Below, find the announcement of the 3-year project to develop Farmers Market Metrics; get used to hearing us talk about all of this work, and feel free to email me or FMC Project Manager Sara Padilla with questions and comments.
The first part of this project was announced a few months ago:
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.
The amazing collaborative food community of Ontario is coming together to hold a 2 day Urban Agriculture Summit on August 15-18, 2012. Will Allen is their keynote and if you haven’t heard him or had the chance to meet and experience his enthusiastic presence and take in some of his knowledge, this is a great opportunity to do it. Having just traveled up there, I know what I’ll be missing! I wish I could find a way to get back for this and learn more and share more about food systems. If you can make it, do so. You’ll thank me later.
Helping Public Markets Grow 