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This weeks featureFrom field to table - Are we finally coming to terms with the need to know more about the food we eat? Graham Sherwood goes to market to find out.
To judge by the rising popularity of the farmers’ markets now to be found in almost every county in the land, it would seem consumers are at last taking notice of the quality and origin of produce entering their kitchens.
The last significant food revolution took hold in the late Fifties, with the emergence of self-service stores. They grew into the ‘everything under one roof’ supermarkets that nowadays seem to have a stranglehold on our shopping budgets. |
Quality, freshness, and fewer 'food miles' |
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French vegetable market | A quiet revolution
However, following innumerable health scares involving mass-produced food, increasingly alarming environmental wake-up calls and improving awareness of both diet and nutrition, a quieter revolution seems to be taking place.
Inspired by the innovative French, who began bringing their own-grown produce to south coast towns in the mid Nineties, the number of farmers’ markets has grown enormously since the first was held in 1997. During the past three years alone, the number of registered markets has more than doubled.
Time was when farmers were best known for moaning about everything from our capricious weather to the idiosyncrasies of the EU Common Agricultural Policy. All disparity between their supply and our demand seemed hidden in unaffordable subsidies and mountains or lakes of food and drink. |
| Fine ambassadors
Now our once-beleaguered producers have at last embraced the opportunity to meet their customers face-to-face and have become fine ambassadors for both food education and the growing interest in organic and biodynamic farming. With over 15 million market visitors spending in excess of £168m annually, the extra cash flow doesn’t go amiss either.
The really encouraging aspect of these statistics is that more than two thirds of the UK’s farmers’ markets are expanding. Their popularity also seems to have a positive effect on the trade of retailers not directly associated with the market itself. |
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Fresh fish | From the land to the plate
So, what makes a good farmers’ market? Strictly speaking, and following the “straight from the land to the plate” farmers’ market philosophy, there are four main ideals set by the National Association of Farmers’ Markets (NAFM).
First and foremost, the products for sale in the market should be locally produced and reflect the immediate economy. It is generally recommended that the food be grown no more than 30 miles from the market, but the definition must be open to some interpretation. Regional, historical and geographical factors may come into play, with salt marsh lamb, locally-caught fish or Cornish cream requiring a wider area of delineation, for instance.
Similarly, farmers’ markets that have become established in cities or other large urban areas, many miles from a farm, may also offer a more liberal geographical interpretation.
The second principle is that products for sale on each stallholder’s display must be their own produce. In essence, this means grown, caught, reared, brewed, preserved, baked, smoked or processed by the stallholder. For primary produce, such as livestock products, the animals must have been reared on the land of the farm selling the meat. If the meat has been processed in some way, it must still have originated from the stated farm, maintaining the primary link. |
| Carefully governed
To help maintain the farmers’ market ideal, the NAFM carefully governs the product balance of each market, to ensure that no more than 25 per cent of the stalls represent processed products. This figure is allowed to increase to 50 per cent during the winter months, when many of the fresh products are out of season and unavailable.
Another NAFM stipulation is that the ‘principal producer’ must be represented on the stall. This means that either the actual proprietor, or an employee directly involved in the production of the produce, must be present at the market. |
Cheeses at a French farmers' market |
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Again, some wider interpretation allows for co-operatives, allotment associations and Women’s Institutes to take part. The key principle is the direct relationship between producer and consumer.
The final and potentially most restrictive ideal is that of operation, regulation and legislation. Naturally, it is vital to satisfy all the usual requirements of trading standards, environmental health and food safety legislation. It is, however, in the additional, self-imposed areas of education and transparency of manufacture that the real bond between consumer and producer is paying dividends. |
Probably grown more than 30 miles from the market! | A clear directive
Each market stallholder has a clear directive to produce, make available and display information concerning the method of manufacture of products, husbandry techniques used in rearing livestock and the farming philosophies emplolyed, such as organic or biodynamic. To further cement this transparency, all producers are encouraged to offer farm visits, important for the self-generating loop of consumer education and customer loyalty. |
| Friendly faces
It is sad to note that three-quarters of all organic food purchased in the UK is imported, and 80 per cent is bought from supermarkets, where the opportunity for additional discourse between customer and producer is missing.
But as the list of produce available at farmers’ markets grows, close, supportive links with both local and national government food agencies will eventually result in a better all-round attitude towards food production, diet and nutrition.
What’s more, the consumers’ knowledge of prime meat cuts and best cooking techniques, lost a generation ago, may eventually return via the friendly faces of this new generation of retail farmers. Their mission in life will be to both propagate and educate, a quest for which they should all be heartily congratulated.
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| Find out more
National Association of Farmers’ Markets, www.farmersmarkets.net
Thames Valley farmers’ Market Co-operative, www.tvfm.org.uk
Big Barn is an online directory of farmers’ markets, farm shops, ‘pick-your-own’ farms, box schemes, etc. www.bigbarn.co.uk
Real Produce is another online directory of farmers’ markets and local producers and suppliers. www.realproduce.co.uk
For French and other continental markets in the UK, see the websites: www.brunomart.com and www.continentalmarkets.com |
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