The California Department of Food and Agriculture is promising to crackdown on cheating by vendors at many of California’s 700 farmers markets.
On October 27th, the State Ag Department held the first of four “listening sessions,” to get public input about how to improve it’s Certified Farmers Market program.
The sessions are being held in response to an NBCLA Undercover Investigation last month, which exposed how vendors at some of LA’s farmers markets were falsely claiming to sell locally grown produce, which was really grown on commercial farms as far away as Mexico.
The investigation also exposed farmers claiming their produce was “pesticide free,” when it really wasn’t.
At Wednesday’s hearing, the state Board of Food and Agriculture heard testimony from people like Daniel Merle Best, who runs farmers markets in Northern California.
Best told the Board, “We have a situation that’s been investigated by NBC, and they found people that are buying right from the wholesale docks. We know we have cheaters” at farmers markets. “ The public’s confidence has been shaken,” by the NBCLA investigation, said David Karp, who covers the farmers market industry for the LA Times.
Several people offered the Board solutions to fix the problems uncovered by NBCLA.
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John Gardner, San Bernardino County’s Agriculture Commissioner, said counties need additional money to do more inspections of farmer’s fields and farmers markets.
“We don’t need inspectors there every single hour the markets are open. But we need to do enough inspections, so there’s a reasonable chance that someone who will cheat, will in fact be caught,” said Gardner.
Some farmers at the hearing said they’re even willing to pay a higher fee to the state for tougher enforcement. Right now, farmers pay the state only 60 cents a week, for permission to sell their produce at farmers markets. That money helps pay for inspections. “The vast majority of farmers, especially the legitimate ones, are not opposed to” paying higher fees, said farmer Fred Elrod from Ventura County."
Others told the Board that the State should provide training to the managers who operate the markets, on how to spot farmers who make false claims. Said Greta Dunlap, who manages the Beverly Hills Farmers Market, “ So many market managers are just thrown out into the market knowing nothing.”
The next three listening sessions will be held across the state. Then a special committee with come up with recommendations for the state’s Food and Ag Board, on how to clean up the problems at farmers markets. David Karp, the LA Times writer on farmers markets told the Board, “ Its time, as a result of the recent programs on NBC, to seize the initiative”.
The next listening session will be held Monday November 1, at the Main Library in Santa Monica, from 5:30-7:30pm. The state Ag Department is hoping consumers who shop at farmers market will come and give their input.
