Farmers' markets are "the embodiment of part of our
culture. One of the most honest business transactions is that
of the producer selling their own produce to the consumer and
farmers' markets are one of the best ways of promoting this." Hugh Fearnley - Whittingstall Patron of NAFM, November 2001
"Farmers' markets can revitalise urban centres and create
employment opportunities; they can attract customers to the local
shops." Nick Brown, Former Agricultural Minister
"This market is good news for everyone… It should
inspire consumer confidence in food production. But much more
than this, it will foster greater understanding between the town
and the country by helping to re-connect people to the land …" HRH The Prince of Wales on the opening of the Islington Farmers'
Market, June 1999
"Farmers' markets are here to stay." London's Evening Standard, December 1999
"Market revival gives a £65m boost to farmers." Daily Telegraph, May 2000
How are Farmers' Markets Different?
Farmers-only
All the produce is grown, reared, raised, baked, caught, or produced
by the seller. There is no middleman.
Borough, Spitalfields, and Portobello Road are food markets, not
farmers' markets.
Where does the produce come from? All the produce is locally grown. The farms must be within
100 miles of the M25. Many are much closer. Some farms are within
the M25.
Are farmers' markets organic?
Some farmers are organic. Others don't use chemicals or use them
minimally.
Why are these rules important?
Consumers can ask the farmer how produce was grown and how to
cook it.
Farmers are responsive. They grow new crops in response to requests
and rediscover varieties that are superior in taste which big
growers have abandoned in favour of other qualities, such as the
ability to withstand shipping.
It's good for the environment. Produce is not flown thousands
of miles to reach the kitchen. Packaging is minimal. Markets increase
the variety of produce. Only three varieties account for 94% of
the eating pears grown in the UK, but there are many kinds of
pears at the market. Mono-cropping is bad for the environment
and boring for consumers.
Produce is fresh. Delicate produce like salad greens and raspberries
come straight from the farm, not the packing house. Eggs are two
days old, not two weeks.
Where is your nearest London farmers' market?
Look at www.farmersmarkets.net
for more details of certified farmers' markets around the UK
How can we tell the difference between a farmers' market
and a 'produce' market.
A French Market is not a farmers' market.
Borough is not a farmers' market.
Spitalfields is not a farmers' market, and neither are the Covent
Garden Food Lovers Fairs.
So, what makes the difference? All of our farmers' markets have
been certified by the National Association of Farmers' Markets
so that customers can have complete confidence in the produce
sold, and know that there are real farmers at the market, or their
employees. If you're not sure - ask. At a produce market or food
fair, the products can come from anywhere in the world and may
not necessarily be reared, made or grown by a farmer.
ATTENTION NEWS EDITORS
Jenny Jones, Deputy Mayor of London calls for a dramatic increase
in the number of Farmers' Markets in London
A farmers market every weekend, in every major shopping area in
London, is the proposal of a new report being launched by Deputy
Mayor of London Jenny Jones, a Green member of the London Assembly.
The report 'Farmers' Markets - building bridges between farmers
and London shoppers' finds a surging demand for Farmers' Markets
amongst Londoners, yet with fewer than 30 markets across the capital,
many are denied access to the quality home grown produce.
Jenny Jones said; "With the current crop of food horror stories
it is little wonder that Londoners are crying out for guaranteed
fresh, home-grown good quality food. We want to be confident about
what goes on our plate. Farmers' Markets give shoppers direct contact
with farmers and provide a source for traceable, natural, ethically-farmed
food, helping to alleviate fears of facing the next BSE or E-coli
disaster."
The launch will take place at Beech Hill Farm in Barnet on Thursday
16 October at 10am. Jenny will meet the farmers Karen and Chris
Savva, who are supplying produce to Farmers' Markets across London.
The report is based on Jenny's fact-finding tour of Farmers' Markets
in London.
"Following a summer spent visiting London's Farmers' Markets,
I feel even more passionate about their benefits. Shoppers will
feel the same when they realise that in many cases supermarkets
are charging up to four times as much as Farmers' Markets for the
very same item.
Farmers' Markets are a shop window to the countryside, Fortunately
with these markets, Londoners are not as removed from the countryside
as we might think.
Many London Farmers' Markets carry on in the face of great difficulty,
and they need all the support they can get from local authorities,
government, and consumers, particularly the active support of buying
their products." says Jenny.
London Assembly Green Party Group
news release
Green Party Group Press Office: 020 7983 4964
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
Notes to Editors
Beechill Farm, (located between 103 & 105 Camlet Way) Camlet
Way, Hadley Wood, Barnet, EN4 ONJ. The farmers Karen and Chris
Savva have farming for 15 years at Beechill Farm. They supply
Ilford, Marylebone, Richmond, Marylebone and Whetstone Farmers'
Markets.
A Farmers' Market is one in which farmers or producers from
a defined local area are present in person to sell their own produce,
direct to the public. All products sold should have been grown
or produced by the stallholder.
National Association of Farmers' Markets produce is be 'locally
grown or produced' - within a 100 mile radius for a London market
and a 30-miles of the venue for the rest of the country.
The National Farmers Union claims consumers pay 80% more for
farm goods in the shops than they would if they bought from farms
direct. (www.nfu.co.uk)
According to the NFU there are 400 farmers within the Greater
London boundary and 15% of London's area is farmland. (www.nfu.co.uk)
Nana-Serwa Mancell (Miss)
Senior Press Officer
Greater London Authority - Green Group
City Hall
London SE1 2AA
Tel: 020 7983 4964
Mobile: 07810156886
We're often asked to provide a comparison basket - farmers' markets
versus supermarkets. Here's Cheryl's response.
Are farmers' markets sacred cows? Think about it, we're
doing nothing out of the ordinary apart from providing the weekly
shop. Should it be so unusual to know where your next meal is really
coming from, and is price the main issue?
Every so often, a customer comes to market for the first time, questioning
the prices they see. It's easy for a customer to assume that farmers
are charging too high a price. They're used to supermarkets, and
for the last 40 years or so, supermarkets have set the prices and
the standards by which everyone else has to sell. It can be a tough
job convincing would be customers that they're getting a better
bargain all round at the farmers' market. When I was recently asked
to compile a list of prices - supermarkets versus farmers' markets,
I thought it would be straightforward. After all, farmers' markets
are known to be cheaper and better value.
In reality, it looks easy, but if you take a closer look, there
are many differences that need to be taken into consideration.
Supermarkets have loss leaders. Our Lincolnshire farmers
can't grow carrots for the price supermarkets sell them. Our Berkshire
farmers can't grow carrots for the price our Lincolnshire farmers
can.
Can you compare the price of a locally grown British pea to one
imported from Kenya? I tried to find comparable products from the
UK but supermarkets will find the cheapest product globally. Our
farmers sometimes struggle to grow their produce but on the whole,
they won't change their prices, thinking that it's not fair to pass
on any deficits onto customers. Friends of the Earth with the support
of farming and public interest organisations, carried out a survey
of farmers in February 2003 to find out how farmers are faring under
the March 2002 Code of Practice and in general under current market
conditions.
More than half of dairy farmers (52%) said that they received the
same as or less than the cost of production for their produce. More
than a third of fruit and veg growers (37%) said that they received
the same as or less than the cost of production for their produce.
Nearly a third of livestock farmers (31%) said they received the
same as or less than the price of production for their produce.
So, the first case in point - at a farmers' market, it's the farmers
who receive the profit, not supermarket shareholders. That's even
before you consider the differences in produce.
For supermarkets, low cost and long shelf life comes first. Think
about the meat on sale at farmers' markets. Most supermarket meat
and poultry isn't hung, in order to get it onto the shelves in the
optimum time. It therefore makes up in price what it suffers in
flavour. All the meat sold at our markets is hung for the proper
length of time. This means that the price can be higher as it is
maybe five days until the farmer can make any money. During the
hanging period, water will be lost from the meat, increasing the
flavour and decreasing the weight.
Many people are wary about buying mince. Farmers at our markets
may make mince from off cuts, such as the ends of a fillet or sirloin,
not recovered meat or the cheapest fattiest leftovers.
In addition, you will find free-range pork and bacon at our markets.
Free range, (or outdoor reared, to use its official title, since
there is no legal definition for free range pigs in this country),
can be cheaper to buy than organic, depending upon the standards
of the farmer, but there is very little outdoor reared pork to be
found at supermarkets. Usually it's either mass produced or organic,
with a massive price difference between. It's hard enough finding
dry cured.** Customers can be sure that the meat on sale at a farmers'
market is raised locally, usually without any artificial ingredients
or preservatives. How many supermarkets can make similar claims?
What about those happy chickens we see trotting merrily across
our television screens in adverts for certain supermarkets. It's
easy to picture exultant birds, running across lush meadows when
you think about free range. And how close to the truth is it? There's
a huge difference in the standards given for free range. Does the
general supermarket shopper know what it means, because the truth
can be somewhat different. Under EC regulations, there are three
'marketing terms' for free-range table birds in the UK. 'Free range',
'Traditional free range' and 'Free range - Total Freedom'. Does
anyone know the difference, because I didn't.*** The welfare of
a free range chicken is not necessarily any better than a table
bird reared indoors. For example, the stocking densities can be
as high.**** At a farmers' market customers can question the farmer
directly. Should they want to, any of our customers can visit our
farmers themselves.
What's a barn egg, or a perchery egg? At a farmers' market you
only see two types of egg for sale - free range, or free range organic.
Again, customers have the ability to question the farmer, and receive
reassurance where necessary. In supermarkets, organic and free-range
eggs are clearly labelled. Cheaper, battery farmed eggs have no
information other than the word 'eggs' on the box. Why shouldn't
customers have the full information about the origins of these eggs?
The Food Standards Agency is encouraging industry to provide more
information on production systems, particularly welfare standards,
post-harvest use of pesticides and wax coatings on fruit and vegetables
and use of growth hormones. Labelling is a big problem. The number
of assurance schemes, ranging from Freedom Food to that little red
tractor confuses customers and as you probably know, some assurance
schemes mean more than others. Under European competition rules,
use of logos like the Red Tractor, which are indications of production
standards rather than origin, cannot be restricted to British produce.
Farmers' markets are a big plus for customers who see the importance
of buying local.
Think about the huge display of cheeses available at a supermarket.
How much do the sales people know? They can offer you a taste, but
they won't know much about the cheese - its origin, who makes it,
what kind of milk it's made from. All our cheeses are made on farms
from the milk produced there. Most supermarket cheeses are made
in large factories. Some are made from reconstructed powdered milk.
They are probably not made by artisan cheese makers in small batches
to the high standards that we ask for. I did find Keane's Cheddar
at my local Sainsburys at £11.49 a kilo. Unpasteurised too,
which is a bonus. At our markets Lincolnshire Poachers sell their
superb cheddar for £10.28 a kilo. On the whole, it's hard
to find untreated, unpasteurised dairy products in a supermarket,
and the cheeses won't be kept as well or taste as good as the ones
sold by farmers' markets or specialist shops.
Similarly - the juice at our markets is made from fruit grown by
the farmers, and pressed on the farm when the fruit is picked. None
is made from concentrate or from stored fruit. Many have won awards.
Given these points, I'm reticent to provide a price comparison,
because none would be fair. Supermarkets set the prices. Supermarkets
go for the cheapest, not necessarily the best. I'm not waging a
war against supermarkets. I think that we'll always co-exist, and
our farmers certainly can't afford to rest on their laurels quite
yet… All in all, we should be celebrating the differences,
not pointing up ways we're similar to supermarkets.
Recently a new type of supermarket opened on London's Kings Road.
Sainsbury's are pioneering a 'Market', with fruit and vegetables
in wicker baskets and produce in greaseproof paper. They say that
produce will only be stocked if in season, but also say that produce
will come from specialist producers around the world. After all,
everything is in season in some part of the world.
If customers choose to buy from a supermarket, I'd like them to
realise what they are paying for when they buy a £2 chicken,
or a dozen anonymous eggs. Not everyone thinks they can afford to
shop at farmers' markets, but when I added up the prices, they came
out fairly matched. Outside of London, I'm sure farmers' market
beats the competition hands down. It's a cliché to tell customers
that they can't afford not to shop at a farmers' market, but I hope
that the more people learn about the way that food is produced;
the keener they'll be to care. In the end, you can wrap a product
in greaseproof paper and display it in a wicker basket, but it doesn't
make it local, and it doesn't necessarily make it taste better.
Unless you're buying from people who grow the food, or those who
specialise in it and are passionate about what they sell, there's
no comparison.
**
Organic sausages
Sainbury's
Helen Browning £8.50 kg
Sainsbury's organic £5.50 kg
Pimlico Road Farmers' Market
Dan Green - £6.50 kg
Organic bacon
Sainsbury's
Eastbrook Farm £17.01 kg
Pimlico Road Farmers' Market
Dan Green organic bacon £15 kg
Outdoor reared pork
Sainbury's
Porkinson free-range pork sausages £5.75 a kilo,
Duchy Original Free range sausages £6.73 a kilo.
Sainsbury's outdoor reared back bacon £11.16 a kilo
Keith Bennett, Blackheath Farmers' Market
Outdoor reared back bacon £10 kilo
Outdoor reared pork and sage sausages £6.60 kilo
***Free Range chickens have a maximum stocking density
of 27.5 m squared
Half their lifetime has continuous access to open air runs mainly
covered by vegetation. Minimum age of slaughter is 56 days.
Traditional Free Range chickens have a maximum stocking
density of 25 m squared. They should have continuous daylight access
from the age of six weeks. Birds need to be of a recognised slow
growth strain. Minimum age of slaughter is 81 days.
Free Range - Total Freedom is the same as Tradition
Free Range with the added extra for the chickens of continuous day-time
access to open-air runs of unlimited area.
****Fowl Deeds, The Impact of chicken production
and consumption on people and the environment, pub. Sustain, 1999
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