One of the finest ways to enjoy the bounty of the land is when it is prepared with a chef’s artistry and enhanced  by a warm and friendly restaurant atmosphere.  This fall we hope to offer you just that when you join us at the table for our inaugural Dine Out for Farms™ event!

Dine Out for Farms™  is a national, week-long event that will bring together restaurants and consumers to support a sustainable future for America’s farms. From October 10-16, participating restaurants will raise funds and awareness for our programs that support farms and help save the land that sustains us.

Here is how you can get involved.

1. Enroll a Restaurant. If you own or work for a restaurant we hope you will join us at the table for Dine Out for Farms™ week. By joining the Dine Out for Farms™ you will become a member of our “Friends of Farms” community. We are providing a host of resources to make participation easy and fun. Download this guide to learn more about participating!

2. Recruit. In 2006, 87% of restaurants purchased some of their menu items locally. By supporting the Dine Out for Farms™ restaurants, you’re helping support a vibrant local and regional agriculture sector. Tell us which restaurants in your area should participate in the Dine Out for Farms™ event and we’ll give them a call and invite them to join us! You can also download this enrollment packet [PDF] and take it to your favorite restaurants and ask them to participate. We will randomly select 5 people that make recommendations on our online form to receive a No farms No Food hat.

3. Buzz. By promoting the Dine Out for Farms™ event you are helping to grow the movement to save America’s farms and ranches. Share the Dine Out for Farms™ event on Facebook and Twitter.

4. Blog. Each year, the United States has been losing nearly one million acres of farmland. That’s more than an acre of land a minute, or an area the size of Massachusetts every five years. Once a productive farm is lost, it’s usually lost forever, and the ripple effect can be tremendous. Help spread the word about the Dine Out for Farms™ event and help educate your community about what is at stake!

5. Dine Out! Stay tuned to the Dine Out for Farms™ website and look for our special message as we unveil the participating restaurants for our first Dine Out for Farms™ week, October 10th-16th!

For information on joining as a participating restaurant in Dine Out for Farms™, go to www.farmland.org/restaurant or contact Gretchen Hoffman at 202-378-1251 or ghoffman@farmland.org.

Enjoy these great comments from farmers market supporters from across the nation! Send your market some love by leaving a comment of your own. And if you haven’t voted in the America’s Favorite Farmers Markets or told all your friends to vote, do so today because the contest ends August 31^st at Midnight EST!

This market has heart. It was the result of a community planning process where a diverse group of locals voted to start a Farmers Market.  It has grown each year and had diverse local food such as seaweed, berries, fish, oysters and of course garden vegetables. The market takes place in the historic Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall camp #1 and bring out huge numbers of Native and Non Native people. This is one of the most unique and most community building markets in the country.
~ Doug, Alaska

My market is the best community market because the farmers know me and know what I like to eat.  The farmers have a personal connection to the people they are selling to and greet you by name.  The market manger is always moving around and connecting with the public and the farmers. He has great free recipes which give me a different way to use what is at the market. I love seeing friends at the market and visiting in the comfortable, welcoming market atmosphere. It also makes me feel like I am doing something good for my self, by eating right, helping local famers and see in my friends.  This is the best market ever!
~ Duon, California

Locally grown food (including organic and heirloom produce), friendly venders, and various community activities make our Farmer’s Market a fun, nutritious destination.  In an area where housing tracts and shopping centers are replacing groves of fruit and nut trees it is reassuring to know that people are still using their land to provide healthy food for our population.  A fresh ripe garden grown tomato is better than a candy bar any day!
~ Mary Jane, California

I love my farmer’s market for a few reasons. 1) The growers do an outstanding job of bringing to the table fresh slow food. 2) They have jumped through tons of red tape to include the citizens who shop with food stamps. So all of our citizens can eat healthier, and support our local growers. 3) The farmer’s market is more than just local food, it is about our neighbors relating with each other. People talk, and smile to each other. Our local farmer’s market brings our community together in a basic fundamentally human to human level.
~ Lisa, Georgia

1. Variety of vendors: organic fruits & veggies, beautiful cut flowers, cheese vendors, fish monger, poultry farmer, bakers, coffee roaster, more!  2. Meets twice a week: Friday mornings and Monday afternoons, giving more people a chance of buying local.  3. Welcoming to families: the Friday morning market often features puppet shows or other entertainment for children, encouraging families to bring their children to market where they are exposed to farmers and “real” food.  4. Samples – on occasion, the vendors provide samples of their food for tasting. I bought haloumi cheese because I was able to taste it (LOVED it).  5. FUN!!
~ Katherine, Maine

I enjoy shopping here each week over the summer. The freshly picked produce is delicious and nutritious and I am glad to be able to support local farmers. It’s a wonderful sense of community.
~ Susan, Massachusetts

Our town is small with only 2 grocery stores,, the Farmers Market allows us to have “Real” fresh vegetables with out the packaging and chemicals that we are reduced to accept from the stores. The Market organizers are there every week to talk to the customers and the vendors bring the best they have to the markets.  The prices are usually less than the stores and we can hardly wait for Saturday to come around to enjoy the best tasting fruits and veggies of the week.
~ Linda, Michigan

Amazing selection. It has such a carefully curated selection of foods. I love the care and respect for the land that the farmers that sell at this market have. It inspires me to eat locally sourced food.
~ Brian, Missouri

Supporting local farmers, as well as the small businesses and artisans that so prevail our beautiful country is vitally important. Farmer’s markets present us with the healthiest, freshest way to do this. To get a real peek at what America really is all about, all you need is to leave the concrete jungle, and make your way to your local farmer’s market.
~ Joshua, New Mexico

I love the location of the market on the water and under cover!  I love that all the food sold there is grown or prepared locally.  I love that we can come to know the farmers and where our food comes from! I love that I can get to the market in 5 minutes on my bicycle! I love that in this town, kids not only know what tomatoes and potatoes look like in their whole fresh form, but many recognize the PLANT that the tomato and potato come from as well!  (referring to Jamie Oliver’s show from W. Va. where school age kids could not identify whole fresh tomatoes or potatoes!)
~ Marilyn, New York

Because we have just started our market and we have the most friendliest and good hearted people in this little ol town. Everybody helps everyone and knows each other and has really enjoyed this farmers market that we have come to love!!! We need to win best market to get the word out and draw a bigger crowd from out of town.
~ Paula, South Carolina

I love that the vendors are the actual people producing the meat, vegetables, and fruit. They’re always happy to answer questions and talk about the produce. I’ve gotten a few really good recipes and ideas about preparing produce from the farmers. It’s the very next best thing to having a huge garden at home!
~ Terri, Texas

My grandfathers all were family farmers with small gardens. Some of my great grandfathers had larger farmers. Most of my family lived long lives 80’s, 90’s, 104 years old. I feel it was due to growing their own foods and fishing the local waters. We look forward to the farmers markets in the summer to buy as much local grown produce as we can. I now can alot of our food we eat in the winter, like my g-mothers before me. My g-grandmother (lived to be a 104) always told me, it comes in a box it will kill you. I respect and appreciate my local farmers. Save Our Farms!!!!
~ Charlene, Virginia

Note: We will attribute these comments to the markets that they are associated with when the America’s Favorite Farmers Markets contest comes to a close on August 31^st at Midnight, EST.

We appreciate news editor Chris Koger’s perspective (“American Farmland Trust’s message misses the mark”), but we believe anyone in the U.S. who cares about the long-term health of the produce sector should be concerned with two issues: the loss of farm and ranch land and the increasing emphasis on healthy diets.

We recently issued a press release highlighting that the U.S. is short 13 million acres of fruit and vegetable production for consumers to meet the 2005 Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA’s) for dietary consumption.

That is not American Farmland Trust’s calculation, but rather comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In addition, AFT has used USDA data to calculate that 78% of our nation’s melon and vegetable production (by value) occurs in urban influenced counties, the same counties where farmland is under the greatest threat of conversion out of agriculture or development. Both of these figures are fact, not conjecture.

Certainly, Chris is correct that demand drives the planting decisions of growers, and there is a delicate balance between supply and demand. But we note that attempts to change the diets of consumers to include more fruits and vegetables are not in short supply.

Witness the leadership of First Lady Michelle Obama and the USDA in bringing attention to healthier diets and school lunches, alongside the produce industries’ own promotions to increase consumption.

Note, too, the increase in the number of farmers markets to 6,132, up 16% in the last year. And demand for fresh produce in this type of marketplace is outstripping supply. Farmers market managers across the country tell us that they need more vendors, not less.

To AFT, these are important trends which signal the dawn of new opportunities — if agriculture can seize them.

American producers will be able to seize these opportunities only if we can continue to overcome the concurrent obstacles inherent in any supply chain- whether policy, regulatory, demand fluctuation, transportation or environmental conditions, to name just a few.

We can’t afford to miss the chance to meet growing demand that some of our most threatened land is best suited to produce crops on — because we can’t miss opportunities to keep our farms economically viable.

It’s true, new varieties and production practices and other technologies are allowing specialty crop growers to produce more on less acreage, but at AFT we also follow closely the loss and conversion of farmland because it is the most critical input to any producer in the world.

Therefore, we believe the loss of farmland is a critical challenge to the demand opportunity that appears to be developing — one that needs to be addressed.

The most recent National Resources Inventory indicates that we have lost more than 23 million acres of active agricultural land since 1982.

More troubling? We’ve lost more than 13 million acres of prime farmland during that same time. Every state has lost prime farmland. And some of the states known for their fruit and vegetable production — like California, Texas and Georgia — appear on the top-five lists of states that either lost the greatest number of acres or lost the greatest percentage of prime farmland.

Will every citizen eat the recommended diet? Probably not. Are we going to be the world’s No. 1 producer of pineapples? Not likely. Has our total production of specialty crops fallen yet? No.

But if this sector is going to produce the majority of the needed fruits and vegetables here in the U.S. now, or in the future, we need to pay attention to the facts and address the issue of farmland loss.

We invite readers to learn more about the issue, and to become engaged with us in the solutions for stemming the tide of farmland loss.

This piece originally ran in The Packer, under the title Industry, Public Health Require Long-Term View.

About the Author: Jon Scholl is President of American Farmland Trust. Prior to AFT, he served as Counselor to the Administrator for Agriculture Policy at the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Jon and his family operate a corn and soybean farm in McLean County, Illinois.

Water quality in the Chesapeake Bay needs to be improved. To be sustainable for the future, the people of this region need to figure out how to live, work, farm and recreate in ways that allow the Chesapeake estuary to function and thrive.

Contrary to the opinions of some, maintaining well-managed farms and private forests is an essential part of the solution. Essential, rather than optional, because farm soils improve water quality through filtration; because farmers can achieving pollution reductions more cheaply than sewage treatment plants or urban residents; and because agriculture does all this while contributing more to the region’s economy than any other single sector.

The forthcoming Bay-wide TMDL will require deep reductions in nutrients and sediment, and present significant changes to farmers and every other Bay resident and business.

Bi-partisan legislation in the both House and the Senate has come through an often contentious and heated debate, with important policy and program tools help all of us to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

The Chesapeake Bay Program Reauthorization & Improvement Act was introduced in the House by Congressmen Holden (D-PA) and Goodlatte (R-VA), and passed out of the Agriculture Committee on unanimous voice vote. Rep. Holden worked hard to craft legislation that is responsive to the concerns of the agriculture community, recognizes their positive contributions, and helps set reasonable environmental goals for agriculture.

The second bill, The Chesapeake Clean Water & Ecosystem Restoration Act of 2009, authored by Senator Cardin (D-MD), was revised with support from Senator Inhofe (R-OK), which enabled it to pass out of committee, also unanimously.

Each bill provides essential tools and resources to improve water quality in the Bay, especially for farmers. The provisions in both bills are complementary and would:

• Offer regulatory protection, a “safe harbor,” to farmers who are on track in implementing a conservation plan.
• Reinvigorate the potential for environmental-trading markets (the Senate bill with guarantees for investors, and the House with an impartial oversight commission).
• Mandate a complete, full and accurate accounting of all practices farmers have implemented up to the present, and moving forward.
• Provide funds to implement conservation practices, technical assistance, and research on farms. The Senate bill provides 20 percent of all state implementation grant resources for that purpose, and investments in research.
• Mandate greater collaboration between the EPA and USDA. The House bill increases the USDA’s authority in setting technical standards and developing a nutrient-trading program.

When both parties and houses of Congress converge like this, it’s a sign of a real opportunity.  At American Farmland Trust (AFT), we like what we see in these bills. Together they achieve a healthy balance of voluntary, incentive-based programs within an overall regulatory framework.

Farmers need clearly defined expectations and requirements coupled with the flexibility to adapt practices to fit their individual farm operations. Regulatory-only approaches cost the public and farmers more.

These bills offer an approach of shared responsibility and accountability. Farmers have done a lot to improve water quality, more than they are often given credit for, and more than other sectors. Nevertheless, all parties must be responsible and held accountable to take action and make improvements.

Farmers and environmentalists deserve a final bill that’s equitable, balancing clear environmental standards with tools that will get the job done. If like Congress, farmers and environmentalists can keep their common goals in mind, and come together in a bi-partisan way, this legislation provides the tools we need to have healthy farms and a healthier Bay.

About the Author: Jim Baird is Mid-Atlantic Director for the American Farmland Trust. This post was originally run in the Del Marva Farmer.

U.S. Rep. Bill Foster recently visited with Farm Bureau members in Kane County, Ill. to discuss the relationship between federal legislation and the local agricultural community.  At the meeting, which took place at the Gould Farm, a three-partner cooperative stretching nearly 5,000 acres, Foster (D-Batavia) appealed to farmers to seek positions in government as a means to best represent their interests.

The housing bust has slowed residential building yet, in New York and New Jersey, shaky state and local budgets are resulting in cuts to conservation funding.  The Wall Street Journal reports that with preservation groups limited in their ability to take advantage of the stalled development, the reduced financial support for farmland and open-space protection is somber news in a region highly impacted by sprawl.   The Keystone State faces similar woes. In Lehigh County alone, farmland preservation dollars have dropped from $2 million a year to no allocation of funds for 2011.

Even amid a difficult financial climate, a Bedminster, New Jersey couple has worked with state and federal farmland preservation groups to place an agricultural easement on 60 acres of their historical farm.  The property, dubbed “Temenos” – Greek for “sacred space” – was once home to the famous publishing Scribner family and is the second property in the township to be protected in the past six months.

Where does Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) spend his summer vacation? In his combine on his family operated farm near Big Sandy, Mont. Tester joins Iowa Senator Charles Grassley as the only two Senators who remain active farmers.

Alien-looking contraptions with metal arms protrude out of farm fields throughout the state of Washington. Look closer and you’ll see gauges on the arms measuring all kinds of weather data, from temperature and precipitation to wind, dew point, solar radiation and humidity. The stations—part of Washington’s AgWeatherNet—relay data to a website (weather.wsu.edu) that farmers and the public can check for free information on current weather and agricultural conditions.

“I don’t know a farmer or field consultant who doesn’t use it,” says Washington State University (WSU) plant pathologist and AgWeatherNet director Gary Grove. “Over an eight year period, we went from a few people using it to everyone.” The network—launched in part by a grant from the EPA and American Farmland Trust—is one of the most advanced of its kind in the country. Farmers use it to make decisions about everything from irrigation and pruning to fertilizer and pesticide use. (And can sign up for text messages alerting them to adverse weather conditions).

Grove and other WSU researchers are using the weather data—along with disease and insect models—to help growers predict potential insect and disease outbreaks. By better assessing the risk from such threats, the network is helping farmers reduce their chemical use. Grape growers, for instance, have been able to use the data to better time their efforts to combat powdery mildew that infects grapevines. “We’ve reduced fungicide use over 27 percent with wine grapes,” Grove says.

This profile, along with many others can be found in the Integrated Pest Management cover story of our 2010 summer issue of American Farmland magazine. You can get your yearlong subscription by becoming a member of American Farmland Trust today.

About the Author: Kirsten Ferguson is Editor/Writer for American Farmland Trust. She works in the Saratoga, NY office and can be reached at kferguson [at] farmland.org

This is National Farmers Market Week … a time to celebrate the colorful and flavorful bounty of fresh produce that is so important to a healthy diet. This week there is wonderful news to celebrate because today the USDA just announced that farmers markets have grown 16% in the last year to 6,132 markets nationwide. But for many Americans, access to a balanced and nutritious diet is limited by a host of political and economic factors – from food deserts to farmland conversion.

In June, two important publications were released to help promote the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP) in farmers markets. The Farmers Market Coalition and Community Food Security Coalition’s Real Food, Real Choices: Connecting SNAP Recipients with Farmers Markets examines the need for improved access to farmers markets in underserved communities and outlines a “Roadmap for Change.” A complementary guide resulting from a joint project by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA Food and Nutrition Service and Project for Public Spaces, Inc., Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) at Farmers Markets: A How to Handbook, provides a comprehensive guide for farmers markets to serve more members of their communities.

I am very hopeful about how people and communities are embracing local farms and farmers markets resulting in the impressive growth of markets across the country. I am also excited about the role of several key organizations who are supporting farmers markets with staff

and resources, such as the Farmers Market Coalition and the Wallace Center at Winrock International, who just released a new YouTube channel and Farmers Market Manager and Organizer FAQ to answer key questions about how to start a farmers market and expand access to markets.  While the farmers market movement is growing by leaps and bounds, it is constrained by policy barriers at levels of government.  One way to push back is to vote with your fork by supporting local farms and farmers in farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture (CSA)s, U-pick and other direct markets, and by demanding healthier food in school lunch programs and college cafeterias. But it’s also important to get involved with your community to make sure your city or town is “farm friendly”, and to fight for policies at the state and at the federal levels. Right now two pieces of legislation are pending that improve access to healthy food: the Child Nutrition Act and the Greening Food Deserts Act and the First Lady has taken a strong leadership role with her Let’s Move campaign.

But we can’t bring about our vision of healthy farms, healthy food and healthy communities without saving the land that sustains us. USDA estimates that we don’t grow enough fruits and vegetables in this country to ensure a healthy diet for all Americans – a situation exacerbated by the fact that the vast number of our fruits and nuts (91%) and vegetables and melons (78%) are grown in urban-influenced areas in the path of development. They estimate we need another 13 million acres of fruit and vegetable production to meet the nation’s minimum daily dietary requirements with domestic production.

This summer, American Farmland Trust is celebrating the role that farmers markets play in supporting the farms and farmland necessary to grow healthy local food. You can support the food revolution – voting not only with your fork but also with your vote in America’s Favorite Farmers Markets™ contest.

About the Author: Julia Freedgood is Managing Director for Farmland and Communities at American Farmland Trust.

With the Senate considering energy legislation this week, Congress must seize this chance to pass a strong national Renewable Energy Standard (RES).  An RES is a regulation that requires the increased production of energy from renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal.

A robust RES will bolster the farm economy, help curb climate change and drive America towards energy independence.

Because of this, AFT has joined the National Farmers Union, the National Association of Wheat Growers, and the International Biochar Initiative in calling on Senators Reid (D-NV), McConnell (R-KY), Bingaman (D-NM), and Murkowski (R-AK) to support a 25% by 2025 RES.

Read the full letter.

Based on research by the American Council on Renewable Energy, the 25% by 2025 RES measure could lead to more than $15 billion in income to farmers, ranchers, and rural communities, create more than 30,000 rural jobs and reduce hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Furthermore, analysis conducted by Informa Economics, Inc., for AFT and the National Association of Wheat Growers on the benefits of clean energy legislation, found that 94 percent of the demand increase in renewable electricity under a similar House RES proposal is expected to come from biomass (agricultural residues, energy crops, forest residues, and urban waste/mill residues).

These economic benefits to America’s farms and ranches are in addition to the energy security benefits our nation will receive from expanding the diversification of our energy supply as well as lowering our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. As noted, the job creation and rural development effects of such a policy are also considerable. American agriculture stands ready to help meet the country’s clean energy needs and the RES is the mechanism that will turn our readiness to action.

With more than a third of all Senators having either voted for, or signed a letter of support for an RES, we encourage the Senate to build on their previous efforts in the Senate Energy Committee’s American Clean Energy Leadership Act, and include a 25% by 2025 RES in the energy bill under consideration now.

As we stated in our letter to the aforementioned senators,

“Inclusion of these provisions will help America’s drive toward energy independence, re-invigorate rural communities through job growth and income generation for agriculture, and significantly improve the environment and the air we breathe.”

Let’s make it happen.

About the Author: Jon Scholl is President of American Farmland Trust. Prior to AFT, he served as Counselor to the Administrator for Agriculture Policy at the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Jon and his family operate a corn and soybean farm in McLean County, Illinois.

A new report released last week by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change concluded that federal climate change legislation that includes farmers and ranchers will benefit agriculture economically and keep down the cost of cutting carbon and greenhouse gasses for everyone.  This backs up the recent Informa Economics study that AFT commissioned with the National Association of Wheat Growers.  AFT’s Agriculture & Environment team continues to work with agricultural leaders to ensure that farmers and ranchers are included in our nation’s efforts to combat climate change and provide clean energy.

California’s Williamson Act has been one of the state’s most cost-effective land conservation programs but has recently faced severe cuts.  In a piece for the Times Standard, State Senator Patricia Wiggins discusses the proposed California Farmland Conservancy Program Act.  If approved, the legislation would establish the Farm, Ranch and Watershed Fund to provide relief funding for critical farm and ranch land in the Golden State.

A unique partnership between agriculture and the military is working to protect farmland in the eastern region of North Carolina. The Military Growth Task Force and the N.C. Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund have teamed up to create farmland protection programs in the region.  In fact, AFT has worked with the DOD to develop the report, Working to Preserve Farm, Forest and Ranch Lands: A Guide for Military Installations.

The nation’s longest-running family farm is up for sale, reports The Boston Globe. The 134-acre farm in continuous operation since 1632, has slowly seen development encircle the property. Although the farm may no longer belong to the Tuttle family, it will remain in agriculture since it is protected by a conservation easement that prohibits development of the property.

Beginning in October 2009, the Farmers Market Coalition (FMC) assembled a group of their board members to answer the question: What is a farmers market? The FMC Definition Task Force investigated existing markets, their self-proscribed labels and their connection to local farmers to help find an answer, releasing the result this past May. The definition that took shape through their extensive efforts states:

A farmers market operates multiple times per year and is organized for the purpose of facilitating personal connections that create mutual benefits for local farmers, shoppers and communities. To fulfill that objective farmers markets define the term local, regularly communicate that definition to the public, and implement rules/guidelines of operation that ensure that the farmers market consists principally of farms selling directly to the public products that the farms have produced.

Jeff Cole, chair of the Farmers Market Coalition Definition Task Force, answers a few questions about the project and its future implications. The owner and operator of Silvermine Farm in Sutton, Mass., Cole is also the Executive Director of the Federation of Massachusetts Farmers Markets, a position he has held since 2000.

A Conversation with Jeff Cole

Q: How did your process of developing the definition begin and who was involved?

A: It began with our membership asking us what a farmers market might be defined as. At the same time, the FMC board came to understand that federal, state, and local authorities were struggling with defining a farmers market as well. The full board and membership were involved at the outset. After over a year of formal and informal member and board discussion in October of 2009 the board felt there had been enough research and input to assign the work to a task force for dedicated consideration.

Q: The FMC Task Force found that a core value of the farmers market system is to support farms and farmers. As a ninth generation farmer, how do you think this definition will help farmers to enter and stay in direct-marketing local food systems and, in general, support their sustainability? Or, more simply, how do you believe this definition will impact the future of farming?

A: We found that a core value inherent in farmers markets is to support local farms’ and farmers’ entrance into the local food system, as well as to contribute to their sustainability. This is because farmers markets simultaneously serve the needs of shoppers, communities, and farmers. There is no success without doing so and thus sustenance of the system itself and each of its elements- farmer, shopper, and community becomes the core value.

This definition is just the first step in putting in writing some critical societal values. I call it food with a face. It allows farmers and other individuals in our society to align their values, and to use a localized economic system for mutual benefit. In other words, successful farmers markets provide us all with opportunities to help each other thrive. Farmers, most of whom have a primary mission to grow flavorful and nutritious food, need a marketing system that allows them to sell that food in a manner that sustains the farm, the farmer, and all the benefits they provide to society. The future of farming is impacted by reinforcement of a system that serves people and takes power away from corporate giants, placing power back in shoppers’ hands- where it belongs in an economic system such as we have in the U.S.

Q: By focusing on the mission of farmers markets, FMC has established a broad definition to follow. Why was it important to leave the details for the local level?

A: Every farmers market is a unique and inseparable blend of farmer, shopper, and community. Each must be free to establish details of operation that address their unique needs. Yet there are still general principles and basic services that farmers markets must provide to be useful in facilitating mutual sustainability and in bringing control back to individuals in a community. We hope the definition meets those criteria, even if it is not perfect.

Q: An array of interests, including increased political and financial support and the lessening of consumer confusion, drove the research conducted by the Task Force. Why are these considerations particularly poignant at this time?

A: As a society, we have finally re-awoken to the fact that food production, and control of it, is critically important to our personal, social, and economic health. We now generally see the vast ill effects of our past food systems and I think at some level we understand that individual choice and control (versus corporate control) is required to create the healthful checks and balances needed in a complex and thriving society such as we enjoy.  Yet some food corporations have seen the shift in society and have decided to cloud the system by co-opting the term, which goes against a basic tenet of most farmers market systems- clarity and honesty. So at the beginning of this year, I wrote a piece called ‘What’s in a Name?’ for the market beet, FMC’s newsletter, outlining some of the challenges faced by the farmers market sector stemming from recent efforts by retailers to use the ‘farmers market’ term to their advantage.

Q: What were some of the most surprising discoveries made during the process that could impact the sustainability of local food systems? How might the process inform future investigations seeking to adequately represent farmers markets?

A: Most surprising to me was how vastly varied in operational details farmers markets are, and how passionate about their solutions (systems) individual markets are. Second most surprising was how difficult it is to be clear and yet short and simple when communicating a definition. For example, coming from a state where farmers markets are almost universally producer only, I took our phrase “farmers market consists principally of farms selling directly to the public products that the farms have produced” to mean that a farmers market may have other types of vendors in it such as bakers, cheese makers who are not farmers, or even non food producers, not that produce resellers are allowed. But our definition has sparked an interesting and appropriate debate over what that phrase means, could mean, and what values we are really trying to communicate. Hopefully, once the universal values are further established, we will find the correct and simple terms to communicate it clearly.  And maybe that means we embrace diversity among markets by beginning to define different types of farmers markets. However for me there is one clear floor to our system – no farmers, no farmers market.

Q: How might this new definition affect the relationship between market managers and the local farmers?

A: I hope it improves the understanding between farmers and managers about their shared values, and allows them both to do a better job of communicating those values to each other, as well as to their shoppers.  Participants in any farmers market share some core values, so I hope the language we have offered will engender transparency about the areas where there may not be full agreement, so that they can work together towards a shared long-term vision and market sustainability.

Q: What are the next steps with the definition? How do you think this definition can be used in shaping the future of farmers markets in America?

A: Next steps are to continue to establish mutual core values and to refine the definition accordingly. We see the definition not solely as an end unto itself, but an impetus to better understanding within our sector, as well as a pathway to mutual support with the public at large. The best outcome of this process for the future of farmers markets is continued dialogue that brings forth action that allow each farmers market to best serve the needs of its locality, which is the basic recipe for sustainability.