L3C designation

As many of you may know from the listserve postings and from this blog, I am beginning to do research on types of governance of markets and market organizations. Interestingly, I find that many organizers that I am chatting with simply believe that they cannot get 501c3 status (mostly through informal local advice they get or even during the first foray to I.R.S.) or think the 501c3 process will be too long or arduous. In response, they incorporate as other types of 501s that do not allow donations or make it easy to receive grants. Just as often, many seem to not do any incorporation which, until a terrible thing happens and those running the thing are held financially responsible and lose their personal property as a result, may feel like enough. This is particularly of concern to me when markets are run by a farmer and therefore operating without a corporation or LLC designation may mean endangering the farm itself.
One of the options may ultimately be the L3C designation. As I was beginning this post, I received a call from a friend who works with a foundation (that does not fund food work, sorry!). Upon hearing what I was writing about she shared that she is also researching the L3C as a way to help innovative social enterprises that will not be covered under their grant-making rules.

While still largely untested, the low-profit limited liability incorporation may become useful for food enterprises, such as farmers markets. It means that profit is possible but profit is secondary to the general purpose and good of the organization. It allows for program-related investments (PRI) from foundations in states that have authorized it. So far, legislation has been passed in Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Utah, Vermont, and Wyoming with many other states having introduced legislation.

So take a look and I’ll have more on this later…
L3C

Much more L3C info

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Stifled by corporate America, the young turn to farming

Well maybe they’re stifled, or maybe they want to farm…

Stifled by corporate America, the young turn to farming.

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Community Food Security Coalition in 2012

A letter from the team at CFSC about our plans and hopes for 2012:

CFSC letter

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Vendor neighbors

Yeah, there are some differences between art vendors and farmers market vendors, but still, there is something here for all market managers to understand.

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Olive this.

This is a great story about someone finding growing food as a second life. Wonderful really.

olive producer

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Supermarkets feedback: “specialty market gone corporate”

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.

The Smart Set: Supermarkets
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Calling All Food-Based Businesses: New book seeks your capital-raising stories!

New book on financing food-based businesses seeks your capital raising stories.

BALLE fundraising book

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Global Calories Consumed – Visual

Important to remember where we sit within the global system in areas that really count.
Map

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Bakers dozen of carbon mile trips

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…

Roberts

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Bakers denizen

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.)

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Oysters suffer too

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?

Acidification

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Case studies on governance

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

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