Chestnuts and Spring Chickens: Conflict and Change in Farmers Market Ideologies

Abstract

The taxonomy of farmers markets requires an update to encompass the expanding range of available options. Also absent from the literature is an appreciation of the connection between market types, ideological stances, social characteristics, and conflict—necessary for understanding the social processes, motivations, and expectations that create a farmers market. Our study of a long-standing farmers market on the verge of municipal revamping aims to unite these interests, with a focus on the diverse demographics and values of the social groups involved. We propose a synthetic two-dimensional scheme to classify U.S. farmers markets. Bourdieu's theory of distinction is instrumental in making sense of the diversity encountered.

Keywords:

• farmers market
• conflict
• taste
• class
• Bourdieu
• culture
• modernity

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work would not have been possible without the brilliant collaboration of our research assistants, Frank Manzella, Brooke Leichtweis, and Elizabeth Hazen. We are indebted to the Tuscaloosa Farmers Market vendors and their customers, Mayor Maddox, City Planning officials, and farmers market managers across the United States for their willingness to take part in this effort to help our city move forward. We wish to thank Bill Dressler and anonymous reviewers for their valuable critique of earlier drafts of this article.

Notes

¹The Farmer's Market Nutrition Program provides vouchers to senior citizens, food stamps recipients, and WIC participants for use at participating farmers markets. This has led to an increased reliance on farmers markets in local subsistence economies (Kunkel, Luccia, and Moore 2003; Payne 2002).

²For two years now, a hip, trendy weekly summer market, Homegrown Alabama, has opened on the edge of the University campus. There was initially some rivalry and misunderstanding but by and large both are supportive of the other, recognizing the need for more availability of fresh produce and their ability to tap different crowds. A few of the original Farmers Market vendors even sell at both markets.

³The current Farmers Market site was built atop an old landfill. People in the downtown area had historically pitched their trash over the edge of a plateau into an oxbow pond formed by the river's meander. Thus, the footers for the current shed extend down 30 feet; with unstable ground and failed percolation tests, the area is not suitable for building anything more substantial.

⁴We have studied farmers markets in these cities: Cullman, AL; Birmingham, AL; Baton Rouge, LA; New Orleans, LA; Atlanta, GA; Henderson, KY; Lexington, KY; Sanibel, FL; Miami, FL (2); San Francisco, CA; Iowa City, IA; Boise, ID; Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; Washington, DC. This information is supplemented by the numerous published articles and film footage on U.S. markets we have consulted.

⁵The city of Tuscaloosa over many decades has been shifting from a backwater to an urban character; it occupies that liminal size and state between town and cosmopolitan city. Tuscaloosa is very proud of its progress, which earned it an All American City designation in 2002. It is understandable, then, why City leaders want the sheen of a modern cosmopolitan-style market. The thinking seems to be, if Little Rock, of a similar size, has achieved this, so too can Tuscaloosa.

⁶For instance, three of the oldest farmers declined to be formally interviewed for the survey portion of our research, as they found it difficult to answer questions, especially hypothetical questions about future alternatives.

⁷The architectural firm also implemented in their blueprints the eight design features requested by the farmers that we had summarized in a previously-submitted report to the City, including sufficient parking, overhead fans, handicapped drive-up access, space to back trucks in, and several others. To better his plan, the principal architect actually engaged in some ethnography by visiting the market on a busy day and photographing client and vendor parking and flow.

⁸This was the city planner's first visit, after repeated invitations by the TFM Association.

⁹Vendors at the Minneapolis Farmers Market have dubbed these market tourists “basket kickers,” since they come to look but not buy (Slocum 2008, 859).

¹⁰As we explore the tensions and growing pains related to the proposed TFM relocation, we will continue to advocate privately with farmers and City Officials and publicly at City Council Meetings, and to issue our reports, the findings of which so far have been considered and in large part implemented. We believe our first report, on architectural features, has helped by prompting the city and architects to implement or change critical features, and by keeping the issues on the table. Our upcoming report will address the organization and management of the potential new market. The RiverMarket project, held up for several months due to a delay in Federal funding. is slated for completion by January 2012, proceding forward despite the preceding April 27 tornado's devastation of the City.

¹¹This is not an idle threat, as many of the farmers are well aware of a similar conflict in nearby Cullman County, where farmers rejected a new municipal market and successfully constructed and operate their own widely-admired timber frame in a better location. Other similar cases exist throughout the U.S., such as the rebuilding of the Findlay Farmers Market in the Over-the-Rhine area of Cincinnati. The increased number of resellers drove off the original farmers.