At the close of the first day of the East Lansing Farmers Market’s fourth season, Owosso Organics farmer Richard Bowie dropped off his extra produce to the Trailer Park’d food truck nearby.
“It’s cool to get the food in the morning from the farmers and serve it right then,” Trailer Park’d co-founder Jesse Hahn said. “We’ll get some tomatoes from Owosso Organics, and we’re using them on your sandwich that day.”
The Farmers Market, featuring 23 vendors from the state of Michigan, including Trailer Park’d, not only supplies local residents with organic alternatives to supermarket options, but local restaurants as well.
“(By using local farmers), it’s fresher, we can see where our food is coming from and build relationships with farmers, producers,” Hahn, said. “It’s a good business plan to support the community because in turn they’ll hopefully help support you. It’s a two-way street.”
Up Close & Personal
The East Lansing Farmers Market runs 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Sunday in Valley Court Park and is a grower’s-only market, meaning only the growers themselves can sell their product there. Because of this, buyers have the advantage of knowing everything about their food, Bowie said.
“At the grocery store, they don’t want you to know anything about your food,” Bowie said. “(The Farmers Market) is the test of transparency — you know where your food comes from, you know your growers.”
Fellow vendor Dale Woods of Applegarth Honey also stressed the importance of knowing who grows your food.
“You get a personal experience with the grower, and you can be conscious of your carbon footprint,” Woods said. “If you get green beans from Meijer in January, they probably came from Chile … they can’t tell you about the product. I know those potatoes over there were picked Friday, and I could buy them from a grower I know.”
By being able to talk to growers and not being blind to the processes their produce goes through, buyers are able to make more informed decisions about what they eat, said Dan Fillius, farmer at the MSU Student Organic Farm.
“They can be more conscious of their personal choices,” Fillius said. “The more connections people can make with their food, the better.”
Emphasis on Sustainability
According to Hahn, another reason the Farmers Market is so valuable to businesses like Fork in the Road Diner, which he also co-founded, is because of its commitment to sustainability — even though it isn’t always easy.
“It’s keeping a lot of balls in the air at once … when you don’t have a truck delivering everything to you,” Hahn said. “It’s constant communication with our farmers so you can see what’s available … We’re at the will of nature.”
Sustainability is a growing trend in restaurants and businesses, despite the inherent challenges, Director of MSU Campus Sustainability Jennifer Battle said.
“The advantages are clear — things are fresher in season, and the public is demanding fresher and more local products,” Battle said. “One of the challenges might be we live in a state where some parts of the year things aren’t in season, balancing things that are in season and things that aren’t with customer needs.”
This also poses a problem for farmers, Bowie said, who may not always have what their buyers are looking for.
“We grow everything we sell, so if a plant doesn’t grow, we don’t have that to sell,” Bowie said.
For Fork in the Road and Trailer Park’d, the final product is worth the inconvenience that can sometimes come with using local farmers.
“We work really hard to cook food with integrity,” Hahn said. “As we say … The time (the grower) has taken to grow those carrots and what we do with them from there is really important, and hopefully the guests can taste that. It doesn’t make sense to get your vegetables from a truck from California when we have them here.”
Being an environmentally conscious business is not only good for the environment, but also can boost the business itself, Battle said.
“Another way people think about it is balancing three legs: economic prosperity, social justice and environmental mindfulness,” Battle said. “When those three things are in balance, organizations prosper. It makes sense for them to focus on it.”
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Helping the Community
MSU English senior Molly Banes said the Farmers Market is one of the only convenient ways for her to get the local produce she wants while staying involved in the community.
“I first came last fall, in order to do more in the community.” Banes said. “(The Farmers Market) gets a diverse group of people here who want locally grown agriculture … it gets younger people involved.” Many Farmers Market shoppers said they find the importance of supporting local growers and restaurants lies in how their purchases affect the greater economy and environment.
“(Buying local is important because) it supports the agriculture industry in Michigan … it’s local, it’s homegrown,” Lansing resident and Farmers Market shopper Liz Arasim said. “It brings the farm to the table for city residents. Not everyone can grow their own garden.”
