It’s been an excellent couple of weeks. I know, I was really vague when I was writing before and stressed out and all that, but the skies have definitely brightened (despite our
sucky weather) and I can report the good news.
I’m very excited about my new job (yes! I can keep a secret!), because one of my many tasks will be to run and develop my city’s very large, very popular farmers market (officially monikered
Market at the Square - see photo in previous entry). The position opened late last summer and I went through the application/interview process in December/January. People who’ve known me for a long time know how I feel about the Market and food as a community-builder; I’ve also written about it
here. To say that I’m looking forward to this job would be a HUGE UNDERSTATEMENT. I’m coming over, City Hall.
Of course, this mean that I’ll be leaving the
Foodbank in a couple of weeks. I feel quite strongly about the work the Foodbank has done, is doing, and will continue to do; I’ve worked with really great people who know how to
get it done… and we
have gotten it done under some crazy circumstances. They’ve been an inspiration, and I’ll miss them.
So. There it is. The cat’s out of the bag, the beans have been spilled, etc. I’ll have more to say about local food and local markets and suchlike, but do me a favor - if you haven’t already gotten this information to me from past queries, talk to me about your farmers market, if you have one. Is it big? Is it independent or is it run by a municipality? Does it have a website? Does it have its own facility? Outdoor or indoor? Year-round or seasonal? What do you love about it? What could your local market be doing better? Are you a lurker here? SPEAK UP! The comments are right down there!
******
Last night Cody and I headed over to
campus to hear writer/philosopher
Derrick Jensen speak. I’ve been reading his work for about 6 years -
Janna turned me on to his work - and never thought anyone would bring him to campus.
Well, I was wrong. And thank goodness, because his talk was excellent and lasted for 4 hours if you included the v interesting Q & A. What’s Derrick Jensen’s thing, you ask? His schtick? His
modus operandi? A good start would be to check out
these premises of his two-volume opus,
Endgame. Here are a few of my favorites, taken directly from the website linked above:
Premise One: Civilization is not and can never be sustainable. This is especially true for industrial civilization.
Premise Four: Civilization is based on a clearly defined and widely accepted yet often unarticulated hierarchy. Violence done by those higher on the hierarchy to those lower is nearly always invisible, that is, unnoticed. When it is noticed, it is fully rationalized. Violence done by those lower on the hierarchy to those higher is unthinkable, and when it does occur is regarded with shock, horror, and the fetishization of the victims.
Premise Five: The property of those higher on the hierarchy is more valuable than the lives of those below. It is acceptable for those above to increase the amount of property they control—in everyday language, to make money—by destroying or taking the lives of those below. This is called production. If those below damage the property of those above, those above may kill or otherwise destroy the lives of those below. This is called justice.
Premise Seventeen: It is a mistake (or more likely, denial) to base our decisions on whether actions arising from these will or won’t frighten fence-sitters, or the mass of Americans.
Premise Twenty: Within this culture, economics—not community well-being, not morals, not ethics, not justice, not life itself—drives social decisions.
Pretty heavy stuff! But it’s what he says about hope that really resonates with me:
False hopes bind us to bad situations and keep us from exploring possibilities… hope is a longing for a condition over which we have no agency.
I know many folks disagree with this notion, and that’s OK. I find his work incredibly positive and energizing and… freeing.
At any rate, we had an excellent time at the talk and I turned into a bit of a fangirl at the end, as you can see. You can read, if you like, more about what Jensen has to say about hope
here, and you can read another great interview with him
here.
So - yeah! It’s been exciting.
But I still haven’t done my seed inventory.
January 29th, 2008 at 3:25 pm What fantastic news!! Congratulations on the job—it sounds like an incredible opportunity!!
January 29th, 2008 at 9:05 pm Is this a wish list? Information about all vendors on the website is up there for me. (I know it’s not really a wish list. You are going to rock this job!)
January 29th, 2008 at 11:16 pm Congratulations! I love the Market! I’m sure I could think of things to improve it, but it is the highlight of our week and we look forward to it starting already. I will definitely check out Jensen. I am a big Daniel Quinn fan (created and named by business based on his work) so I’d like to see if there are similarities.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:05 pm congrats on the new job! that is exciting. our market is privately run and very strict. it has both agricultural products and artisan products but they are very tasteful artisan products, no kountry krafts if you know what i mean. they have a website: http://www.goshenmarket.org/ it runs about 6 months of the year…mid-may to mid-october there is one farmer that is certified organic but most of the other farmers are organic, just not certified. and most who DO use chemicals do so very sparingly. i’d trust the food i buy from there before i’d trust any organic food i purchased from the grocery store any day of the year. there is 1 vendor who sells eggs and there was a vendor who was going to sell poultry but she got too busy with her farm business and couldn’t do it (plus she keeps cranking out babies like there’s no tomorrow!). i wish there were meat vendors there. i’ve considered getting my license so i can sell eggs there but i’m not sure i want to be on the usda’s list with all the nais crap floating around. we also have a beekeeper who sells honey, several women who make and sell homemade goodies such as pies, cakes, jams, jellies, etc. it’s all good!
January 30th, 2008 at 6:51 pm I am open minded about considering most philosophies and premises if their foundation is one of hope. I need hope. In fact, I think most humans do.
January 30th, 2008 at 11:42 pm Congratulations, that sounds like a great job. Our local market is co-ordinated by the Rotary Club. It runs all year and they have just got stricter on reducing the opportunity for people to buy at wholesale and then sell on via the market. There are some producers who also sell on behalf of their neighbours and that’s ok as well. It is very much a food market with quite a few organic producers. I like that it doesn’t have distractions of craft or clothing though there are a few stalls selling plants and fruit trees. http://www.capitalregionfarmersmarket.com.au/
January 31st, 2008 at 8:24 am Congratulations! We have a fantastic farmer’s market here in Athens, Ohio, also a college town. http://www.athensfarmersmarket.org/page1.aspx About half the vendors are organic, although most are not certified. We have a few bakers, a few beekeepers, a new local source of organic milk (!), and a vendor who makes products out of our local Appalachian fruit, the paw-paw. (He is also making goat cheese from his goats that eat the weeds around the paw-paw trees.) We have a few stands that sell plants, flowers, and trees. Sometimes a master gardener is on hand to answer questions. Sometimes local activist groups set up a table with a petition. A new addition is a small covered area with a few tables. In the hot summer months, we appreciate the shade; the worst part of the market is when the kids get hot. If there’s some shade and water, there are happier children, and adults who are able to send money back into the local economy. In the summer, there’s someone playing a guitar or fiddle. The market is open for 2 hours Wednesdays and Saturdays in the warmer months and just Saturdays in the colder months. We’re in the midst of some change. Right now the market is an outdoor space in the parking lot of a mini-mall. The new owners of the mall are fixing up the mall and say they need more parking space, so the market is looking for a new location. The city was going to build a pavilion, but plans are stalled.
March 9th, 2008 at 6:53 pm we have markets that are run all over the city by the … food trust? something? hm. some organization co-ordinates them and I am not sure what the details are, but there are many city-wide, by neighborhood. our neighborhood’s is outdoors, in our “town greene” year-round, which I love, because when we go and there’s only potatoes and turnips, guess what, kids? you already know that is what I love about them growing up here, this agricultural reality. anyhoo!