Eastern Market
Every Saturday when I was a little girl my Dad and I would go to the Eastern Market in Detroit. I remember purchasing fruits and veggies, freshly butchered meats, spices and feta cheese from Rocky’s. Afterward we would buy something to snack on and sit and people watch. Eastern Market was one of the places where people of different ethnicities would gather. One could purchase foods from many places around the world along with those who appreciated a connection to their respective Motherlands. My Dad would often ask me to tell a story about the people we saw, who I thought they were to each other, what they were doing and what I thought was the nature of their interaction, thus began my realization that I was a social scientist.
Eastern Market was such a part of my upbringing that continued through my graduate years. When I was in town, our visits included checking in on my Grandma. I still make the Eastern Market apart of my Saturday ritual, for some nostalgic reasons, Dad no longer goes with me, and some practical reasons, it is one place, of many, where I can purchase my fruits and veggies from farmers. My visits are such a high point of my weekend. I love seeing people from the local food movement and the artisans who sell their wares at the market.
Originally known as the Detroit Farmer’s Market opened in 1841, the Detroit Eastern Market opened its doors in its current location in 1891. Current estimates suggest that approximately 45,000 people frequent the open air market every weekend. Progressively, the vendors are retailing the produce that they purchased wholesale, yet, “Grown in Detroit,” offers a space where local Detroit farmers are able to bring their harvest to market. Other farm families like Vang Farms and Hampshire Farms, offer Detroiters sustainably grown, exotic greens, beans and grains. Dan Carmody, President of the Eastern Market and his staff, have done a great job restoring the market, renovating and finding funds for this Detroit gem.
Aside from the fact that farmers are the coolest, nicest, friendliest and politically conscious folks you can find, there are three reasons why it is important for you to know your farmer:
Contributions to the Local Economy
Issues such as African American land loss and the admitted discrimination by the USDA against black farmers brought to the fore the importance of the faces and families behind the food that we see in the grocery store. Many of these farmers are generational and the money earned over the growing season allows their families to survive throughout the year. Most of the food that we see in the grocery stores has been shipped as far away as 4,000 miles. Food miles, or the distance between where food is grown to where food is consumed, have huge implications on the grower, the purchaser and the environment. When farmers sell their produce locally, they contribute to the local economy through the purchase of goods and services, they employ local people, and they reduce the amount of air toxins in moving food from one place to another. Not only this, knowing your farmer provides an opportunity to influence what they grow.
Locally Grown Fruits and Vegetables are Healthier
Food shipped 4,000 miles is not allowed to ripen on the vine. It is picked early, and in the case of the tomato, gassed using a petroleum-derived, flammable gas, (C2H4) in order to produce the texture and color of being fully ripened1. I use the tomato as an example. It is far from alone on the list of synthetically ripened produce. There is no comparison between the “grown” tomato and the “gassed” tomato in terms of its nutritional content; likewise in taste. Many of us tomato aficionados can identify the homegrown, heirloom tomato blindfolded with our hands tied behind our backs. As vegetables are allowed to ripen naturally, they reach their peak in terms of nutrition.
Local farmers can also be encouraged to grow a variety of crops, instead of engaging in monocropping, growing only one kind of crop year after year. When farmers diversify their crops they pull different nutrients from the soil and are able to grow fruits and vegetables more naturally. Monocropping, takes the same nutrients, depleting the soil of its potential to grow healthy food and forces farmers to use often artificial means to fertilize, which leads to soil and groundwater contamination. Many of these fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides cannot be washed off with water and are thus consumed. In this one example, we have spoken about the contamination of water, food, soil, air and the body. Something to think about…
Know your farmer, know your food
I know this sounds clichéd but it is true. When you know who grows your food, you are more in control of what goes into your body. You can also learn about and try new fruits and vegetables, as farmers are usually eager to share their knowledge and information. Ask Mama Jackie of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), each week at the SEED-Wayne farmers market. She has a new recipe based on the produce that appears on the table. Similarly, in the Bordeaux region of St. Thomas, Mama Benita, a native Detroiter, told us how the farmers wanted to grow bok choy. When they first brought the vegetable to the market, no one knew what to do with it or its health benefits. Within a few months, Mama Benita said, it was “difficult to keep bok choy on the table because the community has grown a taste for it.” Knowing our farmers teaches us respect for the people whose hard work and dedication bring our food from “seed to table.”
My last point is that knowing the people who grow our food allows us to vote with our dollars on what we eat, how the food is grown, and how people who grow our food are treated. With each dollar we spend, we are making a statement. Each dollar spent with the people who grow our food is a vote for the local economy, for healthier food and for a cleaner environment. These are dollars are not spent supporting big agri-business and the contamination, pollution and exploitation of communities and countries for their land and their labor.
For more information on the history of the Eastern Market, check:
Grown in Detroit:
Eat local movement
Detroit Black Community Food Security Network
Bordeaux farmers:
SEED-Wayne:
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