Local is Logical: Athens Farmers Market

Emily Karol
Slug: Local is Logical
Headline: Local Fare for everyone

ATHENS, GA—From dark collard greens to ornamental gourds, Athens offers a wide array of local fare to decorate and serve on any dinner table.

The local food scene in Athens has grown exponentially with the advent of the Athens Farmers Market. Two years ago, Craig Page, the founder of Promoting Local Agriculture and Cultural Experiences (PLACE), brought together the small farmers in Athens to create the Athens Farmer’s Market.

“What we’re promoting isn’t just local food but sustainable food,” said Jay Payne, owner and farmer of Cedar Grove Farms in Crawford, Ga., and board member of the Athens Farmer’s Market.

The benefits of buying locally range from supporting the local community to eating healthier to helping the environment.

“It’s a win, win, win situation in every sense because it’s good for the environment, the local economy, building a community and personal and public health,” Page said.

Buying locally not only supports the small farmer but also helps the other local businesses in the community. Conventional farming focused on large-scale production puts most of its profits into banks in order to take out even larger loans for expansion. The money gets tied up in the corporate track instead of promoting a local, sustainable economy, explained Payne. Farmers such as Payne put their money back into the community, supporting other local businesses, who in turn usually show up at the Farmers’ Market on Saturdays.

The Athens Farmers’ Market located at Bishop Park off Sunset Drive hosts a wide variety of local vendors, including 19 farmers, 7 food vendors, 15 non-profits and 20 craftspeople.

“It’s more enjoyable than going to Kroger, and you know you’re supporting the local community,” said Martha Mowrer, a mom of two whose husband plays music at the market.

From its inception, The Athens Farmers’ Market board focused its efforts on creating a local, sustainable community. There are a few guidelines for the vendors that sell at the market, however. First, the vendor has to be local, which is defined by the board as living within a 26 county area surrounding Athens. Secondly, the vendors must grow or make everything they sell at the market. Finally, the production of the goods must be sustainable.

Local, sustainable food has health benefits as well. Local food is not grown to be shipped across the country. Instead, it is usually picked a day or two before the market to ensure freshness and quality.

“What makes me feel good is watching all the families with little kids come to the market on Saturday. I know that they’re getting the nutrition and high quality food that they need,” Payne said.

The average US farmer, according to Payne, uses more than one billion pounds of insecticide per year. That’s three pounds of insecticide per person. The local farmers at the Farmers’ Market use sustainable, organic practices, so that consumers can avoid the potential negative effects from chemicals. Knowing what is in your food and being able to interact directly with the farmer is key to sustaining a healthy diet, explains Payne.

“Some people enjoy the interaction,” said Chris Lutz, owner of Roots Farm in Lexington and a member of the Farmers Market board. “They ask about the food and how to prepare it. We give them recipes.”

This exchange of information and food also creates an educational and community-oriented atmosphere that is imperative to promoting local, sustainable agriculture.

“[The kids] know that the people here are farmers, and they enjoy picking the flowers. It’s definitely more educational than going to Kroger,” Mowrer said.

Stacy Gay, also a mother of two and resident of Athens, agrees.

“We walk around and talk about where the food comes from. It’s an important connection [our kids] to see,” she said.

Not only does the market provide an education usually not found always inside the walls of schools, but it also encourages stronger family and community connections.

“We’re starting to learn people’s names and figuring out who’s the cook in the family, who’s trying to eat healthier,” said Jackie and Alex Coburn, owners of Front Field Farm in Covington, Ga.

The Coburns also added, “Customers will be here for an hour, hour and a half talking and seeing their neighbors. There is definitely a community feel.”

“I look forward to the Farmers Market every Saturday,” said Erin Wilson, a psychology major at the University of Georgia. “I always see someone I know, and I love chatting with the farmers. They’re so helpful.”

Local, sustainable food also reaches beyond the boundaries of the community and encourages greater environmental stewardship and health.

“People have become really distant from the origins of their food,” Lutz said.

Strawberries that travel from California create a much larger and farther-reaching carbon footprint than ones that come from two counties over. According to Payne, 18 percent of fossil fuels in the United States are used for food production.

“Small, sustainable, local farmers are a part of the solution,” Payne said.

Local farmers use considerably less fossil fuels because the shipping distances and packaging of the food are drastically decreased.

When the farmers’ market closes after Nov. 14, there are still very practical options for buying locally. Athens.locallygrown.net features most of the farmers that sell at the market, including Lutz and Payne, and each week you can select the produce that you want and pick it up from the drop-off site on Broad Street near the Alps Street intersection.