Farmers and City Folk Find Common Ground in Purple Tomatoes and Spaghetti Squash
8 May 2006
Community Farm Alliance creates a new food economy in Kentucky as tobacco becomes less viable as a crop.
Squashes of all shapes and sizes haven’t been the only surprises for shoppers at Smoketown and its sister enterprise, the Portland Farmers’ Market. There are fancy salad greens and herbs, fresh corn and heirloom tomatoes in a splash of purples and oranges, greens and yellows.
These markets are part of a comprehensive plan that the Kentucky-based Community Farm Alliance (CFA), an Oxfam America partner organization, calls LIFE, or local innovative food economy.
“The big goal LIFE is to replace the existing industrial food economy with one controlled by and benefiting local people--both urban and rural,” said Ivor Chodkowsi, a farmer and former president of CFA. Building LIFE
CFA’s LIFE initiative grew out of changes to the US tobacco quota program and the lawsuit brought by attorney generals against tobacco companies. Realizing that tobacco was no longer economically viable as a primary cash crop, CFA’s farmer members knew they had to diversify and build new market opportunities. To make this happen, CFA members organized, worked with policy-makers, and used the media to push Kentucky to develop a long-range plan that makes building new markets for Kentucky farmers its top priority. (For more on how CFA organized to build LIFE, see Finding New Ways to Farm in Kentucky.
Kentucky has disbursed a total of $300 million in tobacco settlement funds to date. The majority of that money is helping to develop new local markets for farmers diversifying out of tobacco production. CFA’s members have been active advocates, ensuring that these funds are used for projects that truly benefit farmers and local communities.
For example, rural Bath County, where CFA has an active membership base, became the first county in the state to build a regional marketing/processing center with tobacco settlement money. The Bath County facility includes a farmer’s market, community kitchen, storage facilities for distribution, and auctions for vegetables and hay.
New Markets for Produce
CFA has also worked to make it easier for local institutions, such as schools and state parks, to purchase farmers’ fresh produce. In the most recent state legislative session, CFA members envisioned and helped write a bill that will require state agencies to purchase Kentucky agricultural products, whenever those products are available and meet agency standards.
And, CFA is breaking new ground in urban communities like West Louisville, where the farmers’ market managed by Patricia Bell is a key piece of this puzzle. The market closes the loop on the local food chain by connecting rural farmers with city dwellers. In 2005, CFA’s urban markets served 8,000 low-income residents with fresh food and provided additional income to participating farmers.
With the growing season now in full swing, CFA’s two Saturday morning farmers’ markets will re-open on June 10, offering Louisville residents in some of the city’s poorer neighborhoods a cornucopia of produce they could never get in the local convenience stores many are forced to use.
Limited Choices in West Louisville
More than 77,000 people live in West Louisville’s 12 neighborhoods where the average annual household income is about $16,000, the poverty rate hovers at 38 percent, and about 10 percent of working-age residents are unemployed. Only four grocery stores serve these neighborhoods, translating into one store for every 19,431 people, and the markets are hard to reach without a car.
Consequently, many folks shop for food at one of the 24 convenience stores sprinkled about West Louisville. But only six of those stores sell a smattering of produce—potatoes and onions, for instance, which have a long shelf life. Leafy greens are non-existent.
“People making the least amount of money are paying the highest amount for a limited range of low quality food,” said Stacy Brooks, CFA’s community organizer for urban projects. The farmers’ markets are aiming to right that imbalance, and offer a range of healthier options for city residents.
“If people’s environment doesn’t allow them to live a healthy life, they won’t,” said Brooks. “It’s hard to, especially if they don’t have a car to drive to another environment. Obesity and heart disease are more prevalent in West Louisville than elsewhere. All these things speak to food at some level.”
“All These Beautiful Vegetables”
Now entering its fourth season, the Portland market—the older of the two—doubled the number of shoppers it attracted between its second and third year of operation. About 1,500 people visited last year. Brooks would like to see the number hit 2,000 this year. And there are plenty of reasons for people to come.
“They feel like the food is safer,” said Brooks. “You can ask when they picked the stuff, (and there are) all these beautiful vegetables people get to learn about.”
Still, there are some hurdles to establishing farmers’ markets in poor urban areas, and it can take a while for them to take root. The price of produce is one of those hurdles: People think it’s going to be more expensive. In fact, said Brooks, that’s not the case.
“Usually, the produce prices are better than in the supermarkets,” he said, noting that both farmers’ markets also accept food stamps.
“We’re a better deal. We offer a better product at a better price,” added Chodkowski. “It’s a food access opportunity that didn’t exist before CFA.” But what do you do with a purple tomato? Apprehension about the unfamiliar can be a stumbling block for some would-be shoppers.
“Sometimes, you don’t know what an item is,” said Brooks, recalling his first encounter with a winter squash. “To me, it looked more like a piece of ornamental furniture.”
Cooking demonstrations and handouts with recipes can go a long way toward solving those culinary questions, and the farmers’ markets offer both.
A Hug and a Smile
For farmers, some of whom truck their produce in from 60 miles away, finding the time to man a booth on a Saturday morning when their hands are needed out in the field can be a challenge. So far, the Portland and Smoketown markets feature just 12 farmers between them.
“But you can make a good and successful market with just four farmers,” said Chodkowski. The secret, he said, is patience—giving the markets time to build up their clientele and making it worthwhile for farmers to participate.
“If we can average 60 to 100 people (per day), I’m happy with that,” said Bell, the Smoketown market manager. “The farmers would love to make sales of $100 to $150—that’s a good day for them.”
Her job is to help spread the word about the Smoketown market, located on the grounds of a middle school, and to make sure everything runs smoothly for farmers on Saturday mornings, June through October.
“I give them a hug and a big smile and tell them everything is going to be good that day,” said Bell.
This year, the markets will feature a new addition: the homemade goods of four food entrepreneurs who have access to a kitchen certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They’ll be offering their muffins, brownies, cornbread, lasagna, and macaroni and cheese for sale, said Brooks—and cementing new bonds between urban entrepreneurs and the farmers whose goods they’ll use in creating new products to bring to market.
“It’s not just about food access,” added Chodkowski. “It’s about food entrepreneurship.”
Looking Beyond Kentucky
CFA is paving the way for a new farm economy in Kentucky, and the state is now positioned to influence changes in the agriculture and food system nationally.
“CFA’s work has been bold,” said Oxfam Program Officer Jaeda Harmon. “They are creating a comprehensive, democratic plan to transform agriculture and the way food is processed and distributed in Kentucky. As farmers across the country grapple with rapid change in the face of globalization, CFA offers a valuable and hopeful model for the small farm community nationwide.”
As an Oxfam partner, CFA also has the opportunity to connect its experience in Kentucky to the global picture. CFA recently worked with Oxfam organizers to host a visit from Seydou Coulibaly, a cotton farmer from Mali who discussed the global impacts of US agricultural policies. To learn more about that discussion, read Through Week of Action, Oxfam Spreads the Word about Farm Bill and US-Peru FTA.
