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According to the program backgrounder, "Farmers were being literally squeezed out of existing markets by resellers who continued to glut the market with food terminal sell-offs and, in some cases, told there was no room for them to sell at market.... FMO [Farmers Markets Ontario] is hopeful that we will start a trend where only real farmers with their own products will be found at markets across Ontario."
Awesome!
There will be annual inspections of "Verified Local" farms to make sure no one's cheating (the application form was quite involved!), and best of all the Kitchener Market & FMO are paying for the process so it's no extra cost to farmers. Watch for this designation when you're shopping this summer!!
Only 2 months until we start showing up for market again - hooray!
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Great news! The Kitchener market is so hard to navigate because of the substantial number of vendors selling foreign produce. This should make it much more user friendly.
ReplyDeleteyay, yay and more yay. It's about time. Farmer's markets in Montreal had been doing this at least 5 years ago.
ReplyDeleteWhat will happen to those who have mixed sources?
Yet another certification! Somehow I thought the Foodlink
ReplyDelete"buy local buy fresh" logo had played this role at the Kitchener Farmers Market before. If the "verified local" is an Ontario-wide certification, does local mean Ontario-grown here? Who is doing the inspections?
Just curious - I'd like to see the application form - but I'm all in support
if it means clear distinction from terminal sell-offs or other imported produce.