By Tracy Frisch

In the commodity world of the industrial food system, standards reflect the convenience of the distributor and manufacturer, not nutrition or taste. In contrast, local food implies food with a face and a place -- raised with care and integrity by a particular farmer. It’s a corrective to anonymous food that only PR firms stand behind.

With the local foods movement going mainstream, it was inevitable that Big Food (Food, Inc.) would latch on to the banner of local. After all, they have grabbed onto natural, sustainable, and every other term that emerged at the grassroots to distinguish more authentic food. Mega brand Frito-Lay presents a particularly cynical example with its advertisements in Maine and Idaho of their “local” potato chips!

Numerous sales outlets, many of them small, are also benefiting from the local foods movement while selling foods that aren’t from local farms. One example is small slaughterhouses whose retail shops sell midwestern beef and pork that they cut and wrap or make sausage from. Another would be farm stands that sell jams and jellies labeled for a local farm by the factory that specializes in this type of business. In neither case do the end sellers have to engage in any false advertising for customers to get the wrong impression.

But bemoaning such travesties is not the point of this open letter. Instead in the best tradition of the Regional Farm & Food Project, I want to call attention to our responsibility to put out own houses in order. Let us consider the truthfulness of our homemade institutions.

The Troy Waterfront Farmers Market Vision In the late 1990s, I spearheaded the committee that envisioned and then started the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market. As a cofounder, I recall our sense of purpose. The market was formed as an opportunity for local farmers as well as a community gathering place, or modern commons, if you will.

The market founders were absolutely committed to the concept of producer-only. Farmers would be able to sell only what they grew on their farms. We recognized that allowing vendors to buy in any products at all would lead to a slippery slope fraught with consumer confusion and enforcement difficulties. Allowing  exceptions can cause resentment and division among vendors.

Above all, we wanted the public to trust that the farmers raised the produce and animal products that they were selling. And similarly, for them to be able to trust that the craftspeople and food processors made their goods themselves. I recall more than one organic farmer telling me of customers at little farmers markets asking why they didn’t have tomatoes in June. When the farmers said theirs weren’t mature yet, they were advised to buy some from a wholesaler. That was not what we desired.

Farmer involved in the beginning of the Troy Market wanted a level playing field, as they generally still do. Reselling purchased farm products can yield more profits for vendors than actually growing them, and it takes much less effort! Savvy farmers predicted dire consequences resulting -- a race to the bottom with lower process and poorer quality.

PREPARED FOODS CAN BE LOCAL, TOO.
In the first year of the Troy Farmers Market, we were eager for prepared food vendors. In keeping with the mission of the market, we requested prospective vendors use local ingredients when available. For the most part, they said they couldn’t, due to higher prices. That was almost ten years ago. While some prepared food vendors use their own or other local foods, often from fellow market vendors, the issue has dropped off the radar I got another perspective in September when I attended the Maine Common Ground Country Fair, that state’s largest fair, along with 51,000 other people. The sponsor, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, has always required vendors to use only Maine organic ingredients in the foods they sell at this spectacular four-day event. The rule, like the fair, is over thirty years old. Fair organizers took a leap of faith with it and they showed what is possible. It’s The Importance of Integrity in l been a tremendous success, and a boon to local farmers and processors.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO REACH TOWARD THE FUTURE
The local foods movement is ready to forge ahead to the next level. Let’s push the envelope, rather than rest on our laurels. Here’s my recipe to ensure that produceronly markets are what they claim to be -- and that they stretch to all that they can become!

1. Farmers markets must decide to stop looking the other way at infractions, large and small, to their producer-only rule. At the premier area farmers markets such as Troy, farmers buying in and reselling product are pretty rare, but it has been allowed to occur.
2. Each farmers market, preferably in a multi-market collaboration, should begin
routinely inspecting all farms, with other vendors phased in, too. Inspectors must be knowledgeable and trained. Greenmarket in New York City is a resource for organizing a viable program.
3. All credible complaints must be aggressively investigated to dispel suspicion
of reselling. Vendors breaking this cardinal rule undermine the whole community.
4. Effective enforcement is essential to deter cheating, even when it requires withdrawing someone’s privilege to be a vendor in the market.
5. To raise the bar for processed and prepared foods, start by taking stock of what is sold at your market. Which prepared and processed foods are made from scratch? Are any local ingredients used? Do food vendors get ingredients that could be sourced locally from area farms, including their own, or from
wholesalers or somewhere else?
Then consider what constitutes an appropriate processed food. Does peanut
butter fit the definition? Should the product add anything to the local farm economy?
What does handmade mean? Does the market allow another food processor (or a factory) to “co-pack” prepared foods?
Where does it draw the line?
6. Market organizations should take steps to help customers become better informed, so they don’t hold false assumptions. Some market goers hold unfounded beliefs such as that all produce there is organically grown or that the meats all come from pastured livestock. Full and accurate disclosure is key,
whatever way a market decides to assist shoppers in distinguishing among products and vendors.
7. Finally, for crafts vendors, the meaning of local and producer-only deserves a
deliberate discussion. For instance, if a type of craft can be made with local raw
ingredients, should this be required? In the greater Capital Region of New York, we enjoy good access to top quality local foods. Our star farmers markets have contributed mightily to this ready availability. In the process they have created what some would call a “brand” that signifies integrity and authenticity. We need to preserve – and build on -- the enviable and fairly unique situation that we have created. Over the last decade, the environment has changed. Today words like “local food” are banded about almost indiscriminately, and more competition has developed from all quarters.

Let’s be vigilant to protect what makes us special. We must continue to differentiate ourselves and keep our edge sharp and clear. As we forge ahead, we can stay true to our mission and more fully realize it!