The Farmers' Markets' Army of Believers

Fueled by the books of Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman, among others, and by the recent release of films such as Food, Inc. and Food Fight, a lot of people are talking about food policy in the United States.

With so many people suffering from diabetes, Americans have paid a high price for the convenience of fast food. When the First Lady digs up part of the White House lawn to plant a garden, you know we're either at war or there's a problem with what American's are eating.

Knowing that consumers want a reliable, healthy food supply, corporations use phrases like "Organic," "Farm Fresh," "Healthy Choice" and "100% Natural" as marketing tools to keep processed foods in our pantries.

Access to fresh, affordable produce is essential to good health. The big question is how to do that?

Those of us who live in communities with farmers' markets are lucky. Where we live in Southern California, we have two great farmers' markets: the Santa Monica Farmers' Market and the Sunday Pacific Palisades Farmers' Market.

In those markets the full bounty of summer is apparent on the farmers' heavily laden tables.

Besides being a source of good food products, farmers' markets are good for one's mood. No matter what modern-living crisis we're dealing with, an unhurried walk around the market is calming and reviving.

Sampling the stone fruit and citrus from Arnett Farms, eating a plate of raw clams at Carlsbad Aquafarms, talking with John, the co-owner of Sweredoski Farms, and hearing his stories about being a Marine before he became a farmer, or literally stopping and smelling the roses at Bernie and Linda's Kendall Garden Roses stand. There is something very satisfying about knowing where your food came from and meeting the farmers who brought it to market.

Recently I interviewed master chef Albert Roux, famous for having revolutionized French cooking in England. In March he opened a restaurant outside of Houston, Texas. Since he trained Marco Pierre White and Hell's Kitchen's Gordon Ramsey, Chef Roux is an experienced cook who has seen it all.

What animated him the most during the interview was his joy at having access to American food products. He delighted in the high quality of Alaskan salmon, Maine scallops, and "happy," free range chickens. And what moved him the most was the dedication of the farmers who sold their wares at the local farmers' markets.

Even though, as he said, they knew they would never make a fortune from their farms, these farmers worked hard so that they could proudly deliver to the market the best produce they could.

Chef Roux called them "the army of believers".

But there aren't enough farmers' markets to solve the problems created by America's reliance on processed food.

If you're lucky enough to have one in your neighborhood, that's great. Even if you don't know how to cook it's easy enough to walk over to a farmer's table and buy pesticide-free fruit and vegetables so you can eat a fresh peach or make a salad.

But even if you don't have a farmers' market close to where you live, it's important to understand that learning to cook is important for your health. Supermarket chains and neighborhood mom and pop stores might not have the best produce, but some produce is better than none.

The problem is many people have bought into the idea that prepared and convenience foods are just easier to deal with and take less time to prepare. But as Tom Laskawy recently pointed out, it's only a little more time-consuming to cook a meal than it is to microwave one.

Hopefully President Obama and the Democratic majority will prevail in their efforts to reform the health care system, but in the meantime each of us can help the cause by learning how to shop and cook. We'll all save money (which is a good thing), have better tasting food, and stay healthier longer.

David Latt from Men Who Like to Cook

Follow David Latt on Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidjlatt

Comments

[mandycat]

Here's a link that you may find helpful in tracking down farmers' markets, CSA (consumer supported agriculture) farmers and other sources for fresh and local food: http://www.localharvest.org

I've pretty much given on up on the farmers' markets here in the Denver area. They run about one-fourth actual fresh food and all the rest silver jewelry, handmade soaps, gourmet granola, salsas, jams, Provence-inspired table linens .... you get the idea.

For freshness, price and reliability I've turned to a small Southwestern chain, Sunflower Farmers' Market, which is a kind of hybrid grocery/health food store. If you live in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona or Texas (where they're called Newflower Farmers' Market) check them out.

[Aaron Turpen]

Awesome link! Thanks!

I live north of you near Cheyenne. Our farmer's markets (the ones that get advertised as such) aren't much better. However, there are a lot of ad-hoc ones around on the weekends. Our local co-op grocery store has a bulletin board full of locations, pinned up like garage sale notices. Since we're surrounded by farms here, there's no shortage of them.

I feel your pain down there in Denver, though--which I consider to be "Little LA" haha. I've been to the farmer's markets that are really just flea markets with occasional food. Lame.

By the way, I forget their name, but right there in Longmont is a natural honey producer (unprocessed, unfiltered). I stopped buying from them when I found one right here north of Cheyenne, but that's a great resource. It's killing me I can't recall their name.

--Aaron
http://www.aaronsenvironmental.com

[Aaron Turpen]

Why is it that you felt compelled to include your political opinion in one line and ruin the rest of this fine article, which is otherwise politics-free?

At any rate, I think if more people understood how easy it is to grow food yourself, no matter your living situation, there would be a lot more healthy people walking around today.

Before moving to the wilds of Wyoming, my wife and I lived in an oppressive apartment in Salt Lake City and had no room for much of anything. But we managed to grow a few vegetables, spices, sprouts, etc. Now, with more space, we're growing a full-on garden and will be expanding that and setting up a root cellar in the very near future for year-round enjoyment.

Growing indoors is much easier than people think and just the simple act of growing sprouts (which take almost no effort) can reduce your store-bought vegetable purchases by a significant percentage. There is a huge variety of sprouts out there, not just alfalfa, and a full salad can easily be had from just that source.

--Aaron
http://www.aaronsenvironmental.com

[quindy]

I think the political line was very appropriate, given the fact that it was the politicians who were ruining everybody's health by voting for huge subsidies for big food companies that pushed junk on US population and at the same time voting down any reform to help the sick.

[Aaron Turpen]

Except he was referring specifically to health care reform aka government-run health care, which is at the top of the news right now. Since government is the cause of health care problems, why is anyone expecting government to solve it too?

They won't.

But that's another debate. It was the reason I brought that up in the first place.

--Aaron
http://www.aaronsenvironmental.com

[sixyfivepercentwater]

". .there aren't enough farmers' markets to solve the problems. . ." And produce is only fresh when it's in season locally, which is a very small window. Americans are used to being able to buy grapes in February. I don't know anyone who wouldn't rather have a home-grown organic tomato than its woody grocery store equivalent, but these are only available for one or maybe two months of the year in most regions.

The "farmers' market" is indeed a phenomenon, and like other phenomena it is already being taken advantage of by the unscrupulous. I've started seeing road signs for "fresh produce" at the end of May - which is just about the safe planting date for seeds in this area. While it's true that at one point all produce was fresh, this stuff started out in Florida or maybe even in the local grocery store.

There is also no guarantee that what your neighbor didn't use a toxic combination of chemicals to keep the predators away from his lettuces. Unless we grow it ourselves, we don't really know what's in it.

We do need much tougher government regulations than we currently have. Our government could use Europe as a model. EU regulations don't allow a lot of the chemicals which are used routinely by our farmers, and "organic" actually means something over there. In the EU it's been found that most people are more than willing to pay a little more for safe, fresh food, wherever it comes

[Mogamboguru]

I am a German.

And I wholeheartedly and enthusiastically support your points.

You are, what you eat: Healthy - or not...

[jeanruss]

I am surprised there is no mention of HR 2749 before Congress that will greatly harm farmers markets, as weel as all American Farmers, including the Amish. If you go to www.ftcldf.org you can read about this terrible bill that will charge every vendor at a farmers market $500 annually to participate, as well as dictate HOW they will farm, with $100,000 fines for those who don't cooperate. Meanwhile the food coming from Mexican and Chinese farmers will not have these draconian fees and penalties. Get informed and call your Representatives and tell them LEAVE THE FARMERS ALONE!