Farmers Markets Are The Answer To Everything (Or At Least A Really Good Start)
I used to look forward to getting drunk on a Friday night, but nowadays the favorite part of my week is Saturday mornings. I still get drunk on Friday night, but I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to.
Check out my weekly haul from the farmers market. The thought of waking up early on a Saturday morning to get there when it opens is what keeps me from having that last beer. It’s what urges me to eat a big salad on Friday night in order to clear out the refrigerator for my new purchases. I won’t say all that wonderful produce keeps me healthy, because the love for beer and chocolate is strong in this one, but it surely must help atone for my vices. And besides, there are many wonderful locally-prepared food to be found at the farmers market — things like scones, mochas, cookies and cakes — in which I often indulge.
The more I think about it, the more I see my local farmers market as the solution to every problem. Concerned about global warming? Why have your food trucked in from the other side of the country? Or from another country? Why not eat local and save all of that fuel consumption? Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Want to get healthy? What’s healthier than fresh, local, organic kale? Throw away those expensive supplements and the boxed stuff you find in the health food section of your local supermarket and find a recipe for all of those tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, etc. piled up at the assorted booths. (Availability dependent upon the season, of course)
Want to build community? Let me tell you, the farmers market is a wonderful way to get to know people in your community. Perhaps the vendors might view me as a nut, but I consider many of them my friends and all of them as cherished neighbors. So full of gratitude am I for the people who take the time to grow such wonders and then show up to sell them, I try to buy at least a little something from each and every one of them.
Worried about sustainability? Buy your food from the farmers market and compost what you don’t use, and you’ll be approaching 100% sustainable. Bring your own bags and ride your bike down and you’re not really taking ANYTHING from Mother Nature, you’re just borrowing things for a while until nature’s cycle reclaims them.
Are you concerned that corporations and billionaires have too much power and are taking too large a slice of the pie? Buying your food at the farmers market is taking money right out of their hands. Sorry, Bill Gates (yank), we don’t need whatever you’re planning on growing on all that farmland you’ve been gobbling up. Sorry Walton family (pry, tug), we don’t need you as middle men anymore, we’ll just buy direct. Sorry Monsanto (prying money from their toxin-covered fingers), we have no interest in your GMOs or Roundup. Shove off, we don’t like you and we don’t want what you’re selling.
Care about the people who grow and harvest your food? Why not get to know the people who grow and harvest your food? They might have some different beliefs or opinions than you do, but talk to them for a little while and you’ll realize how many values and concerns you share with them.
I have come to view those who work at growing and producing food locally for us as heroes. It’s not about the money for any of them but about the love of farming and gardening and about their desire to maintain tradition and ties to the land.
I find it hard to trust a doctor I do not see at the farmers market. Why would one whose job is to ensure health not buy his produce and other essentials there? What kind of example is he or she setting for his or her patients? I find it difficult to place faith in a politician or activist who does not visit the farmers market regularly. Here they will find people willing to work to make things better. What nutritionist, chef, or restaurant owner would not be a regular at the epicenter of healthy food? (I realize many of them work directly with local farmers and therefore don’t need the farmers market.) A clown, surely. Ronald McDonald, perhaps.
Our local farmers market is located in the middle of town, and every town should have a farmers market at its heart. It all begins here. It all begins with food.
I’m sure flaws and complaints can be found regarding farmers markets. I’m sure there are some vendors who are less pesticide-free than others, some who are more environmentally aware than others. But its potential to make things better on a local level is immense, its impact immediate. I could go on all day, but I have some vegetables to clean and a salad to make.