaster…
That water rose to the tops of raised 2 story house down there and continued throughout the day, while gubernatorial talk of deliberately blowing holes in levees to reduce the pressure on flooded areas was seriously discussed and finally decided in favor. If you haven’t seen “Beast of the Southern Wild”, do so to see the artistic (albeit anarchistic in that case) explanation of this idea. Actually, see that film for one of the best examples of the environmental destruction that coastal people handle and still overcome to maintain and build community. Just see it please.
Then Friday we started to hear about the North Shore getting the rain and wind that they had been waiting for-those outer rain bands on the right hand side of a hurricane. Storm surge did as promised and pushed the Gulf and Lake Pontchartrain into the small rivers and creeks north of the city. This area is where the majority of our farmers live and grow the food to bring to the city and its markets. I had been texting the founder and director of the New Orleans markets Richard McCarthy throughout, who shared news as he received it from his farmers and fishers. When the dam in Percy Quin State park in Mississippi (due north of many Louisiana farmers) was compromised, the folks along the Tangipahoa River were told to leave and leave quickly. Farmers dot the towns in that parish, although most had high ground. Nonetheless, crops were no doubt being flooded and we texted our concern back and forth. News remains limited at this point, as flood waters continue to rise actually as of this writing, Saturday evening.
He also shared with me the (expected) news that they would open the Saturday market with whatever vendors could make it. “Cheese and popsicles” is what he gallantly promised. Much more than that showed up, meat, milk, cheese, honey, beans, tomatoes, squash and apples….
A lovely welcome back to those who made it to Girod and Magazine, as for those who made it to the Red Stick Market in Baton Rouge and to the Covington Farmers Market on the aforementioned North Shore on that same market day. And for those who we have not yet been seen, the market community awaits your return.
Continued soon….
I arrived at the Covington Farmers Market and saw Jan almost immediately. Sadly, she told me that she had news this morning that one of the shared vendors between CCFM and CVM had passed away overnight.It was not entirely unexpected, but still a shock. We talked quietly of Jim and Gladys for a few minutes and then I spoke to AJ, their grandson (the up and coming farmer in the family) who valiantly came to sell on this sad morning. Jim would have agreed with AJ on that. Now is the time to support the family as only a market community can – with small moments of consideration and shared memories. Thanks Jim for your never-ending innovation and humor. We’ll do our best to assist Taylor’s Happy Oaks Farm.
Click here to learn what the Crescent City Farmers Market is doing to honor Jim
Olive and grape growers have used this technique for thousands of years. Now, farmers are expanding this approach for “tomatoes, pumpkins, watermelons, cantaloupes, winter squash, olives, garbanzos, apricots, apples, various grains, and potatoes” – all crops that are successfully dry farmed in California. For example, apples were traditionally dry farmed in western Sonoma County. While the fruit size was smaller, the yields were good and most of the fruit went for processing where size is unimportant. There are probably many more such examples.
From the article: Dry farming is not a yield maximization strategy; rather it allows nature to dictate the true sustainability of agricultural production in a region. David Little, a Sonoma vegetable grower who says he at times gets only a quarter of the yield of his competitors, describes dry farming as “a soil tillage technique, the art of working the soil; starting as early as possible when there is a lot of moisture in the soil, working the ground, creating a sponge-like environment so that the water comes from down below, up into the sponge. You press it down with a roller or some other implement to seal the top…so the water can’t evaporate and escape out.”
See the case studies section in the article for some examples of growers that dry farm such crops in California.
MSN poll I saw on Sunday showed these results. Not bad. Price concerns seem to have lessened…
Has anyone done a poll just like this in their local paper I wonder?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
More and more people are purchasing their fresh, organic fruits and veggies at a local farmers market. Do you shop at the farmers market near you?
35 % Yes, they have the best stuff. 17,764 votes
26 % No, it’s too expensive. 12,999 votes
39 % Sometimes, when it’s convenient. 19,908 votes
Total Responses: 50,671
Not scientifically valid. Results are updated every minute.
I also have this link so that you can see the most updated results of the poll:
Even though this article seems to suggest that corporations are the target for all of these grads, I think we know that many are hoping to work in small-scaled sustainable ag. Now it’s our job to make that a reality with some serious job programs for alternative food systems.
Believe it or not, my food obsessed city of New Orleans is NOT the home of a dozen first-rate culinary schools; well, actually zero would be the number that we currently have. There has long been talk of Johnson and Wales putting a school in the NOLa area, but this program and school in a new campus headquarters along the Mississippi River Delta of Louisiana (about 50 miles outside of New Orleans) appeals to me more.
Chef John Folse has been extremely dedicated in building this program and his deep commitment to finding homegrown food professionals is commendable, as has been his long time support of the region’s farmers markets. On top of that, he has the encyclopedia on Cajun and Creole cuisine, a highly regarded reference book: Folse Encyclopedia and his cheese making operation is also excellent and one of the few artisanal cheese operations at this level in our state: Bittersweet Plantation
So, to wrap up, a good guy who has done as much as he can to build food systems in his home state. More like him are always welcome.
a colleague asked me to give her my opinion on trends and jobs in the alternative food system retail sector. Here is the beginning of my response:
Okay,
Here’s a few of my cents as requested:
As you know, the food hub conversation has taken a lot of the oxygen in the room (and a lot of the funding) away from direct farmer support and farmers markets and as a result, it feels like we are simply treading water in a lot of instances. Spread too thin. Certainly in the expansion of direct marketing farming or in getting any serious cross-sector analysis, we’re not jumping ahead much of where we were 5 years ago.
It’s not that I’m against food hubs, but some of them sound a lot like city governments’ “one-stop shops” which I am not sure has worked either. And it smacks of “scaling up” which is a suspect phrase to someone like me who has seen how long it takes a market farmer to really be ready to price at his or her comfort level and to innovate products. The Cliff Notes version of the market vendor lifespan is that it takes years of a market organizations time and “expertise” to patiently get a farmer to an economic and social comfort level where they actually tell you that they are about to go bankrupt or get divorced or get ready for a kid to go to college and so thats why their business is changing so you can help it change for the better. And that those folks are RETAIL vendors, with tables and tents and signs designed to help them sell retail, and not necessarily the same ones to approach or to change to wholesale vendors seems to be missed by some wholesale organizers.
Sometimes, it also feel that we are extrapolating the wrong lessons of what has worked to build food retail points of entry. Let me say I’m probably not “up” on all of the good work being done, although I do know and learn from original thinkers like Anthony Flaccavento’s and M. Shuman’s excellent research and analysis work. It’s just that the a lot of the scaling up and institutional buying conversation seems wildly uneven from case to case and the skills are simply not embedded into the host area to keep the thing moving forward once a founder leaves or a project fails.
What is true in the food system is that currently the public health sector rules, so therefore the conversation around low-income and at-risk end users of healthy food is the main thing being funded, which is a glorious turn around for those who always had the plan to take the food system there (meaning to everyone) no matter what anti-localvore writers try to say.<
10 years ago, the talk was all about social cohesion and dynamic Main Streets and 15 years before THAT, it was all about farmers extending seasons and growing sustainably, and it was always about doing it for everyone.
The public health sector is staying put, and learning more and more about how to use our points of entry to get results in true behavior change. That sector has changed farmers markets more than any other stakeholder (and that includes government stakeholders) because there are so many levels of public health intervention that they are willing to try wild ideas which often work and because they measure everything they do. However, I expect that the needle will move again-what will be the next issue that leads food system work- environmental impacts or immigrant issues or racial inequities or food safety or civic planning? Who knows really. Of course, it will depend on the crisis that shows up.
As for careers and jobs, it is my biased opinion that the open-air farmers market continues to rule the hearts (if not the minds) of most of the public while inside the food system, organizers favor the urban farm as the winning hand. Oddly, no one has brought these two together in any meaningful way or even examined the impacts of the two combined or separately beyond simple economic data or numbers of projects, as if quantity of projects really mean anything.
I think you know my obsession is with measuring the economic, social, human and natural capital of markets AND also with finding a way to make markets the entry point for training food organizers on all aspects of food system work. I foresee a national training program with skills trained in the first 6 months which are transferrable to all parts of the food system and beyond. Along those lines, there is already a push for a voluntary market manager accreditation system (which is beginning in places like Michigan) that might be similar in neighboring states so someone would have a leg up regionally if they have taken the training.
Add to that a yearly networking session for market managers and for those in my mythical training program and you may have the beginning of a movement, instead of rising and falling tide of new markets and projects every year.
And after all, the farmers markets remain the best fulcrum for food systems, so what happens there should matter to everyone else.
What also seems true is in the last 2-3 years the terrain has shifted a great deal, away from larger “big tent” orgs partnering on everything to much more nimble entrepreneurial types sharing knowledge on common problems and tactics. Regionality may once again become the strongest card we can use to strengthen our systems across state lines and across single issue campaigns to truly achieve success. Interestingly, this seems to also true in DC, where there is not one national policy shop office that truly represents the entire membership of most food organizers. Collaboration there has been somewhat successful.
But to leave markets for a minute (hate to do it but I will) I also believe that the wholesale food system is ready for a boost. And no, food hubs so far ain’t cutting it, as far as really reshaping buying habits of purchasers and institutions like the farmers markets HAVE been successful in re shaping the consumer’s buying habits- the 2-3 percent that listen, that is. THAT, of course, is another looming issue-98% of the public who have not used alternative food systems much. And even for the 2-3 percent, what is the actual change-one season? Farmers market shoppers become CSA members or vice versa? What about how they feel about the environment or local businesses after they stick to the market?
So research is needed in examining what is actually been done and not just the PROJECTS, but the efforts of stakeholders, the typology of successful farmers, and the efficient host organizations.
I would also say that as CFSC struggles with it’s post-strategic planning transition (speaking as a Board member for a few more months that assures you that that info is not secret but quite transparent and shared within the CFSC community) and Slow Food reexamines it’s work and searches for a new leader and FMC searches for a new leader, it may turn out all of the national organizations turn more to each other and others to collaborate more closely along with racial equity orgs like GFJI and Alliance for Building Capacity and IATP.
They might. So the collaboration points are a good place to look for work. Chapters? Maybe. Community unionism? Maybe. Or simply skill building and shared measurement in all partnerships. That would help. However, as we strengthen the regional orgs and multi-sector orgs more -since I’m sure im not the only one thinking this way- that may be where the jobs end up too.
In any case or in all cases, what seems clear to be missing in many cases is the entrepreneur’s point of view, whether its a farmer, or a baker or the neighboring business that needs that market or even the market or other food retail organization itself that seem to be considered built already and left out of the capacity building money. (I guess many feel we had our money moment, huh?) So maybe we need more innovative financing too, like CSEs or granny accounts or even to attempt the other part of a currency system-loans and massive fundraising in the market community itself, using the wooden token system as a starting point.
After all, its the entrepreneur is who needs to be encouraged. The entrepreneurs are who need to be analyzed. And entrepreneurs will be multiplying as corporations shut down and lay off more and more, and so seems like the most obvious point of expansion for work opportunities.
So to paraphrase Abigail Adams, …remember the entrepreneurs and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.
Hope that helps, Darlene
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 
