07/30/08 Fresh From The Farm

Fresh From the Farm. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. On Monday the Wall Street Journal reported that driving is down. High gas prices are causing a lot of us to either get rid of the gas guzzler or severely curtail our driving and in some cases, both. Add to that the growing concerns over the safety of our food products and that translates into greater popularity for the local farmers market. Linda Hall is the manager of the Prosser, Washington Farmer's Market a typical market that also sells handmade crafts. HALL: I think there's more of a trend for people to know their food source and I think there's a lot more information out there encouraging people to eat fresh produce when it's in season. And local, you know, know where your food comes from. And there's a lot of people who are eating healthy. The Prosser market like many others is also taking an active role in that education process. HALL: We just had our even last weekend called "Eat A Rainbow" and we had the Diabetes Association and then the Prosser Hospital was there checking sugar levels for people and so that was kind of a nutrition weekend. Hall says that all these things combined have made for better attendance. HALL: Our market has really taken off this year and I think people aren't traveling as much and people are sticking around because we are seeing a really nice heavy crowd on Saturdays and I've got an 8% growth in sales so far this year. And it's not just the number of general public coming out to the markets. Hall has nearly doubled the average number of vendors from 12 to 21. Vendors as well as shoppers come from other small towns in the area to find the products they are looking for. One of the really hot items on the west side of the mountains has not really found a strong market on the east side. That is organic products. HALL: A lot of our people over here are organic but don't really go for the getting the certification for organic because there's a lot of things you can raise over here that don't have any fertilizer, any sprays and they are pretty much organic. But it's kind of a lot of paperwork and hoops to go through to get certification for organic. Due to the exponential growth of farmers markets across the country, the government has declared next week as National Farmers Market Week! So make plans now to attend your local market next week. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.