Emma Alter
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We here at Planet Green are always encouraging you to shop locally and at farmers' markets, but according to the Toronto Star there is a problem with the burgeoning local food movement: there aren't enough farmers. Toronto has seen an astonishing increase in the number of markets over the past five years and another four are opening over the next two weeks for a total of close to thirty. The historical model is of a central market downtown where farmers would congregate on Market Day and sell their produce and wares to the local population. The St. Lawrence Market, which is located in the oldest part of Toronto dates from 1803. The modern model sees markets opening up in individual neighbourhoods, and they may be open on any given day of the week.
To combat vendors who buy produce grown elsewhere and then go to farmers' markets and sell it to unsuspecting customers as local produce, an organization called MyMarket was formed. Vendors are inspected and certified by Farmers Markets Ontario to ensure that everything they sell is their own product. A laudable goal, but it has some problems. Cheese producers are left out entirely because they purchase milk from dairy producers to make their cheese. Neighbouring farmers can't piggyback transportation costs and time by taking turns selling their produce. This is perhaps the largest drawback for farmers coming to urban markets. Former farm land immediately outside of the city has become suburban housing and farmers have to travel anywhere up to 150 kilometers to come to Toronto. With the rapid rise of gas prices, this puts an additional financial burden on farmers who are already making a modest living. And of course, every hour spent traveling or manning a booth at a market is an hour spent away from farming.
I can see the virtue of having neighbourhood markets, bring produce directly to the consumer. If you can walk someplace to pick up your produce it will encourage you to buy local, rather than driving to the supermarket and buying asparagus from Peru. On the other hand, Torontonians have kept the singular St. Lawrence Market vital and exciting for over 200 years. If you arrive there at the opening time of 6:00 am on Saturdays you will find lots of parents with wakeful babies and toddlers, as well as people keen to get first shot at whatever is in season that week. The demographic changes over the day, but it's always busy.
Perhaps thirty farmers' markets are too much of a good thing, or perhaps MyMarket is simply going to have to ease their restrictions to allow more vendors to be eligible to bring their product to an population clearly eager for local food. I'll be watching to see how this plays out.
Difficulty level: Easy-
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