“I Love My Farmers Market” is a summer-long celebration sponsored by American Farmland Trust.
American Farmland Trust is the only national non-profit dedicated to saving America’s farmland (5 million acres to date) and keeping family farmers on their land. The land that family farmers cultivate to grow fresh food for our families is disappearing from under their feet. One acre of farmland has been lost to unchecked development every minute of every day in the U.S. At that rate, all the farms at your farmers’ market could be wiped out in less than an hour.
Farmers’ markets provide a vital link from farmers to shoppers. AFT’s I Love My Farmers Market Celebration works to raise national awareness about farmers’ markets. Participants pledge dollars they intend to spend at their farmers’ markets each week, then the Top 100 most celebrated markets will receive a special logo honoring their achievement, AFT’s “No Farms, No Food” gear, and recognition on the Celebration’s website.
Pledges can be cast at LoveMyFarmersMarket.org. And, if you make a donation to American Farmland Trust during the I Love My Farmers Market Celebration, AFT board member Tom Gallo will match it dollar-for-dollar, making your gift go twice as far to help family farmers.
Here’s my husband, Nick, and son, Brian, in 1996 manning our Farmers’ Market booth in 1996. Markets are such a great place to launch your farm dreams—mine were a tad elaborate as it turns out:)
Nick and Brian at the Moscow Farmers’ Market, circa 1996.
I am delighted to hear about this movement and will look into making a donation. Land trusts are so important in our nation because sensitive lands are being gobbled up too quickly! Remember Joni Mitchell’s hit song ” they Paved Paradise and put up a Parking Lot”? We have lost a lot of precious land to parking lots in strip malls that fall into decline, close up, and sit for years blighting city scrapes and county lands. How much more productive and beautiful these spaces could have been with small farms.
It is so true, that we need to support our farmers. My hubby and I have been vendors at our local Farmers Market for several years, but not there this year. We aren’t produce vendors but we sure appreciate those who are and watch them deal with ever changing rules and regulations . . . and weather conditions.
My dad farmed in this area over 50 years and was one of the first farmers ever to sell his produce at this same market. My daughter, now an adult and living in the Phoenix, AZ area went to market with him to help him sell his produce. She just recently spoke of how memorable that experience was for her!
I’m so grateful!
I will be supporting local farmers in every way I can!
CJ