Nice idea to educate food buyers during the most artisanal (handmade) food season of the year. Tough quiz though….
A Conversation with Michel Nischan
This is a good overview of the work Wholesome Wave does and how it came to be. Their impact is certainly being felt and the partnerships that they have created with markets and market networks are crucial to the goal of building the community food system.
Ben And Jerry’s Becomes A B Corporation | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation
For-profit and non-profit incorporations are still hot topics among markets. Recently, there has been a flurry of comments on the FMC Listserve about 501(c)3s, which shows how this is still an emerging field.
The B Corp is another layer for corporations to consider. It allows for some parallel benefits to exist side by side, and Ben and Jerry’s has joined their ranks it seems:
Ben And Jerry’s Becomes A B Corporation | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation.
Growing gardens
I am fascinated by the evolving role of urban ag in the community food system movement. It certainly has changed since its splashy beginnings in the 1980s and 1990s but what this story in the Sunday’s NYT points out is what I have also noticed: the belief that a large number of urban citizens want to grow their own food – and grow it every year – is not proven. I think the successful versions found anywhere are to scale and appropriate for the climate and demographic nearby. This might mean gardeners have a fallow season or maybe even a full year to recover and plan for the next planting or use their land for fruit trees. Here in New Orleans, we have a year-round growing culture with the most brutal weather in the summer: therefore, the idea of cover crops and soil solarization should be encouraged during June-September which gives people time to think and prepare for the fall planting.
The article quotes John Ameroso, who they interestingly call the “Johnny Appleseed of NY gardens” as someone who has that evolving view, he:
espouses more of what he calls an “urban agriculture” model: a food garden with a dedicated farmers’ market or a C.S.A. These amenities make stakeholders out of neighbors who may not like dirt under their nails and rural farmers who drive in every weekend.
“The urban-agriculture ones are flourishing,” he said. “There’s a lot of excitement. They’re active eight days a week.” But “community gardens, as such, where people come in to take care of their own boxes — those are not flourishing.”
It’s almost a cliché to point out that this new green model seems to have attracted tillers with a different skin tone. “Back then,” Mr. Ameroso said of his earlier career, “when we worked in Bronx or Bed-Stuy, it was mostly communities of color. Now when we talk about the urban agriculture stuff, it’s white people in their 30s.”
Production is the purpose of commercial agriculture and even for a community garden, it should be the goal. That production could be for a single home, or for donation or for income, but in every case a plan to produce food or plants should be required each year for every community garden space.
Here is a link to the excellent 5 Boroughs work to outline inclusive evaluation and strategic planning for projects.
Community Food Project assistance
Since the Community Food Project RFP is out and proposals are due November 28, this handy new guide should be very useful. As someone who has written one and had it funded, I will say that this grant program is a very useful way to pull off an in-depth pilot for extending and expanding food systems. Good luck to anyone that is working on one.
The Case For Eating Ugly Fruits and Vegetables
As a massively populated area with some of the most fertile farmland prepares for some very bad weather, maybe their markets can use this time to help expand the idea of product choices as a way to assist their farmers.
The Case For Eating Ugly Fruits and Vegetables | Care2 Causes.
The link below is an earlier post on extending market shoppers with “kits”:
Market Kits
Simple, visual manual for vendors
A few years back, a group of market managers and market farmers were formed into a Farmers Market Working Group by the Wallace Center to create some best practices and resources. We worked hard to offer useful tips and pictures that would actually assist market vendors with marketing their products. The resources also include some videos and all are available on the FMC Resource Library.
FMC winter webinar schedule
News from Farmers Market Coalition:
We are about to send out the market beet, our Autumn newsletter, and it includes a pretty fantastic lineup of webinar topics and experts. To expedite the approval process for our webinars, we are asking that people use their member # in the registration form.
And, here is the schedule:
FMC capacity building webinars take place on the second Tuesday of every month, unless otherwise noted. Webinars are for FMC members and provide an opportunity for interactive learning and skill development from experts in the field.
November- Purpose Defined: Developing a Market Mission Statement
November 13, 2012, 1 pm eastern
Presenter- Darlene Wolnik, Independent Researcher and Trainer – Community Food Systems
and FMC Market Programs Advisor
Moderator- Jen O’Brien, Interim Executive Director, Farmers Market Coalition
Read More and Register Today!
December: Event Fundraiser Success Stories
December 11, 2012, 1 pm eastern
Presenters- multiple farmers market managers including:
Megan McBride, manager, Easton Farmers Market, PA
Donita Anderson, executive director, North Union Farmers Market, OH
Moderator- Leslie Schaller, director, ACEnet
January: Vendor Stories: Vendor perspectives on Market Organization
January 8, 2013, 1 pm eastern
Presenters- Multiple direct marketing farmers
February: The Power of POP: Oregon City presents their children’s market program
February 12, 2013, 1pm eastern.
Presenters- Jackie Hammond Williams, market manager, Oregon City Farmers Market
Natalie Roper, FMC intern, student, UVA- replicating POP in Charlottesville, VA
March: Farmers Market Promotion Program evaluation
March 12, 2013 1pm eastern
Presenters- Stacy Miller, Farmers Market Coalition
Also in early 2013
Farmers Market Coalition member meeting
~and~ 2013 FMPP application process
Kits for shoppers
In the arc in the maturation of a market shopper, it is clear that one type of shopper quickly adopts the grower mentality and begins to supplement their purchases with items they grow themselves, often with advice from the market vendors they buy from. A savvy market would do well to capitalize on that thirst for knowledge with products that allow backyard growing or canning or preserving. One of my favorite examples (although not a market vendor!) is the oyster starter kit that Taylor’s Seafood sells out of their store front in Puget Sound. Designed for people with waterfront property, it teaches these folks to harvest a small amount and offers basic understanding to those with this valuable real estate of the need for a balanced ecosystem.
This mushroom kit is a great idea and versions of it should be available in markets across the US. Another example might be a box of slightly damaged fruit with ingredients and instructions for making a pie, or culled tomatoes with small bunches of herbs and instructions for sauce.
We spend a great deal of time attracting new shoppers to our markets, but need to take the time to keep the longtime ones too.
Our Story – Back to the Roots | Mushroom Kit – Yields up to 1 1/2 lbs in 10 Days.
2011 FMC webinar: Markets as Business Incubators: Strategies To Grow Your Vendor Base
A great one with Young Kim of Fondy Food Center and Peter Marks from Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project presenting.
Makin’ Groceries in Lower Nine | NolaVie – Life and Culture in New Orleans
I’ve written about Jenga Mwendo before. She is a dedicated activist for lower 9. This idea is a fantastic one and one that I’ll make sure to support.
Makin’ Groceries in Lower Nine | NolaVie – Life and Culture in New Orleans.
My 2010 SSAWG Presentation on Market Measurement
I’m going to post some of the presentations, podcasts and videos that I have created for farmers markets over the last few years on here. Hope these are helpful.
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 