I couldn't agree more. Living near and using the Atwater market here in Montreal, i have noticed a major increase in parking lots and traffic in the vicinity. Not to mention the ubiquitous plastic bag handout for every single piece of fresh fruit... I was filling my reusable bag last Saturday when a very elderly woman said to me; "oh, that's a good idea". i wondered afterward, since she obviously was born before the invention of the disposable bag, what exactly happened in her life to make her forget these reusable options? the sad power of disposables.

Yes! Couldn't agree more. The true "organic experience" of the farmers market is soured by the plethora of disposable crap and petroleum. Thanks for raising this issue.....

Oh boy, this sounds like treehuggers lamenting about how things are not perfect again.

Thank you Jilted.What a whinny article. This article is the wort tone that greens take, and I am disappointed to read it here in TH. Just to be super clear, please no more "you aren't doing enough with your cars and plastic bags" articles on TH. I don't come here to be judged.

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Author's note:
Apologies if my tone appeared a) whinny, or b) judgemental - that really is not my intention. I'm simply pointing out that if something is environmentally responsible on one front (i.e. local), it does not necessarily optimal on other fronts (i.e. use of disposables or bad traffic planning or whatever).

If we are going to move towards sustainability, we need to assess things for what is actually going on, not for just for good intentions. That doesn't mean to say judging or condemnation is in order, but just an honest assessment of what's good, what's not so good, and how we can move towards being even better. I'll do my best to avoid judging or whining, but I'll still be pointing out room for improvement when I see it (including in myself). And I'll still be shopping at the local farmers market.

Alex- I wonder how many justifications you make to continue environmentally unhealthy habits that this article makes you feel judged.

The reality is that we are ALL not doing enough — in that disposable plastic bags are still abundant and going to landfills; too many cars are driving unnecessary distances burning too much gas; and too many people would rather complain about those willing to remind us of this than to go and do more. If you already bike to the Farmer's market and use a reusable bag (I use my old school backpack: it's well suited to biking) then you can read this and say "well at least I'm part of the solution." And if you still use disposable bags, maybe reading this should inspire a simple change that pretty much anyone can do rather than making you feel judged.

yup. driving a few or many miles just to buy some local green beans and an apple pie is much less efficient than buying everything in one trip at the megamart.

and you have to factor in the farmers driving their pickup trucks to the city just to sell a few green beans.

some market stands also have gas powered generators for their fridges.

the trick will be to convince the megamarts to choose local produce over imported. or set up a new grocery store that has everything you need in addition to local veg. hmmm, an intriguing business idea...

You should also be sure that you are actually buying from local farmers. Unfortunately, most of the stands at our market are produce "dealers". There is actually very little local produce.

Some of the farmers will have their certified organic paperwork. Some will have their transitional-to-organic paperwork.
Some will allow folks to visit the farm, to see how the food is cared for.

Plastic bags can be used in small garbage cans at home, for the recycling.

A good device to protect ones hands, is something like this:
http://www.companycatalog.com/ProdDetail3.asp?url=printablepromotions&pid=5926

Now Grandma's hands don't hurt & the market has an ad campaign.

If those bother you, (they're plastic) then someone should come up with an upscale "painters can handle", which will hold the wider canvas bags & French mesh bags, which the Market should sell at their info. booth, along with a general map of the market. If a mass transit option is close, the market should sell, or at least have suggestions for which metal folding carts will fit easily on the busses.

Also, they should have a list of which farmers do a box delivery service & which ones will work specifically with local restaurants, & which ones have holiday gift packaging.

They should also have fact sheets for the difficulties the new regultions the Feds are imposing for farmers to be considered organic, as well as changing the basic definitions for what is considered organic, & the basic questions one should ask a farmer, because they may be growing their crops even better than the new Federal definition for organic.

If you want more out of a market, ask them to look into using tokens for food stamp card holders; the influx of dedicated patrons will bring the prices down, even enough for people on Food Stamps & WIC.

If you really want more, then add a small warehouse, like some of the bigger, better year-round markets.

Entropy will win out in the end, so no matter what you do the universe will eventually become cold and void of life.

As a farmer that does 2 farmers' markets a week I thought I'd add a few thoughts:

We deal with the plastic bag dilemma all the time. We're in a bit of a hard place at times. We have to please both worlds- and you can argue with me all you want but I have to appease people recycling their bags as well as those folks who want clean brand spankin new bags. I'm totally supportive of folks bringing their own bags but I honestly don't have time in the rush of market to preach to each individual about the advantages of bringing their own bags. (100-150 sales in the first 2 hours)
And another reality is a lot of folks forget their bags a lot. So we do have a stock pile of used bags for folks to use if they like. Bags Bags Bags. I don't know what we would do if we were required to not use plastic bags either. Any ideas for our salad mix, arugula, and other greens? I'd love any input.

As far as petrol and going to market- We live 45 minutes from one market and 30 minutes from the other. Why not live closer to the markets? Land is even more unaffordable closer. So our solution is we try to make sure our fridge truck is always as full as it can be when going to town. We make all of our restaurant, grocery store, CSA deliveries in conjunction with market days. It means a 4 am start and 4 pm return home but it sure saves on fuel. And the other day we deliver (which is not a market day) we share deliveries with a neighboring farm. We make deliveries for 'x' amount of weeks and then they trade off for 'x' amount of weeks. We figure it's best to have 1 full truck going to town as opposed to 2 half empty trucks and two people.

The modern organic farmer better be taking and selling more than just a few green beans, otherwise they need to redo their business plan.

And I do believe that certified organic is getting towed under by big farms. But didn't we all expect this? Don't you see the pattern? We work hard to make a good thing. It happens, gets swooped by the masses, and we go on to the next task at hand. But the net gain on good is always increasing a bit one would hope.

Sustainability is a journey not a destination. And it for ever will be just this.

Hope this helps.

Farming like there's a tomorrow

Chris

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Author's note:

Thanks for the input Chris. I certainly wasn't arguing that farmers shouldn't have plastic bags on-hand - you are absolutely right to say that you should cater to those who expect plastic. We'll never get anywhere if farmers' markets remain the preserve of the committed granola-eating eco warrior.

I guess I was just a) surprised at how many people didn't bring their own, and b) how some farmers would put one already bagged item inside another one before handing it to me, despite the fact that I was already carrying three reusables. Of course, I should have been more alert and asked them not to, but it was 10am on a Saturday. My eco-radar wasn't functioning at full speed.

Anyhow, I certainly didn't meen to denegrate the awesome work that you and other farmers are doing. I just wanted to point out that we are on a continual journey towards sustainability, and that all of us can make changes that get us closer to the goal.

Thanks again for the insight!

Yeah, plastic bags are a big problem. I take cloth bags with me, but still end up with a large number of plastic bags because some vendors immediately put everything into plastic bags even when I tell them that I don't need/want them.

Cars are obviously a problem.. it's somewhat difficult to find parking at the market I frequent (Saturday morning market in Pasadena, CA) but that's to be expected in the Los Angeles area.