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Who's minding the local market?
Should city farmers market have tougher rules?Date published: 9/6/2009 BY EMILY BATTLE Tomatoes from Mexico and avocados from tropical climates are things you expect to find in grocery store produce sections, but all of those things have been for sale at Fredericksburg's Hurkamp Park farmers market this year. Fredericksburg's city code makes it unlawful to sell anything not grown, made or caught by the vendors themselves at its Hurkamp Park farmers market. But as City Councilman George Solley found when he began to look into it, "We really don't have the staff or available time to oversee the market ourselves." Solley is hoping to recruit volunteers who are interested in seeing the market run in a more organized way. In particular, he is looking for someone who would be willing to serve as a volunteer market manager, to oversee enforcement of rules on where produce for sale can come from. He said his first step will be to submit a draft proposal for new rules and a new ordinance to govern the market. He said he would like for a new management structure to be in place at least as early as next year's growing season. According to Tracy DeBernard, whose C&T Produce is the Fredericksburg market's most regular vendor, a farmers market with good enforcement is hard to find. "There is no market that sells only homegrown," she said. "It's not enforced." DeBernard said she got a letter from the city this year informing her that someone had complained that C&T was selling out-of-state produce. She admits she had bought plums and peppers to sell because they were in demand, but they were labeled as out-of-state. "I thought, I'll be glad to not sell the plums, but all these other vendors that have lettuce and celery, and you ask them, 'Is it local?' and they say, 'Yes'--that annoys me," she said. "I'm all for revamping the rules, but it's got to be enforced." DeBernard said that even yearly inspections of vendors' farms don't prevent re-selling in some of the eight markets at which her farm sells. She suggested lowering the number of vendors at markets, charging as much as $500 for a spot at the city's market, since it runs six days a week, and performing weekly inspections of farms to ensure that they really are growing what they are selling. She admits that's probably hard to sustain.
Read more stories about Fredericksburg Date published: 9/6/2009
I think the book thing fell into the same
(posted by
Ron_C
, Sep. 7, 2009 6:53 pm)
reactionary backlash that had the dirtbike sales for the younger kisd bikes shutdown for a while. In reaction to the "lead paint" issues with some imported toys, laws were passed regarding lead content that were too vague. The lead content in the battery of the small dirtbike made the lead content of the bike excede the max allowed. Even though sense would tell you that the kid isn't going to be putting the battery in their mouth. What's that have to do with a farmers market though?
Laws protecting anything must be justified by the threat
(posted by
mustang2
, Sep. 7, 2009 4:49 pm)
they pose to those they are protecting. There have been absolutely no incidents of children getting lead poisoning from eating books printed before 1985. It is simply an intrusion into our freedoms not to mention the harm this law has caused to charitable institutions and the poor who depend on the products they sell. The repeated posting by the ignorant and angry demean and damage discussion.
If the farmers label the source what's the problem?
(posted by
tpifos
, Sep. 7, 2009 10:04 am)
Unless there is misrepresentation or fraud the city government
has no business meddling. Let the free market decide what's
sold & what isn't. If Solley wants a volunteer to be a produce
Nazi why doesn't he do it himself?
How does Ashland enforce the growers only rule?
(posted by
Frank_W
, Sep. 6, 2009 7:56 pm)
It's very easy. They have an application that the grower mustsend in to the Town w/ the annual fee. They also have a market manager who visits the farms. Most importantly, they have an abundance of common sense: tomatoes in May and corn in June is not local produce!
So mustang2
(posted by
GaryShorts
, Sep. 6, 2009 5:00 pm)
the law, or article you give, says that the intent is to prevent lead poisoning in children, which is something if you had children you would want to prevent. This would be similar to banning beef with mad cow or produce with E. Coli. They are all dangerous to the health of the consumer. I think Ron_C gets my point. You are very misleading in your use of words, so you are right, I probably should not trust reading the FLS comments from mustang2 for news.
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