Farmers Market Without the Farmer Part 2
Back in August I wrote about the increasing foodwashing at Farmer's Market
My family and I knew about the "dirty little secrets of farmers markets" years ago and wondered why nobody did a story ... till now!
With the increasing popularity of Farmers Market sprouting up, this week our local TV station did a investigative report and uncovered some disturbing facts.
False Claims, Lies Caught on Tape at Farmers Markets
They're popping up in nearly every Southern California neighborhood. We're talking about weekly farmers markets, where local farmers sell produce they say they grew themselves, and often claim is pesticide-free.
There are now more than 300 farmers markets in the LA area, with more opening every month. But an NBCLA undercover investigation has revealed that some farmers at these markets are making false claims and flat-out lies about the produce they're selling.NBCLA's investigation began this summer, when we bought produce at farmers markets across the LA area, and then made surprise visits to farms where we were told the produce was being grown.
We found farms full of weeds, or dry dirt, instead of rows of the vegetables that were being sold at the markets. In fact, farmers markets are closely regulated by state law. Farmers who sell at these markets are supposed to sell produce they've grown themselves, and they can't make false claims about their produce.
Some tips to help you navigate the world of Farmer's Markets
Warnings signs that the food is not locally grown
beware of stickers
produce out of season: ie corn in december
too much surplus
constant supply - all food all the time
when you ask questions the folks behind the table about the location of farm, they look at you like "farm what farm?"
if you ask to visit their farm and they beat around bush
And like report said, " If the farmer can't give you specific answers, or seems unwilling to answer your questions, market operators say you should walk away."
Or better yet Grow Your Own!
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Truth of the matter is that they are pressured to carter to the consumer's "Supermarket" mentality. They want everything at their fingertips - all the time. So these vendors are basically feeding the customers need to have all the food all the time.
I was in Tucson, Arizona last year and sought out farmer's markets for produce. I went to one in Green Valley, south of Tucson, and picked up some tomatoes. I asked the vendor if they were from her own garden. She said, yes, then I turned the tomato over and it had a sticker that read, " Product of Mexico." I put it down and left the market without buying anything. Here in Illinois, the small farmers cannot sell the eggs off their mini-homesteads to the public, but we can buy salmonella-tainted eggs from the corporate egg farms that are sold in the store. Fortunately, we have friends who just give us eggs in exchange for some care-taking chores when they want to go out of town. There are always people who try to game the system. Maybe we need an independent rating system of some sort with a seal of approval awarded to the farmers who prove that they are growing their own vegetables. Kind of like putting a BBB on the window of your store.
This is very disturbing... We are buying items that could in fact be more dangerous to our health and wellbeing than those available at major stores... A farmer goes to a produce market and buys produce, doesn't properly handle it, takes to a market or several markets in fact until they sell it.
One farmer I like includes Underwood Farms, they sell at Pasadena Sat Market. You know they grow what they sell.
I agree. Frank, I'd like to point out that you can support hyperLOCAL produce! We've launched a "Front Porch Farmstand" that features homegrown produce from our little city farm and the Freedom Garden's Collective. Support LOCAL foods and farms and stop on by! It's open to the publci and you can sign up for weekly produce updates at info@dervaesgardens.com
This is great. What are the hours? I read you don't want drop-ins... Is this different?
Will you be at the Altadena Urban Farmers Market Oct 17?
We are open Sun-Fri 10 AM - 6 PM We have folks "dropping in" all the time to pick up their produce! Haven't heard about this event nobody invited us.
[...] And here’s a post from Justin Dervaes from Freedom Gardens. A garden that sells what they grow in the Pasadena/Altadena area. Read here [...]
I am more afraid of what the government will do with Farmers' Markets as well as local farms. There is a bill in the Senate right now called The Food Modernization Act, SB 510. They want to have the ability to control what we small farmers and gardeners grow. They are using the tainted egg scare as well as all the salmonella cases from big AgriBusiness as a means to place tighter controls on everybody. Whatever rules and regulations they place on the big corporate farms will also cover the small farms and even small gardens.
Please contact your senators and try to stop this legislation. It is up for a vote in November.
I'm trying to notify every garden site and farming site I find. Feel free to pass the word and hopefully educate the public before it's too late. Our freedoms are being taken from us!
@Betty-
"They want to have the ability to control what we small farmers and gardeners grow."
Did you know that certain seeds are patented?
It's no coincidence that this bill is being proposed at a time where "growing your own"/going green etc. is becoming increasingly popular.
Opening a whole new can of worms, as long as the masses utilize $ consumerism $ as their source of survival (delegate our responsibility to corporations), whatever freedom we think we have will be limited so that the corporations remain in power. Even if the bill failed to pass, something will come around the corner to make sure the corporate food moguls don't lose too much money to local farmers.
We need a change of laws! Here in Missouri When we buy a 1/2 beef from a local farmer he then transports it to a small processor. The procesor ask us how we want it packaged then we receive the meat wraped in butcher paper " marked not for sale". Of course the meat is very good and the processor is clean. Tell me why the farmer can't hire this processor to butcher his meat for sale at the market or grocery store. The only reason that I can see is because of the laws. I feel that very large processors should be inspected by the USDA.. Smaller processors could be inspected by the state health depts and very small local processors such as the ones like I mentoned above shoulod be inspected by local health depts. Clean is Clean no mater who does th inspections and I also don't think that the physical propertys of the building and equipment should be part of this inspection except to say if its clean or not!
The reason I bring this up is because the laws for sellilng local foods are different per states and like stated above small egg producers and small gardeners are legaly not able to sell their excess food because of our poor laws! This encourges people to sell and lie about the food they are selling.
i live in utah in a small farming town we go sraight to the farms to pick.and we have gotten to know our local farmers but they all use pestasides.it is not cost efective to grow with out themo i grow my own.there is a big movement to grow gardens here but sadly of cemicals.
I have a website for farms that want to sell eggs right from the farm. It's called "Farms That Sell Eggs" and is at http://www.lionsgrip.com/farms.html. It's quite fun to maintain this whole website, devoted to the feeding of chickens in natural ways.
On the issue of poor quality produce at farmers markets, I've seen this problem all my long adult life. A few people selling trash vegetables left over from metropolitan central markets, calling them "organic," has happened as long as I can remember. They can spoil it for all the farmers.
The remedy is in visiting the farms in person. It only takes a few people visiting a farm to make the farmer's reputation, and the farmer should publicize that fact. The whole clientele of the farmers' market does not have to go out to a farm, just a few people will do the trick. If the promoter encourages this effort as well, word will spread about the farms and their quality.
Farmers who do encourage visitors should really emphasize that fact with signs, photos of the farm and visitors being there, and you might also tell the customers what else they can see when they come out to your area --- maybe a nice park, historical spot, natural site, and the like. On the Farms That Sell Eggs page, I have a little instruction paragraph for city folks who visit farms, explaining how to get the farmer's attention (there's no doorbell at the gate on the road, usually), to drive very slowly because the farmer often maintains his own roads and they're fragile, and to close any gates they open. City people aren't born knowing how to get around farms, so a little encouragement goes a long way. Farmers, for their part, usually don't know how to market themselves well. So, heads up! Everyone can help boost the quality of the whole show by voicing an interest in visiting the farms.
At farmers' markets, if customers would make a point to ask at least one farmer if he/she allows customers to visit their farm, the number of such requests will generate a huge amount of awareness on the part of the farmers, awareness of the fact that people are going to see the farm and know what is grown there and how it's grown. This should become a source of much pride to the farmers, and much satisfaction to the customers. Promoters of farmers' markets would do well to support this effort as well.
It should be easy for customers to get an idea of which farms actually welcome visitors, and to buy from those farms instead of from "farms" that don't allow visitors.
I'm told that in Greece, everyone is free and welcome to visit and look around any kitchen that is preparing food for that person to eat, and especially so in restaurants. What a country! No wonder democracy began there!
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