Santa Fe City Councilor Miguel Chavez would like to force the Farmers' Market growers to share the Plaza and Alameda with the Artist Market on market days. This would allow less than adequate space for the vendors who sell locally grown food.
To quote Michael Pollan, best-selling author of The Omnivore's Dilemma,
“The farmers' market is quickly emerging as the new public square in this country. At the farmers' market country meets city. Children are introduced to where their food comes from. People politic. They have petitions. They schmooze. It’s an incredibly vibrant space. The farmers’ market or CSA lets us reconnect through these plants, animals and their farmers to the natural world. We’ve always looked to food for that connection.”
In Northern New Mexico, our engaged citizenry honors the both the art community and the land cultivators. The creative economy is inherent to our culture--Santa Fe has always been a world class hub of creativity. Food cultivation is also a cultural tradition, and it serves to build community as well as our regional economy. Buying local food is the consumers’ immune response to predatory control of our food supply and our economy by corporate interests, whose profits do not feed significantly back into our community. Local food production uses fewer fossil fuels, and the produce is safer, more nutritious and more interesting. The ever present crowds at Santa Fe’s Farmers’ Market are clear evidence of the delight people take in building a relationship with the growers of their food.
There are many opportunities for the creative economy and the local food economy to complement each other. As the demand for locally grown food builds, it makes absolutely no sense to squeeze out the vendors who make their livelihoods off of the land. Local growers are rebuilding good soil, and they are a bridge to of our sense of place in the natural world.
If you're in Santa Fe, come to the public works meeting on the corner of Marcy and Lincoln Monday, Dec. 11 at 5:15 and tell the city council what the market means to you.
