THANK YOU USA! The Humble Beginnings of the Growers Market Pyrmont in Sydney
The popularity of farmers’ markets such as the Pyrmont Growers Market cannot be denied. Backed with noble ideals, farmers’ markets are continually rising in popularity from humble beginnings, but what does the future hold for this phenomenon? With a range of different theories starting to emerge on the future of farmers’ markets, a look into their history and growth may offer clues as to what we’re likely to see in their next generation.
Only in recent years has Australia joined the global movement of farmers’ markets, a venture spurred by the urbanisation of agriculture and supermarket boom. It wasn’t until 1995 that Elizabeth Taylor opened Sydney’s first market .. http://sydneyfarmersmarkets.com.au/ .. at Frenchs Forest. [ insert: north of the Harbor bridge ] )Taylor was also responsible for opening England’s first farmers’ market, the Spitalfields Market, in 1992. Since moving to Australia, she has left an impressive footprint in her home country with a reported 400 markets in the UK in the spirit of Spitalfields. It’s a success that has carried into Australia. Since 1995, nearly 100 farmers’ markets have opened across Australia, with ones such as Bondi Beach Market, Bundeena Markets by the Sea and the Pyrmont Growers’ Market particularly enjoying success.
It’s a popularity that can be accredited to not only the heightened awareness of monoculture, but also television and local government .. http://www.farmers-markets.co.uk/history-of-farmers-markets-c11.html .. initiatives to promote the event as social and fun. With an estimated annual turnover of 40 million dollars, .. http://www.foodmag.com.au/articles/Putting-real-farmers-into-farmers-markets_z149922.htm .. farmers’ markets are providing economic benefits which are attracting more and more government support. Unfortunately it’s also this success that has generated some doubt of the future of farmers’ markets and what is to be expected in the next generation.
With Australia’s farmers’ market community being in its formative years a look into the American industry offers some outlook. Farmers’ markets in the United States have been incredibly successful and whilst some view this success as a certainty to continue, others argue that the success could be a downfall. The first issue is that the large abundance of markets that have sprung up are outweighing supply over demand. There are over 100 markets in Southern California alone .. http://articles.latimes.com/2007/apr/11/food/fo-farmers11 .. and the number of them is making it difficult for farmers to reach them all, forcing them to hire employees thereby taking away one of the attractions of farmers’ markets, where a customer can meet a farmer. Local business owners are also complaining that the farmers’ markets are offering unfair competition which is making some local councils reluctant to support them. The popularity has also led to other additions to farmers’ markets being implemented, such as entertainment. This has led to larger crowds and is deterring some customers from visiting. Whilst some believe that these are the seeds to supermarkets all over again, others think it’s a natural evolutionary process.
Elizabeth Taylor has introduced non-organic food into the Frenchs Forest farmers’ market, believe that people want more than organic and that a ‘purist’ attitude isn’t the way for the future. Another path for farmers’ markets to take is the internet. Virtual farmers’ markets are starting to emerge for customers who may find it more convenient. Others even think that the Australian scene won’t adopt the very strict ideals of the global movement, rather it will fragment and each market will find its own niche.
History has shown that the most popular markets are the ones that have changed, which puts the Pyrmont Growers’ Market .. http://pyrmontvillage.com.au/ .. in the spotlight. Being one of the most popular farmer’s markets in Sydney, the Pyrmont Growers’ Market is considered an attraction for tourists and residents alike, even so much its recognised as an international event. With so many different results from other popular markets it’s unclear how the Pyrmont Growers’ Market may evolve, your guess is as good as any.
For stallholder inquiries, contact growersmarket@smh.com.au or phone Georgie Baldock on (02) 9282 3518
.. this one looks as it's been written by the present food industry, i don't know it might be the case in for here ..
Are farmers markets the way of the future?
By Miranda Saunders Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Are farmers markets the best way for you to buy locally produced food?
Well it appears they're not as they don't offer consumers any convenience.
Rose Wright is the Manager of Research Extension with Southern Cross University has been instrumental in setting up a new model of food distribution that gives farmers and consumers an easier way to buy local.
She says we need to rethink local food is distributed and connect it with local supply and demand.
"And do that in a way that makes it easy for farmers to trade and for the commercial food sector and the demand side to be able to source and supply that food on a regular basis."
"At the end of the day we're trying to make local food not something that you just do on weekends when you've got time to go to the farmers markets. It's actually something that should be easily accessible for local people to buy every day of the week."
Ms Wright is currently setting up a collaborative networking model in QLD, which she hopes will be rolled out across the country.
"We need to get people to think differently about how they do business, about the systems they use but we can't make it a revolution. it can't be too different to what they do already or it won't be sustainable and they won't keep it up."
"So what we've tried to do is model what a farmer does to distribute his food and model what the commercial food services sector and commercial demand size would do to source food and to try and link those with local distribution partnerships and facilitate that within that regional food network model."
Over the last five years there's been an explosion of farmers markets in Northern NSW.
But Rose Wright says farmers markets do not provide the way forward for buying and selling locally produced food.
"It's about convenience, ease of access and affordability."
"Some farmers markets do work but they do work at the fringes of consumers so a small proportion of regional consumers go to farmers markets or use box systems or direct purchase options." http://www.abc.net.au/rural/nsw/content/2011/11/s3380006.htm
F6 .. yours sounded really positive, and the thought of smaller in the future is good and soundly positive for many sound reasons, involvement/working for self/health, for three .. here the retail food market is dominated by TWO, Woolworths and Coles have 50 cents in every food dollar spent .. http://www.insideretailing.com.au/IR/IRNews/Duopoly-dominates-food-spend-4282.aspx .. dunno .. maybe our much smaller population could make it harder for local food markets in Australia .. anyway, lol, i decided to say thank you to you guys for doing so well at it, and started the post as soon as i saw the America mention in the top one .. am surprised and disappointed to finish here with any negatives at all for here or anywhere, but they always exist, even only in minds .. that's life .. lol .. :)
Beef Investigation By Kansas City Star Uncovers Serious Risks, Including Fecal Contamination
By Joe Satran Posted: 12/12/2012 11:47 am EST | Updated: 12/12/2012 11:53 am EST
This is the origin myth of the food safety system in the United States: The beef industry was a mess, led to awful practices by the profit motives of a few major processing companies, until investigative journalist Upton Sinclair exposed many of the atrocities of the packing plants in his 1906 novel "The Jungle," which spurred the establishment of federal meat inspections, improving safety forever. Today, beef and other meat sold in the U.S. is safer than ever.
This is the true state of affairs, according to a yearlong investigation of the beef industry concluded by the Kansas City Star this week: just four companies process more than 87 percent of the beef packed in the U.S., and take advantage of novel, money-saving techniques that significantly increase the risk of contamination by foodborne pathogens, leading to hundreds of preventable illnesses every year.
The investigation spans dozens of articles, tens of thousands of words and graphic illustrations galore, and is worth browsing around in depth on the Kansas City Star website [ http://www.kansascity.com/beef/ ].
Here are a few of the paper's staggering findings:
The investigators found ample evidence of serious problems with fecal contamination in beef at major plants, despite industry claims that beef was safer than ever. Fecal contamination is obviously the most disgusting kind of contamination on earth -- but it also vastly increases the risk that beef will spread E. coli bacteria, which lives in the intestines of cows. Here's a startling extract from the article on fecal contamination [ http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/06/v-project_one/3951690/beefs-raw-edges.html ]:
Federal inspection records obtained by The Star under the federal Freedom of Information Act include hundreds of references to fecal contamination problems over the last two years at four of the largest beef slaughter plants in Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado. For example, at one of Tyson’s beef plants, inspectors noted: “massive fecal contamination; multiple carcasses with varying degrees of fecal contamination; periods of very significant fecal, ingesta and abscess contamination.”
Another federal inspector at Tyson found “a piece of trimmed fat approximately 14 inches long with feces the length of it,” and another noted, “fecal contamination ...was so great...couldn’t keep up.”
One thing that isn't helping matters is the increasing use in the beef industry of mechanical tenderizing techniques [id.], which use automated blades and pounders to tenderize tough beef -- and drive E. coli away from the surface, where it's most likely to be killed by cooking, and toward the center of a cut of meat.
The Star's reporters also discovered that most cattle are fed a veritable cocktail of drugs designed to increase the efficiency of beef plants, at the possible cost of human health. About 90 percent of the cattle at major facilities are fed beta blockers that make them grow faster [ http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/07/3951723/drugs-bulk-up-cattle-faster.html ], but pose risks to human cardiovascular health. And the overwhelming majority of cows at large plants are given antibiotics that help them put on weight faster [ http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/06/v-project_two/3951718/overuse-of-antibiotics-in-livestock.html ], but may also contribute to the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in humans.
So at this point you may be wondering -- if this is all as bad as it sounds, then why isn't it illegal? But the Kansas City Star has an answer for that, too: the USDA and the meat research industry are in the industry's pocket. A full 30 percent of the $71 million that land grant colleges in beef-producing states in the Great Plains spent on beef-related research was given to them by beef-producing corporations [ http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/10/3954241/corporate-money-gives-big-beef.html ], for example.
Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. You're just going to have to buckle down and read some (or all!) of the Kansas City Star's report [ http://www.kansascity.com/beef/ ] if you want the full story.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
