Food Fight: Market Debate Gets Heated

WARRENTOWN, Va. - After a heated debate at Tuesday's night's Warrenton Farmer's Market annual meeting, two-thirds of the farmers voted in favor of transitioning from a “producer-only” market to a “Virginia-grown market.”

The market has been a “producer-only” market for several years, meaning that the vendors produce all of the products they sell. The transition means that vendors will be able to supplement 20 percent of their products with food grown by other Virginia farmers. Ten producers voted in favor of the transition, while five producers voted against.

According to Mickey Rhoades, market manager, the proposal was introduced because she and other board members heard complaints from customers last season about the lack of variety at the market.

“I was getting a headache from customers,” said Sabrey Alshakarwi, who has been selling teas and spices at the Warrenton Market for more than two decades . “They were asking why don't you have fruit, or why don't you have cheese?' I told them it was because we don't have vendors to produce those things.”

According to Alshakarwi, customers who buying Virginia-grown products at Giant wondered why those same products weren't available at the farmers' market.

“All Virginia farmers should help one another,” Alshakarwi said. “We want to carry Virginia-grown produce to improve the Virginia economy and to meet the wants of customers.”

Jim Mello, who has been selling at the Warrenton market for 21 years, said he wants the market to stay a producers-only market. “It's compelling that you can stand in front of a customer and say, 'I grew this,' and tell them how you grew it, and what you put on it, and even encourage them to grow it themselves,” he said.

Eric Plaskin of Waterpenny Farm in Rappahannock agreed. “I grow everything I sell,” Plaskin said. “I think it's dangerous to mess with that.” Plaskin said that his economic success is based on being part of a market selling locally produced food. “This is not about reselling,” Plaskin said. “It's about going directly to the source.”

Sue Olinger, a new market board member said that the transition would allow vendors to bring in early and late crops from other parts of Virginia, making “the market more viable for the entire year.”

However, in addition to emphasizing how a direct relationship between the producer and consumer fosters producer accountability, Mello also pointed out how opening the market to early crops risks “taking the top of the market,” and forcing those vendors who produce the same product to lower their price.

The handful of producers disputing the transition also largely opposed voting in the first place, due to a lack of specificities they felt were necessary to make informed decisions.

“We don't have enough information to vote,” Plaskin said. “We don't know what you're talking about.”

One woman added that “supplement can mean a million things” and to vote without a clear definition would be to “vote blind.”

Others wondered how the 20 percent would be quantified and enforced. “Are we talking 20 percent of the market value, 20 percent of volume, 20 percent of the the quantity in the display space?” Plaskin asked.

Additionally, according to Bob Wollom, who vehemently opposed the change, a number of farmers who would also have opposed were not present at the meeting. However, Rhoades said everyone had been informed of the issues planned for discussion. Rhoades said that she will be very stringent in enforcing that everyone's products are from Virginia by requiring local buying receipts that must be presented prior to being resold.

After voting, the farmers reached one agreement: If the market transitions to a Virginia-grown market, vendors who are selling products they have not grown must put up signs that inform their customers of this.

Likewise, those who grow all of their own produce will most likely want to market as such to continue attracting customers to whom buying locally and directly from the producer is important.

Copyright 2008 Fauquier Times-Democrat. All rights reserved.