On Thu, 10/16/08, Lyn Gerry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
#1!Bear in mind that any particular farmer will ususally not be able to come
to market daily.
Lyn,
I understand the issue of individual producers not being able to staff a booth
at a farmers market several days out of a week.
The central market concept however is not based on the farmers market model of
individual producers being present to sell their product, but rather a
collection of small vendors, each specializing in a particular product. The
vendors themselves would in general not be producing, but rather they would be
buying from local producers. That is how the Lancaster and Reading Terminal
markets operate.
Just by way of example the booths in a central market in Ithaca could
be outlets for local bakeries, local meat, fish and poultry shops, green
grocers, specialty food producers. It could a place where, just for example
sake, Ithaca Bakery, Collegtown Bagels, Eddydale Farms, Greenstar, Ithaca
Coffee, Ithaca Soy, and a host of other local food producers could be found
under one roof. Other vendors could be small food stands, ice cream stands and
candy shops.
Some of the collaborative farming ideas such as the examples in Vermaont can
still come to play, at the producer level. Local producers can organize to
ensure the resources to create the steady local supply of foodstuffs needed to
sustain the vendors in the central market year-round.
Those of us who have been around that long may remember that the original
layout of Center Ithaca was a collection of kiosks. That concept failed as a
model for retail dry goods, but that downtown space could still work as a
central market.
I have not had time to investigate how the Lancaster Central Market is funded.
I do know that the spaces are leased. The demand for booths is also so great
that when a space becomes available the rights to sign a lease with the City
are auctioned off and sold to the highest bidder.
Thanks too for laying out that very long and intimidating list of regulatory
obstacles.
I've very familiar with zoning in New York and local regulations can be utterly
stupid when it comes to agriculture and agriculture-ralated businesses. Unless
they have revised their zoning in the past the Town of Ithaca zoning
regulations actually contravene provisions of the NYS Ag & Markets Law.
George Frantz
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