"Certified farmers markets show a face to consumers that is a real face, not a corporate face. … The future of small-acreage growers and the survival of small-acreage farms may be to expand sales to restaurants and the already-prepared food industry. We need more restaurant menu items to identify locally sourced ingredients or at least California sourced, and we need customers to demand such knowledge."
– Dan Best, general counsel for the California Federation of Certified Farmers Markets and coordinator of certified farmers markets in Sacramento
"Ninety-nine percent of food consumed in the U.S. is marketed through conventional distribution channels, leaving just 1 percent of what we get from other sources, including farmers markets, farm stands and farmers themselves. … The only way to get flavor is to get fully mature fruit, and the only way to get that is to get it from the farmer. When you are buying at a farmers market, you are paying the farmer. At the grocery store, who are you paying? The grocery store. The farmer is getting only a small fraction of what you pay there."
– Laura Avery, supervisor of the Santa Monica Farmers Market since 1982
"We went from an agricultural to an industrial society, and in time some elements of that industrial society weighed on people. An alignment of chefs, farmers and interested consumers spearheaded the farm-to-table movement. This combination clicked. Smaller farms began to increase in number. Interest in organic farming grew, and what was once good was good again."
– Jim Mills, a former chef, and now sales manager for Sacramento's Produce Express, a wholesale distributor of fresh fruit and vegetables
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
Order Reprint
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.