THE CONFLICT OVER FARMERS' MARKETS
Should they be producer only or allow in the resellers?
Markets like those in Carp have been successful with a strict 'no resellers' rule, a philosophy supported by Farmers' Markets Ontario. But others, such as Huntsville, believe this is too restrictive and have broken away from the organization
by DON STONEMAN
Carp Farmers' Market has a strict "no-resellers" policy and vendors are vetted each year as a matter of course. So when veteran market gardener and nursery operator Grant Dobson sought status as a vendor at Carp four years ago, and said he had homegrown peaches to sell, market manager Jim Craig had to see for himself.
Sure enough, when Craig visited Dobson's operation near Cobden, sure enough he found a greenhouse with peach trees scheduled to produce in June.
In fact, Dobson has tossed the growing seasons upside down and his customers love it. He grows a cornucopia of green things in his greenhouse near very rural Cobden, making what he calls "a very good living" from 1.5 acres of greenhouse and intensively managed outdoor beds. Annual and perennial plants of all types are to be expected, but there are also strawberries in April, raspberries in May and even peaches in June. And customers cheerfully wend their way down very rural roads to his farm retail store to buy these Ottawa Valley curiosities.
But things are a little different in the summer. By July, the Dobsons are eager for a break from 75-hour weeks manning the farm store and there are lots of places where consumers can buy relatively common crops, such as garlic. Then, with the store traffic slowing to a trickle, the Dobsons and nearly 70 other Ottawa Valley farmers, journey off early Saturday to the Carp Fairgrounds. There they set up their booths in and around a 130-year-old heritage building, confident that they are competing only against other area farmers, and not against resellers who are bringing in imported products from food terminals in Toronto and Montreal.
A booth at the Carp market lets the Dobsons sell their week's produce in one go on Saturday morning. This enables Grant and his wife to spend some time with their young family.
The vendors appreciate the tough rules and the customers do as well, says Craig, a "retired army guy with good organizational skills."
Bob Chorney, executive director of Farmers Markets' Ontario (FMO), based in Brighton, touts Carp as a model market for others across Ontario. "For my money, it's the best mid-sized market in Canada," he observes. Some other markets have a hard time measuring up to its standards.
Toughest bylaws in the province
Based on surveys conducted in 2002 by its members, FMO estimated that sales from its member markets across Ontario for the year totalled $596 million. That's more than the farm gate value for the province's pork industry that year. With spin offs such as travel, restaurant meals and so on, the annual economic value generated by farmers' markets was been estimated at $1.5 billion. Proponents note that on a good market day the population of the village of Carp doubles to 6,000 people.
Farmers' markets have undergone a resurgence in Ontario in the last 20 years. "In the late 1980s, there were 60 farmers' markets in Ontario," says Chorney. "Now there are 120. I've had a personal hand in creating all 60 new ones." Chorney used to work with farmers' markets as an Ontario agriculture ministry employee, but in 1992 the association began operating independently with some "base money" from the province. Chorney will not say how much the base money is.
Ken Carnahan, FMO's vice chair, says Carp likely has the toughest bylaws in the province "and probably across Canada." Growers at other markets may not be so fortunate.
While Carp market started from day one with the philosophy that only primary producers would be allowed to sell there, other markets, some with long histories, are striving to emulate Carp's success.
Carnahan, manager of public services for the City of Cambridge, oversees the year-round farmers market there. Vendors include some resellers, people who buy produce at the Food Terminal in Toronto. It's tough not to have some resellers when you are running a year-round market, Carnahan says. Nonetheless, Cambridge has a moratorium on resellers setting up in its twice-weekly market.
This suits Chorney, the high-energy and highly opinionated FMO executive director to a T. He becomes exercised when talking about resellers. "Shoppers come to the market, not expecting stuff to be trucked in from elsewhere. They expect nice fresh local product," Chorney says. "If we've got some hotdogs running down to the food terminal and bringing back stuff and passing off as farmers, what do we have? We have something that is awfully bad."
Not everyone agrees with Chorney on this point. This year, markets in Huntsville, Gravenhurst, Bracebridge and Rosseau all pulled out of Farmers' Markets Ontario.
FMO and Huntsville market chairman Lorne Kingston tell two very different stories about why the relationship there fell apart.
Chorney says resellers "dominate" the markets and legitimate farmers are being driven out of business. Kingston says the problem is FMO itself and it's "autocratic" rules. Kingston says the 100-per-cent-local vendors rule for belonging to FMO is unrealistic. The growing season there is too short for vendors to depend upon their own produce. This past spring, the Huntsville market proposed to FMO that it require vendors to sell a minimum of 70 per cent of their own homegrown or manufactured products at their booths. This complies with a town bylaw that governs the farmers' market.
Kingston says that FMO's executive-director Chorney replied that 100 per cent compliance within three years was necessary and that "transgressions" would not be tolerated. If the market were found to be out of compliance with the rule, membership and insurance would be cancelled in mid-season.
"We couldn't accept that. It would put our market in jeopardy," Kingston says. Huntsville severed connections with FMO as of June 1 and has since found its own insurance policy.
Disappointing outcome
Chorney says resellers have long been a problem in Huntsville. He says he has ascertained with Ontario agriculture ministry crop specialists that Huntsville has the same growing season as Carp where reselling isn't allowed.
There has to be some consideration at these markets for circumstances, Kingston counters. If you are an apple grower and blight ruins your crop, you must be able to buy in apples to sell or you are out of business.
Wayne Senior, president of the Carp Farmer's Market, is disappointed with the way that things turned out with Huntsville. He attended the market's annual meeting on Apr. 12 with Chorney. At that time, he says, "there was a consensus that they intended to return to a producer-based market rather than a reseller market.
"We made a presentation about the Carp experience. Our purpose was to provide them with some confidence that a producer-based market works and ideas to make it work."
Senior says he was advised later that members at the meeting voted to move towards a producer-based market over three years. "The follow-up I have heard is that the board decided not to commit future boards to what had been agreed upon at the meeting that night. That is the fly in the ointment."
FMO's Chorney believes that there's no reason why seasonal markets that run from Mother's Day to Thanksgiving can't be operated with local producers. For his part, Kingston says he has talked to FMO directors who agree that the 70 per cent rule is reasonable. He says Huntsville is "pursuing a higher level of producer performance within our market" and that one vendor in particular is going to have to make major changes in order to stay in the market.
That vendor is Barry Anderson of Coldwater, who is also the treasurer of the Huntsville market. Chorney accuses Anderson of being a reseller who dominates the Muskoka markets. Kingston says Anderson is "a good member" of the Huntsville market board.
Anderson's relationship with the Huntsville market has also been turbulent. In 2002, a different Huntsville market board rejected Anderson's application to sell at the market. At that time, the application form said that "products sold at the Huntsville Farmer's Market must be 100 per cent home-grown, home- baked and/or hand made by the vendor."
Anderson's lawyer replied with a letter warning that "I have advised Mr. Anderson that he has the right to commence litigation against the organization. Mr. Anderson advises that the organization is not incorporated and, consequently, you should be aware that any civil action will name all board members personally and will also name the market manager personally." Anderson's application to be a vendor at Huntsville was subsequently accepted.
Better Farming attempted unsuccessfully to contact Anderson. Kingston said he would not help in those attempts and said Chorney appears to have singled out Anderson for attention even after Huntsville market left Farmers' Market Ontario. "I think it is crass," Kingston told Better Farming.
Kingston expects Anderson to be in full compliance with the Huntsville rules when they come into effect next year. "He agrees to it somewhat reluctantly in that he knows it will take a lot more work to comply. He knows that he has been away from the ideals of the farmers' market for some time."
Kingston says FMO applies its rules unevenly. Why is Huntsville being centred out, he asks?
Chorney explains that Farmers' Markets Ontario has three types of members. A true "farmers' market" is a "seasonal, multi-vendor, community-driven organization selling agricultural food art and craft products, including home-grown produce, home-made crafts and value-added products where the vendors are primary producers."
A "public market" is often a municipally owned year-round operation and sells unique speciality food and crafts. Merchants may make these themselves, but they also sell items purchased from local producers or wholesalers.
A third category, associate, is a member or organization that supports FMO's mission statement but does not fit into previous descriptions.
Flea markets don't fit
However, not everyone agrees with FMO's views of what is a farmers' market. Sheila Shantz, director of market operations at St. Jacob's Farmers' Market and Flea Market, north of Waterloo, withdrew from FMO because of a combination of "personality conflict" with the executive director and disagreement with the core values of the organization. FMO was "looking and wanting to be more for city-run markets. Those of us with private businesses didn't fit their bill."
FMO doesn't like flea markets and St. Jacobs has a flea market associated with it.
In spite of that, "We are all about farmers," Shantz asserts. "We are happy about anything that's good for farmers," she says.
When farmers apply to the market, they are told that they must produce what they sell.
St. Jacobs is open year-round. "A restricted number of vendors" buy at the food terminal and sell bananas and citrus fruit.
There are government inspectors who make sure that vendors aren't selling imported fruit as product of Ontario. Also, vendors who apply to the market must answer questions about they sell. If there are questions, the farm is inspected, Shantz says. "I don't go out and regulate, other than if a local farmer comes in and tells me someone is doing something that they shouldn't." BF
Pretenders "buy and sell from the food terminal and we don't do that. We sell products that we grow, build or raise."
A five-member jury committee visits farms and workshops to check that people aren't buying and selling. "We have caught people out," he says. "Some people have left the market because they wouldn't stop." Each vendor has an approved list of products that he or she can sell and the jury committee must vet additions to that list. All vendors must reapply to the market every year.
"We are careful to protect current vendors to make sure that we don't have too much of something," Craig says, citing maple syrup as an example.
Currently, Carp only allows three vendors to sell maple syrup. "Even now, vendors approach us who are buying and selling (products) from Taiwan. We try to let them down gently, but the fact is that we don't allow that type of vendor."
On a Saturday, customer numbers range from a low of 1,500 to 3,000 on a really busy day in September. At the two-day Garlic Festival in mid-August, as many as 14,000 are in attendance.
There are 105 members in the market association, of which agricultural vendors must make up two-thirds. Some members, such as sweet corn growers, have only a six-week selling season.
There is about a 20 per cent turnover in vendors every year. Craig says some producers get old and or tired, while others use the market to test their retail skills and move up to operate their own stores. Turnover is good, Craig says. According to surveys of customers, fresh vendors are as important as fresh produce.
Carp market president Wayne Senior says the market draws vendors from a 100-mile radius. He gives a lot of credit to a "professionally done" Web site, which can be viewed on the Internet at www.carpfarmersmarket.com.BF
Vendors must get accreditation from their county agricultural commission office before they can bring produce to these markets, says Randii MacNear, manager of the Davis Farmers' Market Association and secretary of the California Federation of Farmers' Markets. Farmers must state what they produce, how much and where. The markets are also inspected and certified by the state, she says. "There are pages and pages of regulations."
There are more than 500 certified farmers' markets in California and more than 3,500 farmers sell at them. The state farmers' market association has 150 members. "But we do the work for everybody. We try to convince people to join," MacNear says. The association advises the secretary of agriculture and the health department on issues that relate to direct-to-consumer food sales and runs a Web site.
MacNear agrees that the term "farmers' market" has been abused. "We do not have a patent" on the term, she says, which is often applied to "flea markets and swap meets."
Farmers' Markets Ontario can only dream that this province would have a law like California's. When FMO put it to the Harris government in the 1990s, they were turned down flat on principle. "One of the responses at the time was that they were eliminating red tape," says Chorney.
Chorney admits that "it would costs half million dollars to police" a California-type system in Ontario annually. Education is the answer instead, he says.BF
This year, market manager Caroline Levesque, collected a $20 annual membership fee plus a $20 daily fee for space from a total of about 20 producers. The showing "depends on the weather," says Levesque, noting that more vendors and customers show up in fall when the variety and quantity of produce peaks. Products range from crafts, spices, baking and bedding plants, to traditional fruits and vegetables.
Levesque, a recent graduate of the agricultural program at nearby Alfred College, says returns vary widely depending on the type of product sold, but most vendors are satisfied with $500 in gross sales for the day. Levesque calculates an ideal goal would be $1,000 because that would provide a good living wage for a vendor.
While reselling could help some vendors achieve this, the market, which is a member of Farmers' Markets of Ontario, specifies that they must produce 90 per cent of what they sell.
"That's an issue for us right now," Levesque concedes. "We do require that all products must come from the area." BF