Ottawa's Markets & Local produce sales

[Ms.Huxtable]

Great article from Food Mode about Ottawa's Parkdale and Biward markets and how the produce isn't really local.

By Allyson Bycraft

There’s no doubt about it, Ottawa is experiencing a boom in interest in locally produced food. “Buy Local†“From Field to Fork†and the “100 mile Diet†are all phrases that have become part of

the common parlance. Area Farmers’ Markets are proliferating: Carp Farmers’ Market has been around since 1990, but more recently, Ottawa Farmers’ Market is pitching its tents for the third year, every Sunday at Lansdowne Park, and

Cumberland Farmers’ Market is in its second successful season. Main Farmers’ Market has set up shop in the parking lot of St. Paul’s University for its first full season. The success of these markets has been such that there is talk of them being open on weekdays too (in fact

the Lansdowne market will be open on Thursdays, starting the end of June)— perhaps not everywhere every day, but in a staggered pattern, say Mondays and Wednesdays at Lansdowne, Tuesdays

and Fridays at St. Paul’s and Thursdays in Cumberland. Then we urbanites can stop into a market on our way home from work any day of the week and get our fresh-picked produce. “But hold onâ€, you say, “can’t we get fresh local produce every day at Ottawa’s longest running outdoor markets, Parkdale Market, (open for over 75 years)

and Byward Market, (now in its 180th year)?†Unfortunately the answer to that question is “no, probably notâ€, at least not without a healthy dose of suspicion and a sizable amount of sleuthing.

The true farmers’ markets in Ottawa, some mentioned in the previous paragraph, have a strict mandate that vendors can only sell products they’ve grown or produced themselves. If this means that the first few weeks in the spring, there’s nothing but asparagus to buy, then so be it. The shortfall will be taken up by stalls selling crafts and food products like soap,

knitting, jams, woodcrafts, maple syrup, pottery and so on, that also must abide by the “local product only†rule.

The Byward and Parkdale Markets, however, have no such rule (food aside, the stalls selling East Indian clothing and Tibetan sweaters illustrate the point). As a result, along with the very few

farmers who actually are selling their own produce, there are bushels of “re-sellersâ€-those who are selling fruits and veggies purchased from wholesalers, and basically the same thing found at the supermarket.

The sad thing is, most people can’t tell the difference between the bona-fide local produce and what’s been shipped in from afar. And the resellers don’t make it any easier, resorting, as they do, to practices that range from simply misleading to downright dishonest. To the casual observer, the stalls of the truly local producers and the re-sellers look the same—tables of produce piled neatly into Styrofoam bowls or green cardboard pint boxes with quaint and written signs stating the price. But look more closely at where they’re drawing the produce

from, down behind the table. Is it a bushel basket or muddy crate, or is it a branded wholesaler’s box or bag boldly labeled “Product of Ontario†or “Product of Quebec Canada no.1�

And what about those signs? “Local†“homegrown†and “picked daily†figure prominently on the signage. One stall at the Parkdale Market has tomatoes labeled as “homegrown†with the wholesaler’s boxes of tomatoes in plain sight under the table. Blatant insult to the customers’ intelligence though that may be, it’s perhaps even worse when dishonest vendors try to cover up their shady practices. Another stall at Parkdale

has a bountiful heap of corn-on-the-cob labeled as “local†and next to it, on the ground, a bushel basket full of corn. Apparently, though, the basket is just for show, since underneath the table, a large pile of something, carefully covered by a blanket,on closer inspection reveals the corner of a wholesaler’s bag of corn just

peeking out from beneath. A stall at Byward has the wholesaler’s boxes of apples in plain sight under the table. When the vendor was asked if the apples were local, he replied yes, that they

were picked that morning. When asked about the wholesaler’s box, he said that those were just some boxes they get from somewhere that they use

because they’re strong and great for transporting the apples from the farm.

Just how stupid do they think consumers are? Pretty stupid, apparently--another stall at Byward sells peppers that sport the wholesaler’s sticker right on the produce. Are we supposed to believe that, just a few hours earlier, they were

picked that way in the fields of Navan? And yet, the perception persists that the goods sold at the stalls in the Byward and Parkdale Markets are local. A random sampling of late-August Sunday afternoon shoppers bears this out. Richard, a regular at the market, is well aware that the produce he buys there in the off-season is not local, but is under the mistaken impression that there is a “cut-off date†of June 15, after which only local produce can be sold at the stalls. Tom,

from Kanata, bases his belief that all the produce is local on the fact that the sellers “look like farmersâ€. Whether these hucksters cultivate that image or not, a reseller

whose only contact with the food is when he’s unloading it from a wholesale truck and who, when

asked, blatantly lies about its provenance is hardly the image most of us have of the salt-of-the-earth farmer, and is an affront to those

legitimate local growers selling in the market. Most other shoppers interviewed just assume it’s all local and don’t look too closely at packaging or even signs. Jeremy, another regular shopper, admits he doesn’t look at the signs but just buys the produce that looks the best. Interestingly, his method will probably ensure that he isn’t getting local produce. The best-looking fruits and

veggies are the ones from the wholesalers that have been cleaned and sorted for uniformity and pristine appearance. Truly local produce is more likely to be all different sizes, less than perfect-looking and perhaps a bit dirty, particularly during rainy spells.

Even for those who read the signs, what does “local†mean, anyway? That’s a tricky question and depending on whom you ask,you’ll get a different answer. The resellers argue that “Product of Ontario†and “Product of Quebec†qualify as “local†in their minds and that’s why

they label it as such. Some might agree, but most shoppers interviewed felt that Ontario and Quebec are pretty big places to be considered “localâ€. Peter Travers,of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, says the definition varies from place

to place but “within 50 kilometers†or“within 100 kilometers†are common.

Savour Ottawa is a group that promotes local food and drink and is a partnership among Just Food, City of Ottawa and Ottawa Tourism. They have agreed on Ottawa’s Buy Local Region as consisting of the counties of:Prescott Russell, Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry, Leeds & Grenville, Lanark, Renfrew, North part of Frontenac and Outaouais.

But are market vendors abiding by those rules? Breen, a young man visiting from Ireland, who

picked up a few weeks work in the Byward Market,

reported that one of the stallworkers he had befriended told him that all their produce came from Mexico!

As well as re-sellers there are also “combination†vendors, meaning yes, they have farms and may sell some of their own produce, but it’s heavily supplemented with products purchased from wholesalers. Combination sellers and re-sellers are not only unfair to local farmers, but also to other businesses

in the area. Their wholesale produce is basically the same product being sold at The Byward Fruit Market and the Fresh Fruit Company just a few metres away, but they’re able to sell it much more cheaply without the rent and overhead that the stores have to pay.

With the proliferation of the legitimate

Farmers’ Markets out there, it seems that we have no shortage of local farmers wanting to sell their wares. So why are there so few in the Byward and Parkdale Markets? Most of the stalls are taken up by vendors that have been there for

generations, with many stalls controlled by one or two families. These stalls are mainly re-sellers or combination sellers, and if a local farmer is lucky enough to get a stall, they will have a hard time making a profit as re-sellers undercut their prices with their much cheaper

wholesale produce. Few local farmers have the stomach for the fight, and stick to the weekend Farmers’ Markets or sell directly from the farm gate. The few locals that do try to stick it out in the Byward and Parkdale may soon be a thing of the past, says Giselle Proulx of Proulx Sugarbush and Berry Farm. “They’re able to make it at the Byward because they have their loyal customers

and they also have the Farmers’ Markets (to supplement their income)â€. If more Farmer’s Markets open up, and business remains good at them, the local farmers may decide the Byward and Parkdale are not worth the headaches and move out

permanently, leaving no local produce whatsoever for shoppers to buy. How do these fraudulent vendors get away with it? After generations of

experience, they know how to work the system to their advantage. For example, an unscrupulous vendor may be selling green beans and claim they’re homegrown, and may even be able to

truthfully say that they are actually growing beans on their farm. But the reality may be that they have only a few rows. Meanwhile, they sell what they claim to be homegrown by the bushel

right through from May to October. As Giselle Proulx says “do the mathâ€. The amount they’re selling could never be produced by the few rows of plants they actually grow. And these vendors have power, as was demonstrated when they successfully overturned a 1995 bylaw for the Byward Market stalls that sought to discourage the sale of non-local produce by charging higher rental fees for resellers. Since then, the combination and resellers have pretty much had free rein, though there have been instances of

some vendors being caught in fraudulent activities. Phil Waserman, Chair of the Byward Market Business Improvement Association, recalls an incident at the Parkdale Market where a vendor

was caught peeling the “Product of Washington†labels off peaches and selling them as Niagara produce. Peter Travers of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says they will certainly

investigate any complaints made with regard to fraudulent labeling of foods, and have a policy of “escalating enforcement†whereby offenders may get a warning the first time, with more serious consequences, including seizure of the product and fines, for subsequent offences. But in practice, complaints are rarely made. Waserman’s

attitude is representative of the feelings of most merchants and authorities in the Byward Market. â€Yes, it makes me mad†he says with a sigh, “but it’s been going on for yearsâ€. The problem vendors, it seems, are always able to find loopholes in the rules that allow them to carry on their practices.

That may be about to change. Savour Ottawa’s new local food logo, launched last November, will be found on market stalls this summer, and is intended to let consumers know exactly which is local produce and which is not. The logo will be

featured on large (11†x 17â€) signs which will also state the farm’s name, the list of local products they sell and a picture of the vendor. But even with these new measures, won’t re-sellers still undercut local growers’ prices? And given the large percentage of people who don’t even look at the signs, will signage--however clear and bold—really be enough? Time will tell, but whatever happens, caveat emptor (“Let the buyer bewareâ€) should be the motto for market shoppers.

UPDATE: As we go to press, the Byward Market Standholder’s Assoc. has introduced a voluntary color coding system to identify where products sold in the market come from. Red for Canada, Green for Local, Blue for Imports and Yellow for Organic. It’s a good step in the right direction -

even though only a handful of the vendors are participating. We will be doing a full update on this article in our next issue. Watch for it.

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the byward market colour-coded sticker thing is nonsense, none of the vendors really understand how it is supposed to work.

i really enjoy the thursday and sunday Ottawa Farmer's Market

So much good food there. And a petting zoo. And big horses!!

[thomson]

"Just Food" put out an '>Ottawa Buy Local Food Guide

The free map gives an overview of all local farms and markets. When describing markets the map clearly indicates whether they have a local-only policy or whether consumers need to ask explicit questions.

They also have a very useful harvesting guide intended to let you know what to expect to find at local markets throughout the season but I found it handy to plan my own garden.

There are similar maps for Wellington (Guelph) and Hamilton.

Edited October 18, 2008 by Guest
to fix the link

[bouche]

I'm pretty shocked about this as I've been fooled by the perception of these being local farmers for years. I never questioned whether the carrots or beets were actually grown by the old dirty toothed french guy selling them or not. Now I'm wondering if he's even french, or just putting on a fake accent with his 3 memorized french lines.

I wonder where this info comes from though. The sentence seems like it's just magically constructed out of thin air. How would someone determine this?

Most of the stalls are taken up by vendors that have been there for

generations, with many stalls controlled by one or two families.

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there has been a ton of talk this about the markets and how local they are. the information in that article, i've heard from a week long CBC series in the spring, there were some Citizen pieces about it, pieces on the news (again CBC). I think it's legit.

[rubberdinghy]

You really think those bananas they sell at the Parkdale market were grown in Embrun?

[berk]

I also assumed everything was locally produced until I bought some peppers in the market a couple years ago and one of them had a grocery store sticker on it. I've made sure to check the signs and ask a lot of questions ever since.

[bouche]

farmer's don't use 4-digit codes so that would definitely be a sure sign.