|
|
The market stretches to about 600 feet long, down both sides of 1st Street. Gates at either end of the market close the street. The site is sufficiently large to have musicians at each end out of earshot from each other: acoustic blues at one end, bluegrass at the other.
A woman with a net market bag drags carrot tops on the pavement as she walks. Another leans forward as she bites into a peach to let the juices fall on the street.
(continued in the “August Vignette” on p. 43)
This sun-soaked farmers’ market at the height of its season is part of a phenomenon. Farmers’ markets in Oregon and across the United States are experiencing growth in numbers and exceptional popularity with consumers. More than 70 farmers’ markets operated in Oregon during 2006, a result of steady growth over recent decades. Most of this growth is recent, with more than 50 new farmers’ markets opening in the past 10 years. Nationally, farmers’ markets have increased at a similar pace numbering over 4,385 as of 2006, an addition of over 2,600 markets in 12 years.
The reasons for this growth are complex. While there is a trend toward an increasing consolidation and globalization of agriculture and commoditization of food, there is also opposition to this trend through an emergence of interest in locally produced food for health and good living, and as a component of communities and their local economies. Farmers’ markets are a crucial marketing channel for small farmers who, as a group, have been excluded from traditional wholesale markets because the extremely low profit margins associated with those markets require a production level beyond the scale of a small farm. Small farmers have used farmers’ markets and other direct marketing channels to create a new entrepreneurial agriculture that operates independently and provides a gateway into farming for those with limited Resources.
In Oregon, the farmers’ markets many of these small farmers depend on were conceived and initiated and grew independently of one another in individual communities. The markets are funded almost entirely by farmers’ fees.