I was saddened and angered to learn something at a farmers market this past weekend. If I'm totally honest I would have to say it doesn't surprise me. But to have it occurring in my back yard is almost more than I can bear.
Around here we're pretty proud of what we grow. After all, we're "The Fruit Belt." And this time of year the joy of fresh, local peaches - particularly the Red Havens that are a favorite - is much anticipated. Of course peaches are available year round in the grocery, but they virtually never taste really good, like true, just picked fruit. They can't. They weren't tree-ripened and just picked. But that's another story.
Farmers markets are touted as places to meet the people who produce your food, to have a chat and build a relationship. To get close to your food like in the past. To get fresh peaches in season. What's there to be sad or angry about?
What made me sad and angry was that I'm told some of the very people who we've been encouraged to trust because they grow our food and who we can look at eyeball to eyeball at a market are betraying that trust. How? In this case by buying Georgia peaches and selling them in peach season in The Fruit Belt. I was told that they even peeled off the Georgia labels and stuck on Michigan ones. Huh? How did we get here? Not only misrepresenting what they were selling, but since when did growers small enough to consider the work of a farmers market worth the effort, start stickering their fruit? Is there any hope of reconnecting people who shop at farmers markets to their food sufficiently that they no longer tolerate such practices?
In a world where the food system is so interconnected that I can have virtually whatever I want, whenever I want it, it my reaction may seem unreasonable. Yet the choice that is most important to be is to be able to confidently buy local produce from local farmers. I want the truth from the people I entrust to grow my food. I stopped trusting the big food companies years ago. Please don't tell me I have to stop trusting small farmers now too...
