FallonFoodHub

As we reach the end of the first month of the East Center Street Farmers Market, I’ve been reflecting quite a bit on the history and enduring qualities of farmers markets.  Our friends and neighbors gather together to share the products that they have grown, raised, and made with the rest of the community.  There is something inherently nostalgic in the experience of visiting booths, hearing the stories of the craftspeople and farmers, and filling my market bag with fresh fruits & veggies, handmaid soaps, salves, honey, and tea.  A market is based on ideals of community, health & wellness, environmental sustainability, and education.  With mottos like “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” and “Eat Fresh, Eat Local,” a farmers market is more than just a place to get some fruit, it’s an avenue for growth, learning, and community.  For our local artisans and value-added producers, a farmers market is a vital small business incubator—a place to build their brand, facilitate sales, and interact face-to-face with their customers.

Whilst investigating the history of farmers markets in the United States, I was surprised to find that the “old days” of farmers markets were quite a long time ago!  In fact, there was a period in our history where farmers markets were extremely rare—in 1948, when the USDA conducted their first agricultural census, there were only around 100 farmers markets in the entire country.

The first farmers markets of record were opened during the colonial era—Boston (1634), Hartford (1643), New York City (1686), and Philadelphia (1693).  In those early days of our national history, farmers markets were the primary venue for access to fresh fruits and vegetables.  But as cities grew in size and density, farmland was pushed further and further from the urban centers.  Innovations in transportation and cooled storage allowed farmers to ship their product in larger quantities over longer distances.  The first age of farmers markets was on the decline as the corner grocer replaced the farm stand as the primary source for produce.

It was 1943 in San Francisco—a time of war rations & victory gardens.  Farmers in Sonoma watched their fruit rot in the fields, unable to sell their produce to understaffed canneries.  Meanwhile, in San Francisco, only 50 miles away, produce was scarce and expensive.  John Brucato was the man to bridge the gap between the hungry urban masses and rural farmers desperately in need of a venue to sell their produce. Brucato leveraged his graduate degree in viticulture to acquire a position with the San Francisco Water Department overseeing their vast farmland holdings scattered over important aquifers in Northern California.  Additionally, he wrote a regular article in the San Francisco News focusing on Victory Gardens and oversaw the San Francisco Victory Garden program.  In August, Brucato arranged for a group of farmers to park their farm trucks on a lot in San Francisco to sell their produce.  The first Thursday there were only 6 farmers, on Friday the number grew to 20 participating growers, and on Saturday there were 135.

Across the country, farmers markets have continued to gain in popularity since the 1970s and the rise of the slow food movement.  According to the Department of Agriculture, there are more than 8700 farmers markets operating in the United States.  These markets are continuing to gain popularity as they have reached another niche in the market by becoming incubators for small business.  Start-up food and craft businesses can utilize the market to test their products without having to invest in a traditional brick-and-mortar store.  Cottage food producers can work to build their brand and their customer base by sharing their stories with market-goers without assuming the overhead expenses that could threaten their sustainability in the early stages of business development.  This history of small business incubation is not a completely new role for farmers markets!  I was particularly delighted to find an obscure note in the National Archives detailing a purchase that Thomas Jefferson made at a farmers market in 1804.  He bought one of the first iterations of a refrigerator from a Quaker dairyman named Thomas Moore.  Moore’s “refrigerator” was an oval cedar tub inside a tin box covered with rabbit skin and cloth—he designed it to transport his butter to market.

It is amazing to be a part of an enduring national tradition—especially one that for decades was on the brink of extinction.  Come down to the East Center Street Farmers Market every Friday night until September—visit with your farmers, celebrate Lahontan Valley bees with local honey, chat with new business owners about their products, be a part of our little local community!

A few weeks ago, the folks at the Churchill County Museum discovered an advertisement that was published in the Fallon Standard on June 20^th, 1928.  The text in the advertisement reads,

“Do Your part in making Churchill County a better place to live and thrive.  Spend your money at home—insist upon products grown in Churchill County—upon goods sold by Churchill County stores.  Let your dollar continue to do a hundred cents worth of work for the boys and girls of our own County—and incidently (sic) to give you far greater return both directly and indirectly than you could otherwise obtain from it.”

The community of Fallon has been talking about living local for generations!  Our commitment to support small businesses owned by our friends and neighbor, to buy produce raised down the street, to eat meat raised buy our community’s children is what makes Fallon such a strong and vibrant community.

A bevy of studies have shown that when you buy from independent, locally owned businesses significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers, and farms.  It is a self-fulfilling cycle.  A dollar spent with a Fallon small business leads to more dollars spent locally—strengthening the economic base of the whole community.

There are many ways that Fallon residents can keep their money in the community—buy your next recliner at Bassham Furniture rather than RC Willey, support Kent’s and Louie’s Home Center instead of Lowe’s or Home Depot, buy your vitamins at Country Health, or grab a book at 3^rd Space Bookstore not Amazon.com.  The benefits of supporting local farmers and ranchers by shopping at the Fallon Food Hub include more than just keeping your money within the community.  The quality and healthfulness of locally raised produce, dairy, and meat far exceed that of large factory farms.

Did you know that most produce in the United States is picked over a week before it makes it to supermarket shelves?  On average, vegetables raised in the US travel over 1500 miles before reaching the produce department in Safeway or Walmart.  Those distances are significantly greater when considering produce raised in Mexico, Asia, Canada, South America.  The cost of shipping produce these monumental distances is only manageable through artificially low energy prices and by externalizing the environmental costs of industrial agriculture.  Within an agricultural model where industrial agribusinesses are given government subsidies, the big losers are the sustainable family farmers and ultimately, the customer.

It’s not all doom and gloom, however.  Fallon, unlike a whole lot of other places, has several avenues through which you can choose to support sustainable farming and ranching operations.  When you shop for groceries at Heck’s Meat and the Fallon Food Hub, you can learn all about the farmers and ranchers who raised your food.  When you visit the East Center Street Farmers Market—beginning June 1^st—you can talk with local farmers yourself!  There is no better way to “live local” than to support your friends and neighbors—no better way to feel confident in the quality of your produce than to “know your farmer”.  Think Fallon, Buy Fallon, Be Fallon!

Upcoming Events:

May 26^th – June 12^th: Fallon Get Out and Vote
10% off your purchase when you come in wearing your “I Voted” sticker

June 1^st – East Center Street Farmers Market & Street Celebration Kickoff 4-8 pm
(continues every Friday through September)

• Blood Drive – Donate blood for a chance to win a Harley
• Classic Car Show & Shine
• Fallon Fire Department Fire Truck
• DJ Davey Munoz

June 4^th – Home Brew Kombucha 5:30 pm
Register at fallonfoodhub@gmail.com

On April 18th, the Center for Disease Control announced a voluntary recall of eggs on the East Coast that were potentially contaminated with salmonella bacteria.  The recall included over 200 million eggs sold in 9 states under a variety of labels to grocery stores, Walmart, and restaurant distributors.  The scope and nature of this recall got me thinking about the egg industry, commercial producers, and transparency.

Now you may have noticed a theme in our columns—at the Fallon Food Hub, we are all about educating folks on the differences between two competing models for food production, the industrial model vs. sustainable agriculture.  Obviously, we are big fans of our Churchill County producers—farmers, ranchers, dairymen, and those who tend to flocks of laying hens.  The differences between commercial egg production and farm fresh eggs are stark.  So, we thought it would be worthwhile, especially amid a foodborne illness outbreak, to take some time to examine the egg industry.

One of the most challenging aspects of sourcing humanely raised eggs within the large scale, commercial egg industry is that the USDA does not require labels on egg cartons that inform the consumer about the living conditions of laying hens.  All specifications like “cage-free” and “free range” are entirely voluntary.  Additionally, the definitions of the labeling terms are extremely vague.  The USDA stipulates that “Eggs packed in USDA grade marked consumer packages labeled as cage free must be produced by hens housed in a building, room, or enclosed area that allows for unlimited access to food, water, and provides the freedom to roam within the area during the laying cycle.”  These hen houses include automated feeders and waterers, do not allow access to the outdoors, and are not required to provide room for the chickens to comfortably move around.  Eggs sold under the label free range “must be produced by hens housed in a building, room, or area that allows for unlimited access to food, water, and continuous access to the outdoors during their laying cycle. The outdoor area may be fenced and/or covered with netting-like material.”  Once again, the USDA does not make specifications about space per chicken, or the size of the outdoor area.

The commercial egg facility responsible for the salmonella outbreak, Rose Acre Farms, is the second largest egg producer in the United States.  They house over 13 million hens that produce 12.3 million eggs every day.  The federal investigation into Rose Acre Farms found that there were unsanitary conditions and a rodent problem in their laying houses.  When chickens are packed together into tight spaces in great numbers, the potential for salmonella infection increases.  Chickens that are carriers of salmonella do not show any signs of being contaminated—in these living conditions, one chicken can quickly infect a flock.

There are many advantages to consuming eggs that are produced in the sustainable agriculture system.  Farm fresh eggs are laid by chickens with regular and often unlimited access to the outdoors, only secured in their coops overnight.  These chickens are allowed to be chickens—scratching and foraging for their food.  As a result, the eggs they lay are much tastier and nutritionally more valuable.  Studies have shown that chickens with a varied diet and ample outside access yield eggs that are lower in cholesterol and saturated fat, contain more vitamins, and have higher levels of beta-carotene and omega-3 fatty acids.

The difference in egg quality is not just limited to nutritional content—farm eggs frequently have a rich yellow yolk and a stiff white.  Both the diet of the chicken and the age of the egg are major contributors to the culinary superiority of a farm egg.  Over time, the white and yolk of an egg lose quality. The yolk absorbs water from the white. Moisture and carbon dioxide in the white evaporate through the pores, allowing more air to penetrate the shell, and the air cell becomes larger. If broken open, the egg’s contents would cover a wider area. The white would be thinner, losing some of its thickening and leavening powers. The yolk would be flatter, larger and more easily broken.  Grocery store eggs can be displayed and sold for over 30 days, and there are not requirements for packages to be labeled with “best by” or “sell by” dates.

For delicious & nutritious farm fresh eggs that you can trust, support local Churchill County producers.  At the Fallon Food Hub, we work with several certified chicken farms in the area to provide a regular supply of eggs that take only a few days to make it from the chicken to your plate.  Once you try a farm fresh egg you will never go back!

One of my favorite things at the Fallon Food Hub is listening to the stories that our customers and farmer partners share with us about their experiences in food and agriculture.  A few weeks ago, I was talking with a new farmer partner about an exciting new tomato hybrid that has been bred for flavor and nutrient content.  He asked me about the thickness of the tomatoes skin, and my interest was instantly piqued.  The evolution of tomato skin thickness seems like an aspect of agricultural history that is right up my alley!

Come to find out (not surprisingly) the thickening of a tomatoes skin has a direct relationship with both the evolution of industrial agriculture and subsequent rise of the local sustainable food movement. In the mid-1950’s a plant breeder and an engineer based out of the University of California, Davis teamed up on a project to create a machine that could harvest tomatoes.  Tomatoes in California’s central valley had historically been picked gently by the hands of migrant farm workers who participated in the Bracero program.  For most of the 1950’s the idea of creating a tomato picking machine was laughable within the agricultural community.  However, in 1963 rumors began circulating about the end of the Bracero program.  Tomato farmers realized that their cheap labor source was going to run dry.  At the same time, the team at UC Davis achieved their goal and began production on a mechanized tomato harvester.  But a new means of harvesting necessitated a new tomato—one that was thick-skinned enough to withstand rough handling and “vf-145” (a new hybrid tomato) was born.

Within 5 years, almost 100% of California tomato growers had switched to mechanized harvesting.  Farmers were growing an abundance of the thick-skinned and easily de-stemmed hybrid tomato that by all accounts was relatively tasteless.  The cost of purchasing and maintaining a mechanical tomato harvester was prohibitive, requiring more land and higher levels of production to be profitable.  This resulted in a consolidation of the tomato growing market.  In the first 5 years after the transition to mechanized harvesting, over 80% of California tomato growers were out of business.  Farms got larger, farm worker numbers decreased, and unemployment in the agricultural sector exploded.  This was a significant moment in the rise of industrial agriculture.  The paradigm shifted for plant breeders and scientists—no longer did they select for characteristics like taste or nutrient density.  Necessity dictated that they first consider physical qualities of the fruit relating to how it would pass through the machine.

As a counterpoint to the growth of industrial agriculture in California’s central valley, a group of activists began a legal challenge against UC Davis that would evolve in to a 10-year court battle.  As a land grant institution, UC Davis has a mandate under the 1887 Hatch Act that provides federal funds to agricultural research that supports small family farms.  While this court case was ultimately unsuccessful, it raised a public debate about agricultural innovation developed at a state university and who were the end beneficiaries of this research.  In order to avoid a public relations nightmare, UC Davis founded the Small Farms Center focused on providing education and assistance to low-income and small farms.  The public discourse about industrial agriculture and the mechanized tomato harvester in the central valley led to the rise of California’s local food movement, a pre-cursor to the national farm-to-table movement.

Today, we still see the shadow of hybrid vf-145—we eat mechanically harvested tomatoes in our ketchup, canned tomatoes, pasta sauce, and even sliced on our sandwiches.  Fortunately, there is another option!  Local farmers in Churchill County are selecting their tomato varietals for flavor and nutrient content.  Whether heirloom varieties or hybrids bred for flavor, the tomatoes that you will find this summer at the East Center Street Farmers Market, The Fallon Food Hub, and in the Great Basin Basket Farm Share will be nutritious, delicious, and harvested by gentle hands!