SUNNY SKIES helped bring people out Saturday to the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market, located in the parking lot by Sears at the Aroostook Centre Mall. Maine Commissioner of Agriculture Seth Bradstreet III encourages Mainers to visit local markets this week as Gov. John E. Baldacci has proclaimed Aug. 3-9 “Maine Farmers’ Market Week.” The Presque Isle Farmers’ Market is open from 9 a.m.-noon Saturdays and presently features 15 vendors.
Staff Writer
AUGUSTA – Maine Commissioner of Agriculture Seth Bradstreet III encourages Mainers to visit local markets this week as Gov. John E. Baldacci has proclaimed Aug. 3-9 “Maine Farmers’ Market Week.”
“This week is in honor of farmers in Maine who grow and provide us with food and fiber supplies,” said Bradstreet. “The vitality of farms across our state is good for local economies, good for consumers, and good for Maine residents.”
The number of farmers’ markets in the United States has grown dramatically in recent years, prompting local, regional and national advocates of local farming to designate a week each year to take note of their benefits.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports more than 4,500 farmers’ markets currently operate throughout the nation – a record number, up from 2,800 markets in 2000.
Sales generated by farmers’ markets have been estimated to exceed $1 billion a year, with most of the money going directly to small family farmers. Maine hosts approximately 80 farmers’ markets statewide.
Bradstreet encourages residents to eat local for at least one day during Maine Farmers’ Market Week.
“Choosing a period of time to eat only foods produced within 100 miles of home is a great way for all Maine residents to draw public attention to the committed farmers at work in the state who provide us with safe, fresh, abundant food,” he said.
Steve Miller, secretary/treasurer of the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market, said he was pleased the governor made the proclamation.
“I think it’s long overdue recognition for the value of local markets,” he said. “I applaud the governor for doing that. We’ve been seeing a greater appreciation for the market from local communities, and it’s something that needs to be built upon and elaborated on over the years to come … the quicker the better.”
The Presque Isle Farmers’ Market is open from 9 a.m.-noon Saturdays in the parking lot by Sears at the Aroostook Centre Mall. The market, which opened in May and presently features 15 vendors, will be open through October.
Miller said purchasing homegrown foods makes sense.
“If everybody spent $10 or $20 a week on local foods, that would be millions and millions of dollars that stays in the Maine economy … otherwise that money goes out of here and it’s no longer circulating in the economy,” he said. “From an economic sense, it’s a very, very good idea.
“From a ‘regional security’ standpoint, it’s a good idea for the food production to be localized particularly in an era where fossil fuels are going to be less and less abundant,” said Miller. “From the standpoint of quality, local foods are fresh, less inclined to be contaminated with things that get in the industrial food process. From time to time, there are headlines in the news about people getting sick or even dying because of something in the food. The risk of that happening with locally produced foods is much less because it’s right out of the ground, fewer people handle it, and there’s a greater level of integrity for somebody who is producing locally for people they know; they’re going to take that much more care.”
In addition, Miller said, the nutritional value of fresh, local food is “higher than food that has been transported halfway around the world.”
“It just makes so much sense to have local food production and a vibrant local economy,” he said. “It’s an idea that should have caught on 30 years ago and it just started to catch on now.”
FMI on the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market, contact Miller at 896-5860 or by e-mail at beetree@xpressamerica.net.
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
DANNY STEWART of Stewart Farms is one of 15 vendors that can be found Saturdays at the Presque Isle Farmers’ Market at the Aroostook Centre Mall.
