2 posts tagged “farmers market”
Heart of the City
FARMERS MARKET
San Francisco
Every Sunday and Wednesday
United Nations Plaza
FARMERS MARKET
San Francisco
Every Sunday and Wednesday
United Nations Plaza
The farmers who participate in the Civic Center Farmers Market could and should be earning five to 10 times their present incomes. Besides the fact that we would die without food, farming is the only honest profession in the world. The people who grow food and bring it to us should be rewarded handsomely.
Fresh, uncontaminated food is an inalienable human right. Access to food should not be a privilege for the wealthy, a favor to be doled out by government officials, or a source of revenue or career building for bureaucracies and their minions.
The best way to accomplish this is not by asking for permission from government agencies. The best way forward is to be pro-active, and come up with a plan that allows the vendors to behave autonomously from City agencies. Other than the necessary permits and inspections, I am quite certain that the Civic Center Farmer's Market can "manage" itself. Ms Adams has been doing a wonderful job. Some sort of cooperative structure would allow the farmers to make more money.
Some possibilities:
1. Expand the market to four or five days a week. This would allow additional vendors an opportunity to market their products, and would give the public more variety.
2. All food brought to the City should stay in the City. No farmer should have to haul anything back with them. Something can be arranged so that restaurants, soup kitchens, food banks, and local grocers use the market as a major source of supply. Whatever can't be eaten or sold can be composted for City community gardens.
3. Many, many, many more people would shop at the Civic Center Farmer's Market (and others) if they didn't have to drive or get on Muni with packages. A couple, and by "couple" I mean a dozen roomy electric shuttles could make life easier for thousands of people, especially for seniors and people in wheelchairs.
More money flows through San Francisco every day than than many countries see in a year. Whatever shortfall in operating expenses the market might incur could be easily offset by generous donations from some of the corporate entities that are profiting so handsomely from the present business-friendly environment. In fact, these self-same Titans of Industry could subsidize the market(s) so that everyone in the City eats, and the farmers gets paid what they deserve.
