Common Greens

I just read my last entry and I was so surprised it was March.  Forget that, it's now the END of April and the markets are actually starting in 4 days!  But we're ready.  That's the good news. 

We've had to give up the Yountville market, but our vendor friend Chambier has taken up the slack and will be running the show up there.  If you were a vendor interested in attending that market then Chambier will be interested in talking to you:  707-939-7930.

I just finished up an HOUR on the radio with Nancy Levenberg.  Nancy is the CEO of the St Helena Chamber of Commerce and a great friend of mine.  She hosts the "everybody's business" show on KVON 1440AM on Fridays at 3pm.  I got to blab for an entire HOUR about farmers markets.  I'm waiting to hear from friends as to how stupid I sounded.  All I know is that for 60 minutes there was NO dead air and we didn't even get to all the different topics that we might have spoken about.

One of those topics that we didn't quite get to was the Farmers Market Advisory Committee and the $40,000 that the "industry" is short on their budget.  In a nutshell, every quarter that a farmers market occurs, the "market" pays the CDFA (California Department of Food and Agriculture) .60 (cents) per farmer per week.  So, for example, you've about 20 farmers at the market per week, there are 13 weeks in the quarter.  You'd pay the State Ag people $156 per quarter.  Obviously some markets have more like 60 farmers per week so the fees can be considerably higher. 

It's an honor system.  The Ag Department sends you a form to fill out at the end of each quarter.  YOU tell THEM how many farmers you had.  YOU calculate the number of farmers by 60 cents and send them a check.  They really don't know how many farmers you had each week so you could conceivably tell them anything.

This 60 cents per farmer per week is what funds the Direct Marketing Program, which is what the Farmers Markets are known as at the State level.  This covers the guy who coordinates all the county ag commissioners, and his staff who create the agendas for the Farmers Market Advisory Committee, of which I happen to be a member. 

When the Direct Marketing program was first conceived the State put money into.  They funded it for years and years.  And then just a few years ago they decided that with about 350 farmers market (at the time) throughout the state it might be time for the industry to start funding itself.  That's when they came up with this 60 cents per farmer thing.

Of course, 60 cents was never really enough.  I think that first year they went $40,000 over budget.  That $40,000 has been hanging around now for several years and finally, this year, the guys at the state level are putting their foot down and saying that we have to cut the budget and work within what we're collecting.  Of course, now we're up to closer to 500 farmers markets per year.  It's somewhere around 450 and seasonally it might be about 500.

The whole program runs for under $200,000 a year and they're quibbling over $40k.  I don't get it.  The advisory committee has spoken at length that the 60 cent thing should have been a dollar in the first place and now CACASA (the Ag Commissioners from all around the state) are thinking it should be $3 per farmer per week.

All I know is that we've got nearly 500 farmers markets in the state and an advisory committee that is supposed to be advising and it seems no one's actually listening.  Because the advisory committee can't sponsor legislation there needs to be someone stepping forward who can push this thing through the legislature.  I'm totally at a loss as to the politics of the whole thing and I really am at a loss as to what the big deal is.  With a national debt that's now in the trillions, having an industry with nearly 500 "businesses" (and countless farmers and other businesses involved) that runs on what I can only describe as a paltry $200,000 a year that happens to have a $40k debt sitting around, good grief!  That's just NOTHING.

I could be totally wet on this whole thing, but I'll tell you to "stay tuned" on the issue.  We're having a Farmers Market Advisory Committee meeting coming up the second Monday in May (the 8th) and I'm sure it's going to be a looloo as we discuss this issue and try to get the state guys to get their heads out and help us solve this without scrapping the advisory committee and actually fund it properly so that we can have REAL enforcement, checks and balances within the program instead of the rather haphazard enforcement that we can afford now.

Aaaarrrrgh.  OK, well, both of you who apparently read this, hope that was enjoyable.  Hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll have "Real Tales FromThe Market" to tell and something more entertaining than crabby politics and finance issues.

Joan.

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