Alemany continued

One of my favorite colleagues, Debra Tropp, has reached out to me to offer some added insight into the history of this wartime tailgate market. Deb is a legend among those of us who remember her work at the USDA in the nineties, aughts and teens supporting direct marketing farms, when she was one of the few there who took farmers markets very seriously.

She sent me some slides from a 2018 presentation she did at the Agriculture, Food and Human Values conference, Madison, WI on wholesale markets which included this on the farmers market:

“John G. Brucato, head of SF Victory Garden Council (and Water Authority official): It all began when I received a telephone call from Tom Peryham, agricultural commissioner of Marin County. The pear growers in northern Marin County were in trouble. They could not sell their pears, because the canneries, under wartime pressure, were jammed.

“The pears were rotting on the ground. There were over 300 tons picked and boxed which could not be sold. Canneries were paying 4 cents a pound for choice pears, while pears in the retail markets in San Francisco were going from 17 to 22 cents a pound. We thought, why can't the consumer journey to the source and get the pears cut rate? With the help of the news media, we publicized the problem and showed people how to get to the Novato area. The price was 4 cents a pound if you brought your own containers.“

The response from San Franciscans and the Bay Area was so enthusiastic that the entire 300 tons of pears disappeared in one afternoon. This avalanche of customers encouraged the growers to pick the remaining 400 tons on the trees. San Francisco housewives were able to save their precious' 'Blue Points" (rationing coupons), and the farmers up in Novato were able to salvage their harvest. Other farm communities wanted to join in. Our problem was that, being wartime, we were on gas rations. What were we going to do?Well, "If the consumer can't go to the farmer, let the farmer come to town.”

A 72,000-square-foot vacant lot at the corner of Market Street and Duboce Avenue was chosen. On opening day, August 12, 1943, the lot was jammed with over 1,000 buyers, and dozens of farmers' trucks with fresh produce. By the third day, an estimated 50,000 people had walked off with produce from over 100 farmers’ trucks.”

These added details are important because it shows how a tailgate, direct to consumer market was still needed even with modern infrastructure of canneries and retail stores. This is why I am operating for now with an assumption that this might be (one of) the mother(s) of the modern farmers markets. Because as we know, the modern farmers markets are not meant to be the only way that food is delivered (unlike in earlier ages) but instead, help to solve problems often brought on BY modern infrastructure as this one clearly was. And because this market has existed for so long, it offers a linear history to the re-emergence and explosion in the number of farmers markets since 1970, where the number of markets was down to 700 or so across the U.S.

(I certainly expect to find other farmers markets that have a unbroken history that begins before 1970 but now follow the characteristics of the update version: producer only, direct sales, rain or shine (so to speak), a mission-driven organization or collective managing a set of public goals and rules. One such is the Ann Arbor Market which I havent yet explored but certainly has a long history. Did it always adhere to these modern characteristics?)

Those infrastructure problems include but are not limited to: middlemen needing a certain quantity and price to make it worth their while to take goods, the lack of a rapid response method/location to allow enough consumers to show up to purchase products at their seasonal best, farmers not making enough on seasonal products through those other channels to be able to bring their items to the city.

The Alemany market seemed to have served these issues extremely well and somehow to continue to operate post-war although I am sure it had pushback. I look forward to exploring that in this project.

The tension between retail middlemen and direct sales to consumers is at the heart of the modern farmers market story. The failure of retail middlemen to answer some needs are partly why the open-air market has actually gained support, as they cannot always rise to the moment during a pandemic, do not serve all areas, or support small family farms that are unable to wait months for payment or cannot offer large enough (uniform) quantities.

By the way, this is also often true of another segment of retail, what are often called public (or shed) markets; their infrastructure makes it difficult for them to adhere to the same characteristics as open air farmers markets unless the rules were written with the producer only mission in mind. If they do offer space to one of the modern mission-driven markets, it is usually a small part of their larger footprint (Findlay Market in Cincinnati on weekend mornings is one such example where an added farmers market is offered outside.)

Even so, almost every area now has lists of rules for open-air markets and the small (mostly non-profit) organizations that run them often have to fight requirements that were written for retail outlets that store food, or work under unclear restrictions on where and when they can operate.

I know that in my city of New Orleans the resurgence of the farmers market in the mid 1990s was not welcomed with open arms by all. Many pushed back publicly on the idea of food being sold “outdoors,” outside of retail stores or public markets. And even now, the city has a rule for those farmers who have any livestock that they need at least an acre and need to seek a conditional permit which means it must go through a series of steps (including public hearings and fees to be paid) for the city to ensure this one site will not have negative impact on the surrounding community. Unlikely to be an easy road for a small farm, especially when the city is in a developer frenzy with every open space in the historic districts in demand.

And by the way, here is part of the updated CZO for farmers markets (note the hours and markets per week restrictions):

FARMERS MARKETS (TEMPORARY)

The sale of food for consumption on or off the premises will require licensing by the City and approval by the Department of Health.

The retail sale of packaged alcoholic beverages is only allowed where such use is allowed as a permitted use in the zoning district in which the farmers market is located.

Hours of operation are limited to 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., with farmers market hours of operation open to the public not to exceed five (5) total hours, not including time for set-up and take down.

Size restrictions must be consistent with the retail sales size restrictions in the base zoning district, if applicable.

Farmers market facilities cannot protrude onto the public right of way.

Farmers markets are limited to one (1) event per premises per week.

I wonder if (generally speaking) municipalities that now operate open air farmers markets have a slightly different take on rules for these markets. By gathering fm histories from across the US, we expect to find out if that is true and to find some common characteristics. Luckily for me, my brilliant colleague Amanda Edmonds is working on her PhD on the historic relationships of food marketplaces with their municipalities; maybe not surprisingly she tells me her home state of Michigan has a large number of them and so her analysis has been extremely helpful to this project already.