Are you gearing up to sell at a farmers market this season? What do you think about the presence of resellers who purchase wholesale produce to resell at the market, but don't actually grow anything? What if you're a farmer who sells some of her own produce but purchases supplemental products from wholesalers?
The Wall Street Journal reports that farmers in Tomah, Wisconsin, are objecting to the inclusion of vendors who resell produce in the farmers market. The Tomah City Council plans to vote on the issue in a month, but both sides are getting into battle mode. Farmers argue that resellers undercut the local farms' prices, and resellers say the market is fair game.
The Farmers Market Coalition is a national group that plans to come up with a definition of "farmers market," reports The Wall Street Journal. Be sure to weigh in there - and here! - with your opinion. Personally, given all the expansion of the farmers markets themselves, and the increased awareness about locally-grown, sustainable food, I think farmers markets should be left to the farmers - you should have to grow and produce what you sell there. What do you think?
Comments
Our Farmers Market requires that the produce be locally grown. They even want to inspect our “farm” to make sure that what we sell we have grown. I think this is the best way to keep the wholesalers from taking over the small farmer. They make their living selling to the big supermarkets, they should leave the Farmers Markets to the small growers.
Well, I’ve been invited to have a vendor’s booth at a local Farmer’s Market (by a whole bunch of the farmers, LOL), but I will be selling my pottery, not produce or food products.
Farmer’s markets for local farmers is definitely what the produce should be about — and one of the things I love about them. But I do hope that local artisans that fit in, like studio potters, won’t be excluded because we aren’t farmers.