For the consumer, a farmers' market is the place to find
foods grown close to home. That is, of course, if one is not already home gardening; even avid gardeners today only
supplement seasonally what they normally buy, rather than growing and preserving foods for the winter. Where else may we find fresh local foods? While super markets are stocked year round
with fruits and vegetables from around the world, they offer a sparse
selection of locally produced food products.
Why is it you can find a good home grown tomato only between the months
of June and November? It’s difficult to
grow tomatoes in the winter, but it’s so easy to go to the store in January and
buy them. What is now a normal, yet very unnatural, circumstance for most people of America today only started in the last century, when people began to move in mass from rural areas in the country
to cities. For more than half a century, the
small family farm has been replaced by big agribusiness and
large scale industrial animal farms (aka CAFO). So really one might very well say that the farmers' market is the ONLY place to find fresh, local, and often times sustainably produced food.
In addition to rare and healthful food, the farmers
market is the most immediate opportunity for a consumer to make a direct contribution
to their local economy. What does this mean, 'consumer...contribution...local economy?
Let’s say we go to the grocery store to buy all the things we need, and let's be specific. I need tomatoes, bread, and cheese so I can make a sandwich, some soap to bathe with, and a bottle of soda pop to enjoy with friends. I can spend all my money and buy these items at the store, but for half the year I could find these items at my local farmers' market, so what's the difference? It may seem negligible,
but it is very important to whom our money is given. If the grocery store gets our
money, they pay for their employees, managers, regional managers, and CEOs salaries, not
to mention foreign products. But if Walt, Deneasa, and Zach at the market gets our money, our neighbors make their rent,meet their needs, and
continue living. It may be said that grocers employ local people and offer local products, but while they may employ local residence, the
majority of products on the shelves are produced, processed, packed, and shipped by companies
far away from our region.
For the farmer, the marketplace may be a
livelihood. That is to say, it is a
small-scaled producer’s best chance to make a living. Growing an abundance of food
without a market venue for economic exchange, can leave a grower stuck with a
mountain of very perishable food. Sure there are many ways to go about moving produce. Some
farmers might rather sell more of their product at wholesale, than take the
risk of selling less product at retail price to end consumers.
Regardless of who they sell to, the economy continues and the farmers
survive. But where have all the farmers gone. If one visits a
market today it may seem more a novelty than necessity when there is only one or two vendors selling meat, or only a handful of people offering produce. Today’s markets are quite different from when
I was a child. I remember my first encounter
with an open farmers’ market when I was four years old. While visiting my grandparents in Venezuela,
they showed me their local street market. It was literally a street filled
with tents, every day of the week, where people sold all manner of fresh, dried and cooked vegetables, as well as
pastries and crafty goods. All fresh meat was found at a ‘meat market’,
which was a block building with two front doors and a long glass case
inside. The pungent aroma of raw meat
could be smelled from down the way. I
imagine if something like this were to be found here in America, food regulation
would not allow such a thing on the grounds of “unsanitary conditions”.
The market and seemingly “unsanitary” butcher, however, is precisely of
what the Venezuelan economy is composed. Meat
and vegetable producers bring products to the urban centers to exchange with
the general public and the economy lives another day.
The American marketplace looks a bit different. Money is exchanged with a supermarket to purchase
the majority of peoples’ sustenance: meat, dairy, veggies, and more. But what is so special about our "money"? Money today is more than just
paper, or a symbol of hard work and time, it is the direct representation of an
individual’s vote in our economic system. When a product is purchased from the grocer,
a computer automatically re-orders that item, thereby signifying the consumers’ choice or
vote. In addition, the profits made are
sent somewhere far away while the business gets away with paying their employees
minimum wages. When food and products are
purchased at a local farmers’ market, the money traded goes directly to a
local business to pay utilities, insurance, business overhead, or to repair
infrastructure and equipment so that the operation may continue to grow. It is here that choosing local helps to create
local employment, business, products, services, and ultimately the economy
itself.
The evolution of modern consumerism has produced a minimum standard based on easy, cheaper, faster. The results of this sub standardization have led us to the current economic system.
Instead of voting for most convenient, as the consumer of yesterday has done for years, tomorrow's consumer will, for consumers’
sake, take more time and effort to consider the full effect of each choice and
purchase. One would not rationally go to the polls
on voting day and indiscriminately check any box. The same should apply for the checkout
line. Instead of saying ‘where can I get
the fastest, cheapest meal?’ one may instead ask their self, ‘what is it that my body
needs most?’ or, ‘How is the food, which I eat, being grown?’ The answers to these and more questions can
be found at a local market. Just visit
one and ask a farmer yourself. It takes more
effort to pump gas than it does to make a conscious choice in favor of one’s
own community. In the end it is the
local community in which every individual’s choice is brought to fruition. Unemployment, poverty, and malnutrition, are
just a few of the economic issues of which the consumer has all control. It is time we consumers assume responsibility
for our community and vote with our pocket books. Plant a garden, visit your local farmers’
market, and take control of our future by choosing it.
