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Farmers’ Market continues to put farmers first

According to environmentalists, the average food calorie in Canada travels over 2,000 kilometres from its source to your plate. It takes days, sometimes weeks, to arrive by train, truck and boat, often stopping along the way to change vehicles and be processed by distributors.

While a penchant for bananas and pineapples no doubt adds a few k’s to the average trip, it still takes too much time, energy and fuel to get into your body.

The cost of storing and transporting this food halfway across the country also increases prices at the grocery store, while at the same time lowering margins for farmers. According to Dr. Bill Rees, one of the co-authors of Our Ecological Footprint, farmers around the world have never been in a worse position financially despite the perceived advantages of global trade.

From the sustainability standpoint – and sustainability is the thing to be in Whistler these days – it really makes sense to think globally, buy locally. While less than five per cent of B.C.’s land base is deemed suitable for farming, our population is still small enough that we can still provide for many of our own food needs.

The agriculture and food sector in B.C. is actually growing, which is an anomaly in Canada where farms are increasingly being consumed by development and going out of business. Currently 250,000 people are employed in agriculture and food industries, generating $16 billion in sales. Production from farms and fisheries currently supply more than 60 per cent of our food requirements.

Part of the reason for this success is the quality of product, but a lot of it has to do with pride. British Columbians do make a point of buying food that was grown or caught in the province, buying B.C. wines, and frequenting restaurants that have a high local content. In doing so, we’re not only helping our farmers, we’re also benefiting the environment and the economy by keeping our purchases local and minimizing transportation.

And then there are institutions like the Whistler Upper Village Farmers’ Market. On any given Sunday during the summer, the Upper Village is teaming with locals and tourists doing their shopping for the week. You can even find chefs from our most popular restaurants out among the stalls buying fresh food for that evening’s menu.

This year the market will be under new management as Nicole Ronayne, a fourth generation Pemberton farmer, takes over for Lovena Harvey, who recently moved with her family to the Gulf Islands.

But while the management might be new, the quality will be the same.

The market is part of the B.C. Association of Farmers’ Markets, a relatively new organization that is setting standards for markets around the province, which had at one point been taken over by food distributors and flea market vendors with very little local content.

The association gives the following list of reasons for starting a farmers’ market:

Provides self-help for local and small farmers. Adds to local food economy. Reduces environmental impacts. Establishes rural/urban links. Possible town/city centre regeneration. Invigorates secondary shopping areas. Educational awareness of farming, seasonality. Fresher, locally grown foods available. Improves community spirit. Adds to tourism.

The market association has a few rules for members. One is that a market must include at least 50 per cent farmer content. You can bend the rules a little in the early season when there isn’t much available, but new farmers always get first priority over other types of vendors.

The association also advocates a 100 per cent make, bake or grow policy, whereby 100 per cent of the content available in the market should come from within the farmers’ market territory. In Whistler’s case, that runs from Lytton to Lions Bay.

Farmer’s from outside the territory are allowed provided that the outside farmer is affiliated with a local farm – a "friend" farm – and that the local farmer can answer any questions about the product for the public. The association is currently debating this policy, and there is a chance that friend farms will no longer be allowed.

For her part, Ronayne hopes that the association will continue to allow friend farms because it improves variety and gives the Whistler market access to tree fruits and other specialties from the Okanagan and the Interior. Some of the rarer items would also be disallowed, such as a sampling of ostrich meat from Williams Lake and natural cheeses from Vancouver Island.

She will make this argument at the next general meeting for the association in the next few weeks – just one of the responsibilities she took on when she agreed to serve as the market manager.

"Everything is still in the creation stages and the deadlines are looming," says Ronayne, who is tackling the job with her farmers’ work ethic and a good sense of humour.

"I’m still pretty new at this, and trying to figure everything out. That first market will be pretty educational for me, finally putting it all together and seeing how it works. There’s so many little details to take care of, but you know something is still going to come up at the last minute."

While there are no shortage of vendors who want to book stalls, Ronayne is just realizing how big a task it is to organize the market. There is a new board of directors for the Upper Village Farmers’ Market Association that handles many of the organizational issues, but a lot of responsibility still rests on the shoulders of the market manager.

Some of the issues she is dealing with include parking, signage and advertising, booking live entertainment, and juggling the particular demands of past vendors.

With the construction of the new Four Seasons hotel in Lot 4, parking could become a problem for vendors and visitors who will have a longer walk to their vehicles to contend with.

"We are meeting with the municipality to find out what our options are. Our vendors can drop off long before the market starts and park elsewhere, but our customers will have further to travel to the day lots. What are you supposed to do if you buy groceries for the week and a couple of big watermelons?" asks Ronayne. She is looking into the possibility of allowing some parking on the streets during the market, and using the parking areas in local hotels.

Signs and advertising are touchy issues in Whistler, which gives Ronayne the added problem of drawing visitors to the Upper Village. Although locals know its there by now, tourists have always joined the crowd to buy food and shop for arts and crafts. Ronayne says she is looking into ways to keep locals and visitors up to date on market happenings.

As for live entertainment, Ronayne already has musicians booked to provide ambience, face painters for the children, and Shiatsu and Reiki massage tables for sore shoppers. Because this is her first year, however, Ronayne doesn’t plan on organizing any special events until later in the season when she gets the hang of the day to day routine.

As for the vendors, the market should stay the same size, at between 65 and 70 stalls, and preference will be given to seniority, although farmers will always come first.

"A lot of vendors have already sent their applications for this year that say ‘I’m on these cobblestones here, and these are my neighbours, and I want to be in that exact spot this year’," says Ronayne. "Some of them are after the same areas. Everyone will be happy in the end, but there’s a lot of anticipation for the first day."

The first market is on June 16, Father’s Day, and will run every Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Thanksgiving weekend, Oct. 13. It will open again for a special Saturday Oktoberfest at a location that is still to be determined. Last year Oktoberfest was held at the Whistler Conference Centre, but with renovations planned this summer, Ronayne says the venue is up in the air.

The annual Hops and Crops festival will return on the August long weekend, Aug. 3 and 4. On Aug. 3, local chefs will pair up with local farms and food producers to put on cooking demonstrations. On the following day, the market will have a beer tent featuring micro brewed beers from across the province.

Every week there will be a space available for a local community group or charity, as well as a table for the people raising funds for the new Whistler library and museum. If your group is interested in booking this space, or you’re a local vendor with something to sell, contact the Whistler Upper Village Farmers’ Market Association at 604-932-5998.