Local Self-reliance

For the past several years, the good folks at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Washington, D.C. have worked to help urban residents gain greater control over their lives through the use of low-technology, decentralist tools and concepts. We strongly believe that more people (city dwellers and country folk alike) should be exposed to the Institute's efforts ... which is why we're now making this "what's happening where" report by ILSR staffers one of MOTHER'S regular features.

Each summer, a growing number of farmers' markets prove that city and country folks can work together for their mutual benefit.

This year in Hartford, Connecticut, for example, 20 farmers will—during two "market days" each week—sell locally grown produce to about 2,500 urban customers. The Connecticut market is just the first phase of an overall plan to make that region more agriculturally self-sufficient in a project that will—in the future—bring about community gardens, solar greenhouses, buying clubs, and a downtown canning business.

Hartford's success is only the latest example of what are now scores of flourishing inner-city farmers' markets. In a spring 1978 survey of fewer than 50 such outlets around the country, the Agricultural Marketing Project found out that over 8,000 farmers provided income for themselves and fresh produce for almost a quarter million city residents.

FARM SAVERS

Aside from the above benefits, however, such fresh produce stands help preserve the rapidly dwindling agricultural land around urban areas. (The Mid-Hudson region near New York City, for example, lost nearly half a million acres—or over 32 percent of its farms—between 1950 and 1964.)

Today, New York's Greenmarket helps food growers fight the battle against encroaching development. With eight locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, this outlet is one of the nation's largest and most successful farmers' markets. In fact, the fresh farm goods sold there are such big draws that recent additions to the Greenmarket chain have been sponsored by local business associations ... which hope to profit from the numbers of people who are attracted by homegrown fruits and vegetables.