Our aims
Our aims are to increase farm incomes, and promote local and seasonal
foods. We encourage sustainable agriculture, traditional animal
breeds and heritage fruit and vegetable varieties and reduce the
gap between rural and urban communities. We provide advice to farmers
about what to grow, how to grow it, and how to market local produce.
The business
London Farmers' Markets is a small company that exists to provide
Londoners with fresh local food, and to provide farmers with a good
return for their work. We manage every aspect of the markets from
their conception to the daily running. We are very hands on, often
at markets helping out. Our producers come from within 100 miles
of the M25. They must raise, grow or bake everything they sell.
We allow no middlemen at our markets, and have very strict rules
about attendance.
We run 15 Certified farmers' markets in London, (as at December 2007) and estimate
that they bring £3 million pounds back to the rural economy each year. On
top of this, many farmers are now establishing links with restaurants and other
food outlets in London, selling to them directly. The markets provide the hub
to make it viable to drive to London. Farmers can then sell at market and deliver
to retailers. We estimate that at least 50% of our farmers would not be in business
if the London markets did not exist. Many farmers have cut out the middlemen and
no longer sell to supermarkets. A number of London based independent food businesses
such as artisan bakeries and preserve makers sell at our markets. They, and other
secondary producers will often use produce such as fruit, cream and eggs, sold
by the farmers at the markets.
LFM has become synonymous with local, seasonal produce straight
from the farmer. Our strict rules and high standards guarantee that
Londoners are buying food from the farm and not a wholesaler. Many
markets are opening up, calling themselves farmers' markets. They
allow all sorts of food from olives and bananas to olive oil. Some
even allow wholesalers in. We believe that such goods should be
sold elsewhere. Our rules exist to protect the interests of both
the customer and the producer. Without strict rules we believe that
farmers' markets do not have a long-term future.
There are social benefits to the markets too. People get to meet
their neighbours. They talk to people and swap recipes. It has become
increasingly rare for people to make shopping a community event,
but that is exactly what happens at a farmers' market. The social
benefits not only strengthen urban communities, they also spread
back to rural areas. Links are made, as customers discover where
their food comes from. Their growing interest in rural issues and
food production surprises and pleases our farmers. In this way,
the markets build strong relationships between urban and rural communities
that in many ways seem worlds apart.
Farmers Markets reduce food miles as all the food is local. Less
chemicals are used. More and more of our producers are converting,
or are thinking of converting to organic methods of production.
Healthy eating is encouraged as people rediscover the pleasure of
old varieties of apples, for instance. Children love seeing Brussels
sprouts on the stalk and may even be persuaded to eat them.
At the same time, we realise that there are many food issues in
London, from education to food poverty. We are working with several
organisations to increase the availability of fruit and vegetables
to sectors of the population who do not have access to healthy foods,
and are developing ways of increasing both school based and adult
nutrition education across London.
Cheryl Cohen & Mark Handley May 2002
The people
Cheryl Cohen is a director of London Farmers' Markets and has been working
with LFM since March 2000. She spent many years working in film, tv and radio,
(making a variety of food programmes & researching food history) with occasional
forays into catering. She has a passion for markets, goes out of her way to find
them, and takes an active interest in the politics and the every day decisions
concerning what and how we eat. Cheryl is on the board of London Food - see http://www.lda.gov.uk/server/show/nav.00100j003.
Mark Handley is a director of London Farmers' Markets and
has been working with LFM since March 2001, having formerly worked
as a market manager. Previously, he worked for the Royal Horticultural
Society and The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He spent two years working
on mixed farms in Britain and France and in gardens, using both
conventional and organic methods. For a year prior to working full
time with LFM he managed a number of our weekly markets. He has
a keen interest in increasing the public's awareness of food and
farming issues in the UK.
Both Cheryl and Mark are board members of the Farm Retail Association
and on the working party of London Food Links.
Nina Planck created London's first farmers' markets in 1999. The daughter
of Virginia farmers, she grew up selling vegetables at farmers' markets. She is
the author of The Farmers' Market Cookbook (see RECIPES
on this site) and was the presenter of Farmers' Market, a 13-part series on farmers'
markets, for Carlton television. In London, where Nina lived for five years, she
was also a journalist and a speechwriter for the American ambassador. In Washington,
DC, she founded Local Foods, a non-profit group working to develop the market
for local foods. Local Foods opened the Mount Pleasant Farmers' Market in northwest
Washington in May 2003. www.NinaPlanck.com
|
