Hello, Just wanted to chime in to say that I'm really enjoying this discussion. I just moved here and when I asked someone at the Farmers Market info stall how to get involved with the market, the person just shrugged -- which left me with the impression that participation=consumerism. Of course, I am a consumer, and I'm happy to buy at the market, but I was hoping for something in addition to that. Before I moved here, I had been living in Berkeley, CA, where volunteers and part time workers are welcomed on various levels at the markets. I'm not very well-versed in all these issues, but I'm glad I stumbled on this list so I can learn more.
Alison Fromme www.alisonfromme.com ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 12:54 PM Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] Local, collaborative farming > To continue George's line of thought: > > Why don't the governments of Ithaca and Tompkins County build and run > farmers markets? It is shameful that the city extracts rent from Ithaca > Farmers Market for the use of public property, and made us build and > maintain our own structure and grounds, costs that made the overhead > prohibitive for many farmers to sell at the market. To help defray these > costs we were forced to bring more money in by turning the market into a > fast food and arts and crafts touristic mini-mall. This displaces even > more farmers from what should be a truly farmers market, and is totally > unnecessary, as the examples from PA demonstrate. We don't even have to > go out of state to get good models of what to do here. Rochester and > Syracuse still have public city-run markets that are just for farmers, or > were, the last time I saw them. Of course they are relics of another age, > and like Ithaca Farmers Market serve only a tiny fraction of the public > in these cities. But as George points out, they are good models to build > on. > > We need to advance a politics of food that is grounded in the idea that > its retail provision is an essential public service, rightfully included > in the public sector of the local economy, like street and bridges, and > not something that a farmer class that monopoly capital has reduced to > the equivalent of serfdom must bootstrap on their own. > > I realize that I am somewhat preaching to the choir here, but I hope that > this forum is broad enough that these ideas will be new to some, and > provoke thought and action. > > Karl North > Northland Sheep Dairy, Freetown, New York USA > www.geocities.com/northsheep/ > "Mother Nature never farms without animals" - Albert Howard > "Pueblo que canta no morira" - Cuban saying > > _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
