This Thursday local farmers will be bringing their produce to downtown Los Altos for the city’s first-ever Downtown Farmers’ Market. The downtown market on State Street is one of the latest to pop up in California during the ever-growing trend of farmers’ markets in recent years.
In 1977, California had four farmers’ markets. Today there are more than 185 statewide, more than 1,800 nationally, and the momentum continues.
Why? Because consumers want farm- fresh, high-quality produce at competitive prices. At farmers’ markets, patrons can sample and compare the flavor of a white-fleshed peach to a yellow one, or a yellow pear tomato to a beefsteak. They know that fresh fruits and vegetables, whether just plucked from the tree or pulled from the vine, offer the highest nutritional value and flavor. They hear repeatedly from nutritionists that a healthy diet must include five to six servings of fruits and vegetables everyday. They are heeding that call.
Did you know that the average carrot travels 2,000 miles from field to table? That refrigerated “fresh” broccoli loses 34 percent of its vitamin C in two days? That the average distance the nation’s food travels before being eaten is 1,300 miles? When food travels that far, it not only loses nutritional value, but starts to taste like the cardboard box in which it was transported.
At regional farmers’ markets, however, those carrots might come from the enterprising specialty produce farmer down the road or the rich farm belt 100 miles away. Produce at farmers’ markets averages a much shorter travel distance and is usually no more than 24 hours out of the ground.
The prime reason people shop at a farmers’ market, according to a University of California at Davis survey, is for high quality, fresh produce that averages about 34 percent below the retail price and is often not obtainable elsewhere. Produce, which is either certified organic or labeled as “unsprayed,” is widely available at farmers’ markets.
In farmers’ markets in urban and suburban areas, the vague image of the farmer becomes a living, breathing person with a face, a family and a story to tell. Children who believe their food comes from the store can learn about where eggs come from or how corn grows.
It’s no secret that the small family farmer is becoming an endangered species. In the Bay Area, every two years we lose 30,000 acres of farmland either to idled production or development. Farmers are selling out, and who can blame them? Ordinarily, they receive less than 30 percent of the retail food dollar consumers spend for fresh fruits and vegetables. Farmers’ workdays are long, their labor physically demanding. They must contend with weather variables totally beyond their control. With real estate development dollars ever dangling over their heads, many farmers are biting the hook.
For many small family farmers, direct marketing is a lifeline. At farmers’ markets, they often get a larger cash return for their product than through the wholesale market and are paid at the time of the sale. Because of looser regulations, farmers also save on the costs of grading, sorting and packaging.
Also, growers and producers can test the waters to determine if consumers will go for those purple string beans, heirloom apples or home-style jams made down on the farm.
From an ecological standpoint, shopping at farmers’ markets helps support the greenbelt, by enabling local farmers to become economically sustainable. It supports locally-based food production and distribution, thus reducing energy consumed on transport. It also reduces solid waste, by eliminating over-packaging of food and supports environmentally sound and sustainable farming practices because family farmers tend to use fewer synthetic chemicals.
Finally, farmers’ markets are fun. They infuse energy and vitality into an area – whether an urban center, suburban parking lot or rural town center.
Shopping at the farmers’ market is a wonderful way to show your support for today’s struggling independent farmer, for the greenbelt and for sustainable agriculture. There are gains all around.
-Lynn Bagley is market operator for the Downtown Farmers’ Market. She has long been known as the pioneering force behind farmers’ markets throughout the Bay Area.
