Marketplace

The last few Thursdays, I have been helping Audra and Sara with the Santa Cruz Farmers' Market affiliated with the Community Food Bank (it is one of three that we run). Our stand at the market sells food grown in our garden as well as consigned food-- we sell vegetables grown by local farmers that do not produce enough to have their own stand, and we give the farmers most of the profit. Farmers receive 50-100 percent of the profit when you buy at a Farmers' Market, as opposed to the 20 percent farmers receive for food sold at a grocery store. Last Thursday I entertained children attending the market by helping them grow lettuce heads-- we drew faces on solo cups and planted lettuce inside, the idea being that the lettuce would grow out of the top and look like hair. This week our stand was next to the musicians, and Audra and I sang along to a few of the old hippie songs they were playing (both of these I hope illustrate the kind of community building we try to encourage). The market is on the west side of town, providing more access to nutritional options for shoppers in that neighborhood. We also accept WIC dollars, making it more feasible for low-income shoppers. I am always overjoyed to be a part of this experience, enough to put up with lugging out heavy tents every week and getting filthy because of the dust that covers every surface out here in Tucson. It is precisely because when I'm there, I feel very much a part of community. I adamantly believe it is the best place to spend a Thursday evening, especially as the air is getting cooler (80s!) and the sun sinks earlier.

When I found the following article, I was having trouble placing my disagreement. Take a minute to read it:
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/are-farmers-markets-that-good-for-us/?scp=7&sq=farmer&st=cse

Of course, there is the obvious answer: I disagree because I am involved in a Farmers' Market and would like to believe my efforts are not futile. It came to me today, though, that the weakness of this argument is that I think we would all much prefer to dispute with another human being than a corporate food machine. I think we can count on getting more accountability from a local farmer than from a corporation, armed with expensive lawyers and lobbyists. And who ever said dispute is a bad thing? Maybe it allows for greater competition, thus decreasing prices. Wouldn't the Farmers' Market be the Blog of the food world, contributing to the Marketplace of Ideas (new ideas of food origination, new kinds of food) while breaking down the barriers of expensive capital needed to support larger economic undertakings (traditional news sources in the communication realm, supermarkets in the food realm)? Maybe that metaphor is a bit of a reach. I just wanted to defend the idea of the Farmers' Market based on my own experience, and I invite you all to try one out for yourselves and leave a comment letting me know what you think-- does McWilliams have it right? Are there benefits and drawbacks of the Farmers' Market model?