On 16 Oct 2008 at 20:14, George Frantz wrote: Thanks for the clarification George. Never having been to the markets you mentioned, I pictured them more as the wholesale markets that large cities have - I think it was the discussion of deliveries at 4 am by someone! :)
More questions and comments below.. The vendors themselves would in general > not be producing, but rather they would be buying from local > producers. That is how the Lancaster and Reading Terminal markets > operate. > > Just by way of example the booths in a central market in Ithaca > could be outlets for local bakeries, local meat, fish and poultry > shops, green grocers, specialty food producers. It could a place > where, just for example sake, Ithaca Bakery, Collegtown Bagels, > Eddydale Farms, Greenstar, Ithaca Coffee, Ithaca Soy, and a host of > other local food producers could be found under one roof. Other > vendors could be small food stands, ice cream stands and candy > shops. Some comments on the above list. I have no personal experience running a retail operation but my friend and co-manager Jylle is also the owner of Good Groceries, our local natural foods store in Watkins. She does buy from local farmers, coffee roasters, and Ithaca soy and such folk directly. She would buy a greater variety of products locally but they don't exist Do you know if the vendors in Lancaster or Reading maintain retail locations in additional to their spaces at the central market? According to wikipedia, lancaster has a population of 55k with a metro area of 494K and Reading 83K with the greater Reading area being 391K Some of the businesses you mentioned already have one or more locations within the city. Many of them could probably not afford to open what is in effect an additional location. I'm not sure that having a bunch of vendors versus one has any benefit to farmers, though it sounds like it creates an appealing atmosphere which draws customers. One thing people here have discussed from time to time is taking a storefront that would be cooperatively run by farmers and local producers to create a year round market for only local food. Some people have looked into it, but ultimately balked at the overhead. Jylle and I have spent a lot of time talking among ourselves and with others for ideas that would relocalize more food. One idea we had was to open a cannery cooperative, maybe with a cafe attached which would showcase the products. We liked this idea as it would encourage farmers to grow more - and instead of tossing their unsold vegetables into the compost, they could take them to the cannery, which could produce not only basic canned items but also lines of sauces, soups, etc. This would also provide employment for local people with a living wage and the dignity of being a worker/owner. This of course requires an enormous capital investment, which is why we haven't done it. Without commercial cannery equipment the work is so time intensive (aka home canning) that the selling price of the products would be absurdly high - how many people are willing to pay 8 dollars for a can of peaches? No one I know. If only we didn't have to deal with money and capitalism, everything would be so much easier - we wouldn't have to worry about the price, just getting the job done. Thanks for listening, Lyn > > Some of the collaborative farming ideas such as the examples in > Vermaont can still come to play, at the producer level. Local > producers can organize to ensure the resources to create the steady > local supply of foodstuffs needed to sustain the vendors in the > central market year-round. > > Those of us who have been around that long may remember that the > original layout of Center Ithaca was a collection of kiosks. That > concept failed as a model for retail dry goods, but that downtown > space could still work as a central market. > > I have not had time to investigate how the Lancaster Central Market > is funded. I do know that the spaces are leased. The demand for > booths is also so great that when a space becomes available the > rights to sign a lease with the City are auctioned off and sold to > the highest bidder. > _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
