This is one of the surveys we are using with the shopper/farmer survey project along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Sorry-only review copies are available at this point-all of the surveys will be published with the final report in 2014.
(Found on http://www.helpingpublicmarketsgrow.com under surveys/evaluation if link does not work.)
Increasingly,suburbia must be considered when food system organizers consider locations for projects: Not only are we seeing an increase in the diversity of those living there but unfortunately also an increase in levels of poverty in suburbia:
From 2000 to 2012 Kneebone says, “The number of poor residents living in suburban communities in major metros grew by 65 percent. That was more than twice the pace of growth in the major cities that anchor those regions, and with that rapid change we actually passed a tipping point for the first time. There are now more poor residents in suburbs than in cities.”
The possibilities for markets to bring healthy food to more people increase if we pay attention to this shift and utilize not only our cities and rural communities for markets but suburbs too.
Face Of Poverty In New Orleans Increasingly Suburban | WWNO.
Take a look at the pic on the left-see the red square? Within that square, the 18-year old Crescent City Farmers Market sets up every Saturday from 8-12, rain or shine. I can personally attest to the traffic snarl this morning before 10 am on the streets around there, with most people unaware that their usual leisurely drive to this mostly Monday-Friday neighborhood would be upended by another superimposed civic activity, namely this race which has been run for only the last five years. No up-to-date information is shared with the market organization more than a day or two prior to this race being run (and that is only found through media sites posting it), which limits the market’s ability to tell its vendors or shoppers ahead of time about what to expect. Yet interestingly, the race supports an extremely worthy cause- The Children’s Hospital in New Orleans.
Since this race begins at 7 am (with fast runners, then slower runners and finally walkers) it’s over mostly by 10:30 am. Therefore, it might be sensible to move the start time of the market for just this week. The market does change its hours for the last Saturday of the Carnival Season, as much of that day’s activities are centered a few blocks away and so the market closes early to allow its vendors to make it out before the nearby streets are closed for hours of parades.
Or, it might be sensible for the race organizers to simply move the beginning of the race from the long street along the top of the course map that is Poydras and instead run it along the river over there on the right. Or maybe run it on Sundays. There may be other answers to this annual conundrum that should be discussed since there are other events that often impede traffic to this 4-hour market.
The main issue is that the race organizers, the city and the business district do nothing to accommodate the market at this point and ignore its very long and important economic, social and civic role. Why?
Why indeed. Certainly this market organization is adept at working with its city and neighborhoods; MarketUmbrella is a recognized leader in making the case for why farmers and markets are important. So why the cold shoulder when it comes to events?
The issue may very well be in its actual history. This market sits in this area partly because when the founders searched for the best location, this area was not yet a defined neighborhood. The founders have often shared the fact that they chose it for the first of their four (post Katrina, 3) weekly markets partly to not have neighborhood opposition back in those early days of the mid 1990s, when markets were much less understood and so they expected some pushback on a weekly event from other potential areas.
It may also be within the way that the organization has worked with its city-very cordially and with some transparency-but since all of the markets have always operated on private property, with some distance between them.
It may have nothing to do at all with the market’s willingness to work with the civic leaders, but an inability in the city to understand the importance of this weekly activity and to see its role as encouraging it to grow and to sustain itself.
My gut tells me it is a bit of all of these, but maybe a lot of the last. Well maybe its more than just my gut, since I served this market as Deputy Director for a number of years and then as its Marketshare Director. Here’s what I know.
Making the case for your market is a full time job and will be on the to-do list for as long as your market exists. New events will pop up in previously barren areas, new mayors and other leaders will decide to ask for parking fees on Saturdays, developers will build grocery stores and restaurants next to your market and assume that using your empty lot for parking is their right. How markets become “beloved institutions” in their community has something to do with how well they play with others. How they deal with external pressures also says a great deal about market organizations’ resilience and professionalism. The way that you can accomplish that goal is varied. You may create a feedback loop so as to activate your shopping base to be constantly making your case for you, or you may begin to work more closely with your elected officials over time to help them understand why they need you or you might simply move to another location that needs your market to anchor that area’s renaissance. In all these and more possible scenarios, the main actor should be the entity that runs the market since its the one that must handle situations like these in a way that allows sales to continue and mitigates the uncertainty for its community. By the way, I have written about markets and municipalities before here.
Here is an interesting link that came to me through the smart people at Food Tank.
An online site to help farmers sell the produce at “come and get it” prices that is not sold through their marketing outlets.
Richard McCarthy and Poppy Tooker at CCFM event circa 2003 or 2004
A fascinating interview with Richard McCarthy, one of the founders and the first Executive Director of Market Umbrella and therefore of the Crescent City Farmers Market, Festivus (the fair trade holiday market), Market Match, Marketshare and so many other initiatives devised and run by this disciplined little NGO in New Orleans. This interview was done as McCarthy was leaving for Brooklyn for his new job as Executive Director of Slow Food USA and so is important as a record of the people and ideas that were in place when he devised the groundbreaking work that many of us proudly did under his direction.
Poppy Tooker has been a deep supporter of the organization and as she says, remains a close friend of Richard’s. There is so much detail in this interview about the history of the organization in those days when we existed as a project of Loyola University’s social justice center Twomey Center.
To hear a market founder talk about the plans and dreams of his work and how it was put together seems useful to anyone embarking on their own version.
Mississippi Sustainable Agriculture Network’s trainings-2013
Full disclosure: Poppy is my pal. She is someone who calls me up and then shows up, with a gift, thoughtful questions and always hilarious stories.
What made me a fan of hers early on was her razor-sharp take on people and situations, sometimes devastatingly so. Yet she is enormously kind and open to those people who ring true. No one that receives her wrath is ever underserving. If they get it, they usually have made one of two unforgivable sins: either they underestimated HER or they underestimated her city, her state or her people.
Another disclosure: I believe Poppy deserves as much credit as anyone in my region for rebuilding the New Orleans food system after the federal levee breaks in 2005. Too many stories to tell here, but come on over and if you care, I’ll tell you some of them over a drink. Or two. There are a lot of them to tell. Some of them are funny, some are sweet, some even a bit crazy.
These two points are linked since her life’s work is to actively promote entrepreneurs and real ideas that will build (or rebuild when necessary) the culture of her place, Louisiana. In doing that work, she extended her range to all authentic food systems across the globe through her Slow Food International connection that meant that New Orleans gained the Slow Food vibe from the mid 1990s on.
Let me also say that most of the SFUSA folks understand her range, giving her much early credit for shaping the U.S. work that she built with others-that is, until she had to unleash her wrath on previous Slow Food leadership over the (mis) direction of a crucial program that she had helped shepherd. Luckily, she and SF made up.
Remember, I warned you that she is a fierce opponent when she feels it’s necessary.
When she started the Louisiana Eats show, she had already done a great deal of writing and television. Her talents really came to light when she began this show; her intense enjoyment and knowledge of the people and history of food and culture through one-on-one conversations on our local NPR station and now in this book. I remember a glorious Saturday morning on Louisiana Eats when she and Rien Fertel talked about praline sellers and another when she talked with Miss Linda Green, The Yakamein lady, and another when she talked with French bread baker John Gendusa among many others. Each time, I would stop what I was doing and literally stand there and listen intently to her intricate questions and always learn something. And her interaction with the dean of New Orleans Creole food, Leah Chase which is always touching and amazing since you get to hear two chefs with great respect for each other just banter and share stories. And when she has on young activists or farmers (like Nick Usner who is in the book), you can hear the hope in her voice for the new energy coming along…
So this book is a reminder of many lovely Saturdays and is indicative of the tone that I myself have adopted for much of my food activism: wild enthusiasm, critical assessment and a deep appreciation of the stories and background of those unique people that tell of our culture and food. Because of her, I know to seek them out, and maybe I’ll find some new folks from those Poppy has brought to us on her show and in this book. The book itself (lovely photos and recipes) is informative and a great companion to her show and I know that it will stand the test of time as a true record of some of the people that we have in our world. And of my pal who contributes so much to our place.
<a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/635646-blue-collar-mind”>View all my reviews</a>
This week, the USDA launched #MyFarmBill, a social media campaign emphasizing the importance of Farm Bill programs. As part of the campaign, USDA is asking people across the country to use their own voices and gadgets to make video selfies about what the Farm Bill means to them and why we need a comprehensive Food, Farms, and Jobs Bill.
Farmers can do it. Ranchers can do it. Market managers can do it. Grocery store buyers and shoppers can do it. Anyone who eats can do it. That means you.
There are lots of elements of the Farm Bill that affect you every day and the USDA and Wholesome Wave want to hear about it!
How can you participate? Grab your gadget and in 15 seconds or less tell the world what the Farm Bill means to you. Then post your video via Instagram, Vine, or Facebook. Don’t forget to use the #MyFarmBill hashtag so USDA won’t miss it and tag it @wholesomewave so we can see it too! USDA is posting incoming videos and comments on Storify and are even retweeting some of their favorites.
To see Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s video to kick off the campaign, click here.To see other people’s submissions, go to Twitter and search #MyFarmBill.
We all eat. We all have a voice. Most of us have gadgets. Please use yours and tell the world what the Farm Bill means to you.
Thank you!
The Wholesome Wave Policy Team
Sales are limited to $20,000 per year
Cottage food operations don’t need to get a license from their health department, but they do need to check with their county to see if any zoning requirements apply to them.
Operations do not need to collect any state sales tax, but they may need to collect local sales taxes (it is different for each city and county).
Only food items in these categories are allowed:
Cakes, Cookies, Honey, Jams & jellies -Preserves.
Unlike most states, Louisiana allows custard and cream-filled bakery products.
I think most if not all managers of markets understand that other markets have different rules than theirs, but do your shoppers know? And have you ever updated them, in cooperation with your vendors?
Nearby markets should share rules so that they do not make their farmers follow different sets of rules for little reason. It’s amazing how many markets don’t even attempt to compare rules which makes it quite hard for vendors to remember which of their markets has rules against packing up early or who allows foraged items and who doesn’t. One of the main areas of contention among farmers is the amount of liability insurance that they are required to carry (when a market requires it); a farmer told me about three different levels of insurance that he was asked to carry, all of the markets within a few miles of each other.
http://www.twincities.com/stpaul/ci_24036424/farmers-markets-not-all-follow-same-rules
Although this is a vital article on the breadth of the problems and issues that face the fight for the farm bill, I hesitate to wrap the entire alternative food and farming movement inside of a crisis, even one that is so monumental like public health.
In my mind, our work is powered by the most diverse set of ideas and goals captured by the simple exchange of food regionally grown, caught or made by hand. Rural, peri-urban and urban uses of land, water issues, transportation systems, safeguarding import-replacing production, creation and preservation of public space and stewardship of private land for farming and social activities, anti-hunger campaigns, appropriate technology, hands-on education for children, democratic distribution, encouraging multi-generational understanding, fighting corporate control of food, unique approaches to wealth creation, celebrating current culture and reviving food history, job creation, worker rights, immigrant issues, disaster mitigation, attacking institutional and individual racism, supporting personal health goals, sharing intellectual ideas without need of institutions to shepherd it, expanding civic activity, ….
In other words, remember that we are pirate ships and not an armada.
Original piece on the pirate ship metaphor here
I know that many will say that all or most of the items above can be encapsulated within public health, but to me, the diversity of how each of us approach this is our greatest strength.
I agree with Michael on the end goal, but I prefer to say it like this: we sail alone, but need to anchor together at times like this for this historic farm bill fight. So, when some or most of these good ideas can be brought into a single campaign by folks like the public health sector, we need to welcome them and maybe even let them lead for a while.
Can Public Health Unite the Good Food Movement? | Civil Eats.
An excellent piece on cities that are unsure of how to handle the explosion in the number of farmers markets, and by extension, small-scaled agriculture within city limits. There may be some correlation between cities that still operate markets themselves and how restrictive their rules are for other markets, but I’d hazard a guess that it has more to do with how they handle small business and open space as a whole. And how they view their relationship to the entire region.
In any case, it shows the need for markets and for all food organizers to realize early on that policy work is an essential part of their work. And for more legal and municipal templates for markets to be written and shared across the US. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, the need to gather information on a market’s economic, social, intellectual and natural benefits to be able to make the case to cities about the positive impact of markets.
“Dallas is one city that has historically owned its own farmers’ market,” Sarah Perry, founder of White Rock Local Market, writes in an email. “This is important because it makes Dallas’ interests in ‘farmers’ markets’ a bit different than other cities.”
At first, residents at private markets believed that as long as they kept sites clean and orderly, they had no reason to think they were doing anything wrong. That held true for a while, but once officials realized that some of these markets were a going concern, they started hassling market organizers about permits. Dallas had no provision for a farmers’ market permit, however, and general “special events” permits were expensive and required police presence.
…
Another issue in Durham is minimum parking requirements. For smaller farmers, there’s only a requirement if the farmer wishes to set up any sort of permanent structure from which to sell their goods. In that case, they need to have at least one parking space. Which, more often than not, is going to require a curb cut, an expense most small farmers can’t afford.
http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/whos-afraid-of-the-city-farmer
For those organizing networks this theory can be very helpful, to have a strategy that allows for both short and long term. Cooperation and communication must happen at the precise moment(s) that networks are ready to emerge and to grow. For organizers, that means practicing patience and fortitude.
From The Berkana Institute:
…the lifecycle of emergence: how living systems begin as networks, shift to intentional communities of practice, and evolve into powerful systems capable of global influence.
This system of influence possesses qualities and capacities that were unknown in the individuals. It isn’t that they were hidden; they simply don’t exist until the system emerges. They are properties of the system, not the individual, but once there, individuals possess them. And the system that emerges always possesses greater power and influence than is possible through planned, incremental change. Emergence is how Life creates radical change and takes things to scale.
the two loops visual is one that many of you have probably seen me try to draw (badly); here it is done well:
Farmers markets in low-income communities webinar August 29, 2013
Speaker 1: Mukethe Kawinzi, Project Coordinator, The Food Trust
Farmers markets are an effective means to bring fresh and healthy means to under served neighborhoods.
TFT operate 25 markets and support more.
Most important criteria in establishing markets in low-income areas:
1. Strategic site selection
Intersecting criteria: high traffic area, low access to fresh fruits and veg,
2. Community Partners
Wide selection of types, help with logistical and demographic support. Help with marketing.
3. Food Assistance Programs
Critical to success of FMs; half of farmers sales at times are benefit dollars
Their Huntington Park Farmers Market ( with 1 farmer) is a good example of organizing to ensure community involvement.
TFT surveys their shoppers every year and monitor sales, both in benefit sales and other sales.
Speaker 2:
Oren Hesterman – Fair Food Network
Double Up Food Bucks: Monetary incentive strategy
Purpose of DUFB is to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of incentives, while supporting farmers and inform policy.
2009 Detroit first project was called Mobucks (Motown Bucks)
5 FMs, including Eastern Market
26,000 SNAP and 10,600 in MoBucks, Year one
Year 2 expanded beyond Detroit, changed the name to DUFB
Short FFN YouTube video about program available on FFN YouTube channel
In 2013: DUFB serving 100 FMs in MI and Northern OH
2012: Reached almost 2 million dollars in SNAP and DUFB sales at those markets
Good evaluation is key: check out the DUFB website
80% SNAP shoppers are buying more varieties
1200 farmers statewide participating: 83% are making more money because of the DUFB
FFN, MU, WW and RoC released a cluster analysis of incentives in 2013.
Speaker #3: Jen O’Brien FMC
SNAP: 16.6 million spent at FMs in 2011. But only .O2 % of SNAP sales
Only 3500 of 8000 FMs are SNAP authorized in 2012
2 main goals in regards to FMs:
That those with SNAP access are maximizing their program
Closing the gap: more markets need to be authorized
SNAP is not the only goal for a market in a low income community: market characteristics are often diverse when serving low income communities
Many funding opportunities for markets to expand access through USDA grants (as long as the Farm Bill is passed!)
Much innovative work has been done with FMPP funding ( see FMC report) and with specialty crop grants at state level. (Low income veterans are the subject of a specialty crop project in Bridgeport Connecticut)
Helping Farmers Markets Grow 