12 Degrees of Freedom
"Farming by the measure of nature, which is to say the nature of the particular place, means that farmers must tend farms that they know and love, farms small enough to know and love, using tools and methods that they know and love, in the company of neighbors that they know and love."
                                        Wendell Berry
 
2. The Policy identified a number of options the state could undertake to preserve its farming resources and businesses without permission or resources from the federal government. Among these were measures for purchasing the development rights of farmland, taxing farmland based on its agricultural rather than potential development value and strong support for direct marketing activities.

Thinking Out Loud: Boston Farmers' Markets
1. In the mid-1980s Massachusetts Commissioner of Food and Agriculture Frederick Winthrop issued "A Poilicy for Food and Agriculture for Massachusetts".  The policy was written in light of what author and writer-in-residence at Smith College Mark Kramer called "A Crisis In Yankee Agriculture" (he co-directed a film by that name). Indeed, the Commonwealth's farming industry had been in serious decline since the end of the second world war. During that period Massachusetts was losing, on average, 20,000 acres and hundreds of farm businesses a year.

Farmers' Market Revival
3. The Department's direct marketing initiatives included support for roadside stands, pick-your-own (PYO) operations and farmers' markets.  What they all had in common was providing farmers with options to sell their produce wholesale, i.e. directly to consumers by eliminating the network of middlemen that make up retail markets.

Roadside stands and PYO operations require customers to drive to individual farms to make their purchases.  With farmers' markets growers bring their produce to consumers - ideally in densely populated neighborhoods in urban communities.

"A farmers Market is an organized activity occurring multiple times per year for the purpose of personally connecting and mutually benefiting local farmers, communities and shoppers. It consists of at least two local farms selling items that they have produced directly to the public. Farmers Markets have rules of vendor acceptance and participation that provide a general preference for local farmers above all other vendors. These rules determine the definition of ‘LOCAL’ as it pertains to that market, and may allow for other types of vendors depending on the needs of that community."  (Federation of Massachusetts Farmers' Markets)

In 1978 Susan Redlich, director of the Massachusetts Division of Agricultural Land Use hired me as a consultant charged with organizing urban farmers' markets in Boston.

I did not know it at the time but came to understand that thoughtfully designed farmers' markets can serve as powerful trimtabs in support of local agricultural systems.

I had no budget. However I had the great fortune of being approached by a high school senior named Michael Grunebaum who worked with me to establish a network of markets in several Boston neighborhoods. We developed a farmers' market newsletter ("The Stalk Exchange") flyers (see below) and met with community groups in a number of neighborhoods.  It was my job to recruit farmers to come into the city-- a very tough sell at the time.
4. As many as 14-20 farmers said they would participate in the grand opening of the Boston Farmers' Market season on July 8, 1978. When the market opened on a closed-off section of Dorchester Avenue at 9 AM there was not a single farmer in sight.

Around 9:15 Katchie Berberien and his wife and daughter from Northboro, pulled onto "DOT Ave" and sold out their produce before they could unload it from their truck.  In the process they probably saved the entire initiative.  That evening their fellow farmers saw them selling their stuff like mad on the local news.  The next week, the market got its 15 farmers and has been operating ever since.

Below (left) Katchie in 1978 at the Dorchester farmers' market and in 2010 selling at the Brookline farmers' market.
5. Thoughtfully designed farmers markets:
  • Offer farmers freedom from having to rely entirely on the retail market to sell their produce
  • Provide urban consumers with fresher, more nutritious produce
  • Encourage farmers to adopt more environmentally sound diversified growing practices
  • Help strengthen urban/rural alliances
  • Serve as a "springboard" for innovative projects/programs promoting locally grown produce.
Next: The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative