Farmers Market Policy presentation last night

Yellow Pepper
Originally uploaded by AndrewMorrell.

Tuesday night was the now annual (this was the third one) presentation about farmers market policy, held in the Longworth House Office Building, sponsored by the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Robert Goodlatte of Virginia (he's from Roanoke, and the Roanoke Farmers Market is in his district).

Large farms have the product and systems to participate in the national and international sales and distribution system. "Direct" marketing of produce is a way for farmers to capture more of the value from the market chain. Plus, it is one of the better ways for truly small farms (under 15 acres) to sell product and make a workable, viable, profitable business.

Presentations by Steve Davies of Project for Public Spaces (one of the lead organizers of the session), Charles Kuperus, Secretary of Agriculture for the State of New Jersey, and Errol Bragg, Associate Deputy Administrator for the Agricultural Marketing Service of USDA were excellent.

One funny thing though about the person speaking from the federal government. He discussed the various initiatives of the office, including a Farmers Market Policy mini-conference, and how they hope that this becomes a more regular event. This mini-conference occured at last fall's PPS Farmers Market conference, and it was my idea. I raised it at a steering committee meeting, making the point that they needed to leverage the opportunity to engage federal policy types, since the conference was to be held in Washington.

It was weird to see how my idea is being translated into federal "policy"...

Afterwards there was a nice reception, with food provided by farmers who participate in farmers and public markets.

Public markets are the permanent buildings, such as Eastern Market, while farmers markets are the "temporary" events, such as the Brookland Farmers Market on 12th Street from 10-2 on Sundays, or at the Metro on Tuesday nights, or the Historic Anacostia Farmers Market sponsored by the Capital Area Food Bank, held at "Peace Park" on 14th Street between U and V Streets SE, every Wednesday, June through mid-November, from 3 – 7 pm (or until dark in the fall).



Index Keywords: food-agriculture-markets