Farmers' Markets of the Heartland

What Is Next?

What Is Next? What is next for America’s farmers’ markets? The path was laid for the current explosion in 1976 by an act of Congress, which makes sense, given the back-to-the-land movement of the time, the elevation of food prices, and the disillusionment from the Vietnam War and Watergate. The farmers’ market phenomenon is fed by a classic duality of carrot-or-stick motivations. The carrot in this analogy is the allure of fresh, luscious, well-grown food, the relationship with local producers, and the feeling of participating in a healthful community and having relationships with people who live with their hands in the soil. The stick part is the alarming side of industrialized food production, the growing incidence of foodborne illness, the concerns about animal welfare, and the environmental impact of confinement operations, all of which feed into a need to have more control over how our food is produced. The more consumers learn, the more they vote with their wallets to live in alliance with their values, whether those values embrace flavor or ethics, or something else. And thus we have the boom we see today. 228 what is next? The broader economics are changing, too. American Farmland Trust’s Julia Freedgood adds another perspective. “Thirty or forty years ago, vegetable processors probably made the economic decision to concentrate growing in California’s Central Valley because of its year-round season,” she says. “Now with shipping costs and demands for local food, that trend is reversing.” Another challenge, says Rich Pirog of the Leopold Center in Iowa, is to reduce the fear in the banking industry by communicating business plans that show a strong potential for profit. “There’s not much data yet, and so bankers are leery of financing agriculture ventures,” he says. While working toward that goal, many small-scale initiatives are funded by grants, and recipients need to demonstrate how they will carry on once the grant funding runs out, he adds. Jim Slama, a longtime advocate of small farms, added a financing element to the Financing Farm to Fork seminar as part of the annual Family Farmed Expo held in Chicago each spring. The 2010 seminar illustrated that the local food movement has reached a tipping point, with standing room only at the keynote address by Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, known for her support of small farmers. Under her guidance, the USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food program has taken shape to showcase the smaller side of agriculture. Merrigan reiterated that there is work to be done. Building Better Business Models Once our communities are saturated with farmers’ markets, chances are they will still only represent about 3 percent of our food sales. For local food to be the norm again, as it was generations ago, more people need to buy from growers. But what about people who cannot get to a farmers’ market, like my TV-cameraman brother who works crazy hours, or the woman in my cooking class who had three kids in sports on Saturday morning? In some cases it is a virtual food hub, where people order and pay online, then pick up their order as they would a CSA share. Some food hubs even deliver. In the Midwest, food hubs like Harvest Michigan, Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks in Chicago, Local D’Lish in Minneapolis, and Farm to Family Naturally in St. Louis, all focus on finding new ways to get local food into eager stomachs. Computer software is becoming more sophisticated to help hubs increase their ordering capabilities. conclusion   229 230 what is next? Farm-to-Office Eating: FarmShare Ohio Some solutions are as simple as bringing a farmers’ market experience to those who do not have a market near them. Kari Moore started her FarmShare Ohio business in Cleveland to deliver bags of farmers’ market food to workers in the Tower City office complex in the heart of downtown Cleveland. People can subscribe to a weekly bag, or stop by from week to week. Kari Moore shares her own story: I have worked with local farmers and food producers since 2002, helping connect them with local market opportunities throughout the region. Over the years, I met a lot of farmers who were growing beautiful food that didn’t always find a good home. Maybe they were rained out at their weekly farmers’ market, maybe they just weren...