With days getting longer and winter tapering into spring, my warm thoughts shift towards what I love most about the changing of seasons: the revival of St. Albert’s outdoor farmers’ market.
In an age where one may grow up knowing only that food comes from supermarkets, without connection to realities of agricultural production, to the land or the farmer, a community’s commitment to farmers’ markets represents more than a summer attraction.
These farmers are our neighbours, and our dollars go not to a corporate food distributer but directly to the people controlling the quality and integrity of the farming practices. Intense, industrialized, specialization farms that depend on mono-crops and heavy chemical application — symptoms of an ongoing Canadian farm crisis — have no place beneath the tents lining downtown’s streets. Instead, a post-productivist attitude of downscaling with crop diversification and countryside stewardship is embraced. And here, it thrives.
What opportunity do you have to shake the hand of people tending your ‘Produce of Mexico’ tomatoes?
How fortunate are we to have access to food that hasn’t been fumigated to ‘maintain freshness’ during cross-continental shipment?
But mostly, what a brilliant opportunity to foster ethical purchasing, to introduce the next generation to the bounty of our countryside, and to decompress time and space so that relationships rather than supermarkets connect us to the producers of our goods.
So, St. Albert, thank you for maintaining our farmers’ market. It is, beyond the peas and carrots, a symbol of change and a celebration of diversity.
Pamela MacDonald, St. Albert
