Personal Injury Law

Bad Guys Disguised As Good Guys: Labeling and Sourcing Issues at Farmers Markets

By Richard Goldfarb

One of the first scenes in IFC's comedy 'Portlandia' involves a couple asking their waitress for the provenance of the chicken they are considering ordering. She comes back with a photograph of 'Colin', the actual chicken, and describes the conditions under which he lived before he died for their meal. Unsatisfied with her answer, they ask her to hold their table while they drive 30 miles to the farm where Colin was raised. Five years later, they reappear (their waitress still holding their table) and decide they'd prefer not to have the chicken.

I thought of that as I read Jim Prevor's report for The Perishable Pundit on 'Farmers Market Fraud', which included a follow-up as well.  Without question, farmers markets are opening rapidly all over, and it is not particularly surprising that some of the participants are not following the rules, leaving the honest participants with a bad name and consumers with legitimate concern that they are not getting what they bargained for in their farmers market experience. Apparently, similar research in Detroit indicated the same pattern as in Los Angeles.

In the spirit of the kind of people parodied on 'Portlandia,' weren't these supposed to be the good guys?

As it happens, I am related (by marriage, but we are far closer friends than the degree of relation) to Jennie Schacht, the author of the award-winning 'Farmers Market Desserts.' In researching her book, Jennie visited farmers markets all over the country, and, she tells me, 'I never had a producer refuse a visit to their farm and what I saw every place I visited, around the country, appeared authentic. (I didn't verify pesticide levels or other claims.).' For her work, of course, she needed to take the steps that Fred and Carrie parodied on 'Portlandia.' What is the ordinary, non-cookbook author, non-obsessed consumer to do?

California is considering steps to deal with this issue, including raising the fees charged to farmers market participants from 60 cents to four dollars per market day, in order to increase the number of inspectors. One critic of the raised fee contends that dollars will not necessarily increase expertise. While Jennie Schacht suggests getting to know your producer can help, one of the letter writers to the Perishable Pundit notes that Bernie Madoff looked all his victims in the eye as well. 

In the end, I think the best regulation would occur by self-policing. This is not some free market solution, but rather a recognition that every honest seller in the marketplace has an incentive to weed out the bad apples, in this case sometimes literally. I recognize that farmers who attend farmers markets have a lot to do in the course of a day, and policing their neighbors' stalls isn't on their agendas. Market managers have a lot of work to do as well. But it is the honest farmer who will lose most if the reputation of farmers markets in general are diminished. 

Other, of course, than someone like me, who is already in mourning because the last of the year's organic carrots have disappeared from the Ballard Farmers Market.

Full post as published by Food Liability Law Blog on February 23, 2011 (boomark / email).