Story about the institutional world coming closer to our alternative one.
Institutional Food with Taste — Mindful Living — Utne Reader.
NYC: grocers vs. green carts?
Important story on Green Cart expansion in NYC and how some storefronts are reacting:
FMC launches PDF versions of their FAQs.
Recently, FMC and the Wallace Center developed the Market Managers FAQs as PDF documents, giving market managers more flexibility to use and share this relevant content. The PDFs are broken down into seven categories:
* Market Fundamentals
* Market Policies
* Market Staff
* Insurance, Liability, and Regulation
* Market Growth, Outreach, and Evaluation
* Extending the Market Season
* Increasing Market Access
PPS announces Cleveland as the location for 2012 International Public Market Conference
Hey market folks, this is a great conference to meet a varied group of market organizers, public space activists and decision makers. Cleveland will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of their iconic West Side Market and will also be able to show off many great projects focused on increasing markets, regional food and public space uses during the conference.
PPS will co-host the conference with the Ohio City Near West Development Corporation as the organization dedicated to developing, preserving, and promoting Ohio City, the neighborhood anchored by the West Side Market.
Join the PPS email list to get information about this conference and check out the “Green City Blue Lake” website to see what Cleveland has been up to lately.
Boulder
CFMA members write up some things that they would like to chat about over lunch
I am heading back from Boulder and Fort Collins, up there in Colorado. Was invited to present at the 2011 Colorado Farmers Market Association conference by Cindy Torres, one of my fellow Community Food Security Coalition board members.
Cindy Torres (Dir-CFMA) and Jenn Ross (Boulder Mkt Mgr, CFMA Brd member) out for some tapas with me in Colorado.
Unfortunately, no nearby markets to see this time of year, but more “winter markets” (as they call them in Colorado) are coming all of the time. The conference was held at CSU in Fort Collins, lovely place.
Market managers, extension folks, graduate students, and organizers thinking about starting a new market all attended. I did a SNAP briefing using the FMC “Real Food, Real Choices” report and some other helpful information about Colorado SNAP supplied by Stacy Miller of Farmers Market Coalition a few days before.
The SNAP briefing and discussion was 2 hours long and very lively. I think about a half dozen markets attended, along with some new market organizers.
The next day the conference started in earnest. Loads of information was presented to the 70-80 people that attended. Very in-depth, useful information from state departments and county health folks, as well Colorado Ag (Market Maker) and an update on a regional assessment report.
I also presented in the afternoon about the 4M framework and measurement; I was followed by Manage My Markets’ Kathleen O’ Malley, who sparked a lot of interest in their back office product.
The state association is doing first-rate policy work on the state level as well as in many counties. Every agency spoke personally of their connection to Cindy and their deep trust in CFMA’s work. From evolving food handling guidelines for small-scaled vendors to beginning market and farmers programs, the expansion of SNAP and WIC voucher programs and their insurance program, all were discussed.
What is clear to me is the need in Colorado for this association to continue to grow their capacity to serve their members and to be present for the many challenges that are coming. I wish them great luck.
And thanks for the first-class lunch…
Archives of NFGN webinars
The National Good Food Network is a set of regional organizations organized with The Wallace Center and has long offered webinars for anyone interested in the specific topics they present. If you have always wanted to sign up for their cluster calls but never got around to it, here is your chance to listen in after the fact.
You think that YOU have a hard time with mix of products…
This market really has some explaining to do…
Earth Markets
In the quest to find your sister markets, don’t forget to look outside of the U.S.
Slow Food International has been working on a project to create markets that closely resembles the mission-driven ones in the farmers market movement here.
Here are their principles:
A worldwide NETWORK of farmers’ markets respecting the SLOW FOOD philosophy.
COMMUNITY-run markets that strengthen local food networks.
Quality food you can TRUST, bought directly from the producers.
Fair prices for both consumers and producers that foster LOCAL ECONOMIES.
Access to good, clean and fair food from the local area to reduce food miles and SHORTEN the FOOD CHAIN.
Consumers become COPRODUCERS, learning from producers and EDUCATIONAL activities.
The Network of Earth Markets:
Parndorf, Austria
Tel Aviv, Israel
Alba, Italy
Bologna, Italy
Cairo Montenotte, Italy
Calamandrana, Italy
Ciampino, Italy
Colorno, Italy
Milan, Italy
Montevarchi, Italy
San Daniele del Friuli, Italy
San Miniato, Italy
Umbertide, Italy
Riga, Latvia
Beirut, Lebanon
Tripoli, Lebanon
Bucharest, Romani
New Zealand relief
Since 2005, the idea of raising money through retail sales to support victims of those disasters is a strategy that we understand. Two successful examples that come to mind were the sales of ReNew Orleans t-shirts that raised money for the Musicians Union after Hurricane Katrina, and believe it or not, another was when employees of the Whole Foods stores in Georgia voted to use sales of king cakes to support my organization’s White Boot Brigade project after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The White Boot Brigade are a series of roaming shrimpers events to direct market wild caught seafood far and wide. That money allowed us to bring a group of shrimpers to California ( at a time when our residents had no way to buy seafood) where they made many sales to restaurants and stores, some of whom are still customers of those shrimpers.
As someone who has met some of the New Zealand market folks while attending the Australian market conference a few years back, I know how much they all appreciate being connected to the larger market world. So, I attach the link for the relief work that you can support (by buying wine!) and also one that goes directly to support the market organization in New Zealand. Sometimes just a cheerful note from a far-off place makes a great difference I can tell you….
Philanthropy Blog
I met Steven through a funder and find his blog VERY useful. Check out this post….
Good webinar on insurance and liability for markets…
Happening right now online from Farmers Market Coalition. They promise to get the powerpoints and recorded audio up by next week on the FMC site.
life after the credit card swipe…
While the European payments industry hopes its declarations will prod U.S. banks into upgrading systems here, there is little chance that U.S. card issuers can be bullied to quickly adopt the Chip and PIN system. Already, several celebrated attempts to issue so-called smart cards — such as the American Express Blue card in the late 1990s — have fallen flat. In fact, Jun thinks it’s likely the U.S. system will skip over the European system and adopt even smarter card technology, such as the Near Field Communication chip, which allows consumers to make payments wirelessly without removing their cards — or for that matter, their cell phones — from their pockets.
Nice to hear about, but it still doesn’t solve our wireless range issues at open-air markets….
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 