In the age of food globalization there is something beautifully nostalgic about a farmers’ market. Who knew that purple cauliflower and enormous daikon could be romantic? Or a passion fruit farmer so charming? It is a liberating experience buying fresh food directly from the producer.

Terry Lister the charming passionfruit producer.

The rest of New Zealand seems to agree. The first market opened in Hawkes Bay in 2000, now more than 50 farmers’ markets fill carparks and community centres from Kerikeri to Riverton, offering an alternative to anonymous super market food, apparently more sustainable produce and certainly more diverse products, in an endearing community environment.

But while famers’ markets have become an important economic and community initiative their claims to a more sustainable food ecosystem are disputed. Farmers’ markets exist with an aura of environmental friendliness claiming local produce with small food miles and a focus on free range and organics embraces an ideology of sustainability. But is this green image a myth?

A number of critics worry that farmers’ markets posture as something they are not. Massey University’s Professor of Agriculture Jacqueline Rowarth appreciates the important community role of farmers’ markets, but she is wary of some of their claims to environmentalism.

“The major thing that I get really concerned about is people saying that organics are sustainable and anything else isn’t.”

The major thing that I get really concerned about is people saying that organics are sustainable and anything else isn’t.

But the community value of the dialogue between producer and consumer is undeniable. The markets give the public an opportunity to support local producers and establish a sustainable food economy within their community. And the importance of self-sufficient communities was revealed during the Christchurch earthquakes, when suppliers could not reach supermarkets and residents came to rely on the local producers for food.

Economically the markets offer smaller growers a forum for their produce where supermarkets would have suffocated their margins. In 2008 American farmers sold $4.8 billion of produce in their local markets, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While New Zealand has yet to achieve such lucrative local sales, farmers’ markets around the country provide an opportunity for smaller producers to make a viable income through direct access to their customers and for a number of the stall holders, farmers’ markets have become their sole form of income.

Melissa Booker grows a wide range of fruit and vegetables for markets around Canterbury. But before she started selling locally she was nearly forced out of business.

“The wholesale market is dominated by big growers, so we were right at the bottom of the pile. At the farmers’ market, because we can go directly to the consumer, you don’t have to take the price that the wholesale market gives you.”

At Havoc Farm Pork, Linda and Ian McCallam-Jackson raise “happy and healthy” pigs, outdoors, on homegrown grain and they process the meat themselves. Thirteen years ago this farming practice was nearly their downfall as the wholesaler picked up the significantly cheaper pork produced in sow stalls.

So they decided to sell directly to the public.

“We started with a pig and a little truck, taking it down to the farmers market in Dunedin which had just opened. We have been there ever since. And that one pig a week has grown to 20 odd now,” Linda says.

The quality of their pork was so popular that they have since opened a store in Dunedin and supply delis and restaurants across the country. While supermarkets are flooded with anonymous imported pork – around 50% of New Zealand’s pork is from overseas – Linda advocates the transparency of the farmers’ market.

“People come to the market because they trust you and your product. They want to be assured of where that animal has come from and how it has been treated.”

Professor Rowarth accepts that the Farmers market can be fun. But in a world of 7 billion people she stresses science over sentimentality. Supported by research done by Lincoln University and Washington State University in the US, Rowarth disputes that buying from your local market reduces use of fossil fuel, questions claims of spray free produce, and disagrees that the food is fresher and healthier.

“Fossil fuel usage goes up because individual producers are in their individual cars.” This is certainly true of Melissa Booker and Sean Wilson who transport their goods to multiple markets each week.

“We know that organic products do use herbicide and pesticides,” Rowarth continues. “There is lots of research that shows that frozen food has the highest nutrient concentration because they are frozen within four hours. If you have a farmers market once a week it could be six days old. [That] locally grown foods simply taste better, there is no research to support that either.”

At the Parnell farmers’ market in Auckland, Sean Wilson of Miranda Orchards has sold all his heritage tomatoes, beans and zuchinnis, leaving just a few cucumbers and some tangelos still to sell. He has had a good day at the office.

Sean Wilson of Miranda orchards

“As a producer it is astonishingly validating to be talking to the person who is buying your stuff and they keep coming back week after week. They don’t keep coming back because they like me, but because it tastes good.”

The dialogue between consumer and producer benefits both parties. Chris Fortune, chair of New Zealand Farmers Markets, stresses the importance of the education that comes with this conversation.

“Farmers markets encourage education by promoting and reeducating about something we have all forgotten called Mother Nature. Mother Nature dictates when the cherries are ready, when the asparagus is at its best, when the apricots are tree ripened and that we can only buy those in certain months of the year.”

As a producer it is astonishingly validating to be talking to the person who is buying your stuff and they keep coming back week after week.

But Rowarth fears that the growing adulation for farmers markets comes with the vilification of conventional farmers. Farmers that she argues are more sustainable in their efficient use of land and transportation.
There is also a faraway fear that the worldwide trend towards local will eventually suffocate New Zealand’s vital primary export industry. A study by John Ballingall of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research and the University of Otago claims that if global movements towards local consumption continue it would significantly impact New Zealand’s GDP.

However, Steffan Browning the Green MP spokesperson for primary industries argues that such an analysis of efficiency fails to recognize the complete social and environmental impact of mass-produced, and especially imported food; transparency that farmers’ markets embrace.

“It is unfortunate that the pricing mechanisms of that imported food don’t reflect both the production means of that food, the total cost of production or the social aspect.”
Linda at Havoc Pork rues the lack of transparency of imported products and the affect cheap overseas pork has on New Zealand pig farmers.

“At the end of the day the consumer didn’t know if they were buying our pork or pork that had been raised overseas, indoors in terrible conditions. A person who comes to the farmers market wants to know the provenance of what they are eating. That is why people come to us because they want to talk to the farmer.”
And local food has only room to grow in New Zealand. While our domestic growers rely on the farmers’ markets, of the $4.8 billion sold in U.S. local markets the majority of this was through restaurants and grocery stores.

The U.S.D.A also highlights institutions such as schools and prisons as unexploited markets for local produce.
Despite mixed messaging the future appears fertile for community growers.