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	Former Au Sable Graduate Fellows Dave Timmer and Brook Wilke discuss their experience running local farmers markets and how they determine appropriate &quot;local&quot; vendors.&nbsp;This continues their conversation from&nbsp;<a href="http://ausable.org/news_and_resources/blog/conversations_local_agriculture_and_the_church">Part 1</a>, where they discuss their churches&#39; roles in spurring local food.</p>
<p><img alt="" class="float-right" src="http://ausable.org/images/uploads/general/Richland-Vendor-187pxl.jpg" />
	<strong>Brook Wilke</strong>: Dave, one of the guidelines we have for our farmers market is that vendors must be the producers of the products that they are selling, and they must be from the State of Michigan. We do allow vendors to broker 10% of their product as long as it&#39;s from Michigan and not mass-produced. Many other markets in the area do not follow these guidelines and allow produce to be sold from distant areas or just fail to enforce their &quot;local&quot; rules. I think about this often and am dealing with the rule regularly as we have vendors applying to sell at the market. I&#39;m wondering how you deal with the &quot;local&quot; issue at your market? And, what are your thoughts on the importance of markets restricting vendors to sell local products? Is it important to make this restriction to help further the local food system, or not?&nbsp;</p>
";s:10:"field_id_3";s:11082:"<p>
	Former Au Sable Graduate Fellows Dave Timmer and Brook Wilke discuss their experience running local farmers markets and how they determine appropriate &quot;local&quot; vendors. &nbsp;This continues their conversation from <a href="/news_and_resources/blog/conversations_local_agriculture_and_the_church">Part 1</a>, where they discuss their churches&#39; roles in spurring local food.</p>
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	<strong><img alt="" src="http://ausable.org/images/uploads/general/Richland-Vendor-187pxl.jpg" style="float: right; width: 187px; height: 228px; " /></strong> <strong>Brook Wilke</strong>: Dave, one of the guidelines we have for our farmers market is that vendors must be the producers of the products that they are selling, and they must be from the State of Michigan. We do allow vendors to broker 10% of their product as long as it&#39;s from Michigan and not mass-produced. Many other markets in the area do not follow these guidelines and allow produce to be sold from distant areas or just fail to enforce their &quot;local&quot; rules. I think about this often and am dealing with the rule regularly as we have vendors applying to sell at the market. I&#39;m wondering how you deal with the &quot;local&quot; issue at your market? And, what are your thoughts on the importance of markets restricting vendors to sell local products? Is it important to make this restriction to help further the local food system, or not?&nbsp;</p>
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	<strong>Dave Timmer</strong>: Brook, we also have the &quot;local&quot; guideline - locally grown and locally produced products. &nbsp;I think it&rsquo;s a good rule. &nbsp;This should be the ultimate goal of any farmers market, right? &nbsp;It should work to strengthen and support the local economy. &nbsp;What I found last year is that the farmer&rsquo;s market became a testing ground for people who were trying out a new business - several people who might have had an idea for selling soap, paintings, jewelry, and other crafts. &nbsp;They saw the market as a low-risk attempt to see if their goods will sell. &nbsp;On the produce side of things, farmers markets are crucial venues for small farms to market their produce. &nbsp;They need as many venues as possible if they are going to make it. &nbsp;A market is crucial for any community that values a local economy (particularly a local food economy). &nbsp;If it doesn&#39;t, then we might as well just put a Wal-Mart downtown. &nbsp;</p>
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	I think the question, though, is what defines local. &nbsp;Here in Lynden, we are in Western Washington - west of the Cascade Mountains and east of the Salish Sea. &nbsp;It is a unique place -- climate, soils, and growing season. &nbsp;We have a long but cool growing season. &nbsp; We are also quite high latitudinally (our summer days are really long). &nbsp;There are some things that grow incredibly well here (cool weather crops - brassicas, peas and greens - also berries) and others aren&#39;t a sure thing (still haven&#39;t produced an eggplant yet - but hey I keep trying). &nbsp;For our market we&#39;ve defined &quot;local&quot; as our county and the one just south of us - essentially that means the far northwest corner of Washington State. &nbsp;But we&#39;ve also discussed exceptions. &nbsp;Just on the other side of the mountains grows some of the best apples, peaches, and cherries on the planet. &nbsp;It also grows some great hops and lots of wheat. &nbsp;I&#39;d like to buy some of those things&hellip;so I don&#39;t have a big problem with a local farmer brokering some of those crops from the other side of the mountains. &nbsp;The vendors have to officially request an exception to sell things outside of the county. &nbsp;But, there definitely won&#39;t be any apples coming from Chile and definitely no cardboard strawberries coming from California. &nbsp;</p>
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	<strong>Brook</strong>: About 99% of me is in agreement with you in regard to allowing only local vendors at farmers&#39; markets, but 1% of me questions this. Occasionally I will receive a phone call from a prospective vendor that I have to turn away because they are not selling something locally, but I wish that I could have allowed them. For example, a woman this year wanted to sell a contraption that would allow home gardeners to grow hydroponic produce in a very small space. However, the products were not produced or assembled locally, so it would not meet our criteria. I do, however, think that these types of devices might help people that don&#39;t have garden space build their home economy and extend to the local economy. Also, what about items that cannot be grown locally such as rice, or citrus fruits? Should a person partaking in a local economy avoid these items completely, or would it make sense to allow a vendor to sell these items direct from a single farm in Florida? I tend to think that customers can go to the grocery store to get these items and retain the farmers market for local produce, but also think that more products at the market would make it a more popular spot to be and enhance our goals of community strengthening.</p>
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	<strong>Dave</strong>: I definitely understand the 1% feeling. &nbsp;Of course, global trade is necessary and beneficial. &nbsp;I willingly participate in it everyday. &nbsp;The problem is one of balance, right? &nbsp;Our current economic system is so incredibly dependent on goods being cheaply moved around the globe. &nbsp;The statistics are hard to pin down (I&#39;m sure someone&#39;s figured out the correct numbers), but I&#39;d say well over 90% of everything we buy in the US is made or grown outside of the State we live in. &nbsp;We&#39;re out of balance. &nbsp;Besides the current economic system being ecologically unsustainable and economically inequitable, what happens when we simply just can&#39;t do that anymore? &nbsp;</p>
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	<strong>Brook</strong>: It&#39;s scary to think about times ahead when global shipping might be too expensive and throw us back towards more local economies out of necessity. Let&#39;s hope that it doesn&#39;t happen too fast so that societies can adjust properly, but fast enough that we curb the ecological damage from fossil energy extraction and use.</p>
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	<strong>Dave</strong>: What happens when it is too expensive to ship apples from Chile? &nbsp;When 90% of our economy is dependent on things being shipped around the globe&hellip;it&#39;s not going to be pretty. &nbsp;Anyway, so what does that have to do with our farmers market? &nbsp;</p>
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	I&rsquo;ll try to answer this. &nbsp;The imbalance is highlighted in our agriculture - something as basic and necessary as the food that we eat. &nbsp;In my county, which is very agriculturally productive, the food that is grown here isn&#39;t eaten here. &nbsp;The raspberries go to Japan and the milk goes around the world (in a powdered form). &nbsp;As we recruit vendors for the market, I&#39;m not looking to the farmers that go to my church to be vendors because their farm isn&#39;t set up to sell locally (at the market that started at their church). &nbsp;Lynden, the agricultural center of our county, as of two years ago didn&#39;t have a farmers market. &nbsp;Frankly, I still think we&#39;re facing an uphill battle with our market. &nbsp;</p>
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	Still, I think that hill is a lot less steep than it was even two years ago. &nbsp;There are a growing number of locally-focused farms popping up every year. &nbsp;There are now brave souls raising and growing most everything we can imagine locally. &nbsp;While we are still very out balance, I think the scales are starting to shift. &nbsp;Our market, along with the others around the county, are crucial outlets for those brave souls to sell their wares. &nbsp;Our market is one of many needed venues that is going to help lessen that pain of transition. &nbsp;Unfortunately, it still is going to be painful, but with this strengthening local food movement, we&#39;re setting the foundation for figuring how we&#39;re going to feed ourselves when apples can&#39;t come from South America and strawberries (and everything else) can&#39;t come from California.</p>
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	<strong>Brook</strong>: As you suggested, there are a lot of new small farms popping up, seemingly in concert with the many new markets that are starting, giving them a place to do business. So, it sure seems like markets are a springboard for supporting local family farms, but can we continue to extend this to really make a &quot;dent&quot; on the overall landscape? I would say that the farms selling grass fed and free range meat at the local level are a great start, but I see it as a greater challenge to move back towards family grain/livestock farms, with local marketing coops, feed mills, etc. &nbsp;I have to drive about 30 miles to find a feed mill, and I pass about three vacant old feed mills along the way. Also, the price of land, and the fact that it is increasingly being consolidated, are making it harder and harder for a family to get back into farming. So, it seems that there needs to be another avenue parallel to farmers markets to help support family farms that are doing their part to enrich the local economy.</p>
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	In the end, we can have faith that God will look after us, but all the more reason to obey our call to be good stewards and take proper care of the blessings given to us.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>
	In case you missed it, read <a href="/news_and_resources/blog/conversations_local_agriculture_and_the_church">Part 1</a>&nbsp;of our Local Food Conversation, or continue on to <a href="/news_and_resources/blog/conversations_farmers_markets_as_community_development/">Part 3</a> on farmers markets as community development.</p>
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	<em><strong>Dave Timmer</strong>&nbsp;took Winter Stream Ecology during a very snowy January (1999) and was part of the first group of&nbsp;<a href="http://ausable.org/alumni_and_grad_fellows/#GradFellows">Au Sable Grad Fellows</a>&nbsp;at the University of Michigan. After several years in the conservation field, he is now the Stewardship Director for A Rocha USA in NW Washington. This work includes watershed restoration, conservation science projects and managing Five Loaves Farm. Through Five Loaves Farm, A Rocha is working on ways to build a stronger local food system, including the establishment of the Lynden Farmers Market.</em></p>
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	<em><strong>Brook Wilke</strong>&nbsp;was born and raised on a grain and livestock family farm in Nebraska. He earned a Bachelors degree in biology/ecology from Nebraska Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. in agroecology from Michigan State University. Wilke is an Au Sable Graduate Fellow alumnus and helped start the&nbsp;<a href="http://ausable.org/alumni_and_grad_fellows/#GradFellows">G</a><a href="http://ausable.org/alumni_and_grad_fellows/#GradFellows">raduate Fellows program</a>&nbsp;at Michigan State. Currently, he manages the Richland Farmers&#39; Market in Richland, MI and operates Wilke Farms in Plainwell, MI where his family produces organic vegetables and free range pork and eggs.</em></p>
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