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Fredericksburg bringing new organization to downtown farmers market Date published: 3/28/2010
BY EMILY BATTLE
Fredericksburg's downtown farmers market will kick into high gear next month with a new set of rules aimed at keeping vendors honest about where their produce was grown. The city's market has always billed itself as a "producer-only" market for local fruits, vegetables and other products, but last year you could find Mexican tomatoes, Georgia peaches and avocados from more tropical climates amid the stalls. City Councilman George Solley started talking to city officials and growers last summer about how to put in place clear rules and enforcement to back them up. In the off-season, the city has set up a market committee, made up of eight market vendors and a few city residents who use the market. Starting this year, all products sold at the market must be grown, produced, assembled or created within 75 miles of the market. If a farmer resells produce that he or she didn't grow, it must be labeled with the name and location of the farm that grew it, that farm must be within the 75-mile radius, and the resale product can't make up more than 20 percent of a vendor's total offerings. The fees for vendors to sell at the market are also going up. Last year, vendors had to pay a flat $50 fee to get a permit, and no spaces were reserved. This year, vendors can pay $200 for the season for a reserved space on Saturdays only, or $500 for a reserved space seven days a week. Vendors can still sell in unreserved spaces on a first-come, first-served basis for the $50 fee. The market committee will be looking at applications and assigning spaces based on seniority and diversity of offerings this week. Heading that committee are two vendors who have volunteered to be co-managers of the market--Tracy DeBernard of C&T Produce and Valentine Miller of Valentine's Country Meats. DeBernard said she thinks the new rules will be more of a change for the vendors than for the consumers. Having assigned spots will keep people from having to jockey for position in the wee hours of the morning, and the new rules on where produce can come from will rule out some products. DeBernard, for example, said she won't be able to sell produce from the fields C&T owns in Georgia.
Read more stories about Fredericksburg Date published: 3/28/2010
The new rules will limit what I can buy from these smaller
operations, since they cannot supplement their offerings
with labeled, out-of-area produce and products. I like the
C&T folks in Spoty better than Fred, but I like having the
stand available, and see no issue with them shipping in
from fields in GA- as long as it is marked.
I do not usually shop at the Fredericksburg market, I usually purchase my produce at C&Ts Ferry Farm stand in Stafford. Why? The produce is fresh and the prices are fair. Prices for produce at the grocery stores are higher for generally poorer quality. For those who do not like what C&T sells my advice would be shop elsewhere. Why bad mouth C&T or their customers?
It is all about the consumer. If that is what the consumer wants then let the consumer buy it. I think that proper labeling is all that is necessary. If you are suspect then do not buy the product move on. I personally do not buy anything from C&T. There are better vendors with organic natural less "big farm" commerical products. Those are the vendors who get my $$$ YMMV. Which is the american way. People defending C&T are funny because they do not seem to know their stance or the role that they played.
you are wrong. http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/092009/09062009/486594
[b]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. [/b]
C&T had nothing to do with the rule making or the fees involved for spaces. They will lose more money than any other vendor due to some of these rules. They have always marked any non-local produce, as such, and will only suffer greater loss due to these rules.
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