Des Moines Register
10-24-07
Farmers markets feed quest for 'local'
Sharp buyers question vendors on where products are grown
By TOM PERRY
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
The outstretched arm of a construction crane towered over Des Moines'
Downtown Farmers Market for most of the spring and summer.
By October, a spiffy restaurant - Dos Rios Cantina and Tequila Lounge - had
opened in a new building that seemed to sprout up out of the blue.
The ever-changing streetscape of the Court Avenue entertainment district will
provide the backdrop this Saturday as the farmers market ends its 31st season in
the embrace of heightened interest in buying local and making better-informed
food choices, organizers say.
"You hear more people asking vendors more questions about their food than you
heard seven years ago,'' said Kelly Foss, director of special events for Des
Moines' Downtown Community Alliance.
"They want to know where it's from and how it was grown,'' said Foss, who began
managing the market eight years ago.
Questions go beyond produce, said Rebecca Sanchez Dunbar of Indianola, who
makes and sells salsa at the market.
"I have people coming up and asking about the ingredients,'' she said, adding
that she proudly informs them that her salsa is the only jarred commercial salsa
made in Iowa with fresh tomatoes and no artificial preservatives.
"I tried to make it with canned tomatoes because it would be easier,'' Dunbar
said. "But it just didn't taste the same.''
The oldest and largest of Iowa's farmers markets, Des Moines' downtown market
has been a local-centric event since its inception in 1976.
What's happening more than three decades later is that more consumers are
making commitments to buy local, said Matt Russell, state food policy project
coordinator at the Drake Agricultural Law Center.
This summer 1,835 Des Moines market-goers pledged with their signatures that
they would try to make 5 percent of their food purchases from local producers.
"That's more than double the number from 2004,'' Russell said of the
commitment from market-goers.
The signature campaign was organized by Buy Fresh Buy Local. It is a network
of local farms, restaurants, food retailers, food processors and consumers
working to increase the production and sales of fresh, local foods in the area.
The Des Moines market provides space for more than 200 vendors during a
season that will have stretched for 25 weeks this year.
Foss said she has heard from a few vendors that sales were down somewhat
this year.
"But then you hear from other vendors who said they didn't think they could do
any better than they did last year and this year their sales went right through the
roof,'' she said.
Unlike past years when crowd-counting experts were brought in, market
organizers did not attempt to scientifically measure attendance. But Drake's
Russell, who also co-owns Coyote Run Farm in Lacona, said he and his partner
were happy with this season's turnout.
"We saw an increase in the number of people looking for fresh, local foods and
many of these people are very committed to their weekly trip to the market,'' said
Russell, a second-year vendor.
Dunbar, who has been selling her salsa in Des Moines for seven years, said she
felt as though sales were slower than in the past.
Foss said market organizers have been pleased by the number of families with
children showing up at the market as well as the overall mix of people in
attendance.
"I think that community is supporting the market,'' she said, adding that on
Saturday mornings "it's like we have a town square'' downtown.
Reports from around Iowa suggest that attendance and sales were up at many of
the state's 174 farmers markets, said Barbara Lovitt, marketing specialist of the
Iowa Department of Agriculture.
"We're seeing more shoppers going to markets,'' Lovitt said. "We're seeing more
markets adding second days in smaller communities.''
Much of growth reflects an increase in the number of Iowans trying to make
sense out of food, she said.
"I do believe there's more public consciousness about food safety,'' Lovitt said.
"With all the recalls, you have more people wanting more information.''
Stephen Gross, 60, of Des Moines, said he would like to see more place-of-origin
labeling at the downtown market.
"I know there are vendors there mostly selling brokered wholesale vegetables,''
he said. "As far as I know there has never been a requirement that the food sold
at the market have labels saying where it came from.''
Foss said that in the last eight years the market has added about 50 new
vendors who sell locally grown and produced items.
"Just about all of these vendors have signs,'' she said, adding that the Downtown
Community Alliance does recommend to vendors that they provide place-oforigin labeling at their stands.
"I know there are people who are asking if they don't see a sign,'' Foss said.
The sign that most American shoppers want to see is definitely one that reads
locally grown, according to a study released last month by the Leopold Center
for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University.
A majority of Americans surveyed said they feel better about buying food
produced in the United States than overseas.
More interestingly, according to the center, about two-thirds of 500 respondents
"somewhat" or "strongly" agreed that local food is better for their personal health
than food that has traveled across the country.
Americans embrace this sentiment despite the fact that there is little or no
research documenting such benefits, the center's Rich Pirog pointed out in a
news release.
Still, the public's interest in buying local and making better-informed food choices
is likely to continue to boost farmers markets, especially in Iowa, Foss said.
"I think the sky is the limit here,'' she said. "We can grow our market because we
have Iowa State nearby and we have access to farmers growing and raising
terrific food.''
Jim Clark agrees. He's a program specialist for Practical Farmers of Iowa, a notfor-profit organization that researches, develops and promotes profitable,
ecologically sound and community-enhancing approaches to agriculture.
The increased interest in buying local "is clearly not a fad or short-term trend,''
Clark said.
He cited three reasons the local food movement is here to stay and likely to
grow:
- First, people have "a hard-wired need for reconnecting to the land and our
food,'' he said.
- Second, "alarm and concern about our degradation of the natural environment."
- Third, he said, there is real ''longing for healthier habits and lifestyles.''
Reporter Tom Perry can be reached at (515) 284-8224 or tperry@dmreg.com