Ohio is local, Peterborough isn't

Monday, February 28, 2011

Last fall, the city of Hamilton announced that its redeveloped farmers market was going "100 mile," referring to a popular term describing the movement to source food from nearby farms. In January, Maclean's magazine described what it called the "dark side" to the buy-local campaign. Maclean's says it "underscores the cultural zenophobia and hostility towards diversity inherent in the locavore movement."

The Hamilton market had been closed for renovation since May 2009 and getting a stall back suddenly required filling out an application form that Maclean's described as "Soviet-like." Farms whose goods were grown using natural or organic methods within a 100-mile radius of Hamilton got priority. "The 100-mile limit includes farmers in northern Ohio while anyone east of Peterborough, ON., may as well be in New Zealand," the article read.

A Sicilian family that had a booth at the market for nearly 50 years was refused, along with a Vietnamese refuge couple who sold imported ethnic foods there for 25 years. The immigrants got their booth space back after an outcry, but the magazine article went on to pillory a report by Urban Marketing Collaborative, a Toronto-based consultancy which rebrands farmers markets.

The article derided the consultants for trying to remake working class Hamilton's downtown into a yuppie-hipster haven by quoting from the Toronto-based consultant's report. "The market needs to be, as it is not now, seen as a 'cool' place to be go out to be entertained by events, activities or even just to be seen at," the consultant's report read. BF