June 2011 GREENSHEET About NAPMM Founded in 1947, NAPMM strives to help market managers improve facilities and increase services while encouraging cooperation and exchange of ideas between members and partners. NAPMM Officers Ben Vitale... President Janel Leatherman. 1st Vice President James Haydu... 2nd Vice President Deb Churchill... Treasurer Betty Allison... Secretary M E S S A G E F R O M T HE PRESIDE N T On behalf of myself and the Board of Directors Greetings! This has been a challenging and very busy year for everyone. The spring weather has created challenges for the majority of North America raising havoc with crops and planting schedules. While at the same time our markets are out of control busy, with the interest for local and regional produce at its peak. I would ask all members to take a couple of minutes from your insanity and call one of our new member or non-member market managers and ask how things are going and remind them about NAPMM. As you can see our annual conference in Columbia, South Carolina was a great success. Huge Thank you s! go out to everyone involved in coordination and planning for the conference. Again, congratulations to Tom Preston for Market Manager of the Year. Next year s conference will be held in Los Angeles, so start making plans now. Our co-hosts Michael Janis and James Haydu are already busy planning for the event. This year the Board of Directors and I will continue to work at keeping NAPMM in the limelight both in Washington and across our part of the world. This should be an easy task with all that is going on in our members markets. This is certainly complimented by a group of market managers that others would love to have on their teams. So keep up the great work and make us all look good. Thank you for your continued support! Ben Vitale President I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E : NAPMM Membership Renewals/ Application Enclosed Columbia Conference A Great Success! City Market Kansas City, MO Bravo s Top Chef Georgia s First New Ag Leader in 41 Years Revamps Business Plan Fraud at Farmers Markets Syracuse s Regional Market Serves as an Affordable Launching Pad for Food-Based Businesses N AP M M M E M B E R S H I P REN E W A L S DUE If you haven t done so already, July is the time to renew your membership in NAPMM. If you currently are a member, you will be receiving an invoice in the mail shortly. A membership application is also included in this edition of the GREENSHEET and on-line at www.napmm.org. Membership benefits include discounted rates for conferences and workshops, a voice and input into decisions related to national policy around Markets and fresh food distribution, as well as access to a dedicated and informed group of Market Managers and other industry experts who are available and eager to assist with ideas, suggestions and solutions for all your Market related questions and challenges. Help keep NAPMM strong and the recognized leader in the Market industry. Renew or join today and become a part of the NAPMM family. Jim Farr Editor Members Be on the lookout for your membership renewal invoice. Non-members You can join today using the membership application enclosed. Payment by PayPal and credit card is available through our website at www.napmm.org.
GreenSheet Page 2 C O L U M B I A C O N F E R E N C E A GRE A T S U C C E S S! Many thanks to David Tompkins and his entire staff at the South Carolina State Farmers Market for hosting a great conference in a beautiful city. The sessions were packed with information and the tours and meals were first rate. Who would ever imagine there could be a peach orchard with over 500,000 trees. Attendees also had a chance to learn more about the on-going partnership between NAPMM, the Wallace Foundation, and USDA as together we develop distribution models for the future. At the annual meeting new board members were elected and some continued in their board roles (see page 4 of this GREENSHEET for the new Board of Directors). Our thanks go out to all these individuals for volunteering to commit to keeping NAPMM the most valuable resource in the Nation for Market Managers. Also, many thanks to Ben Vitale for agreeing to continue in his role as President. Ben is a well respected leader and has made NAPMM a vital part of the National discussion about the future of markets. At the Saturday evening awards banquet, San Antonio Produce Terminal Manager Tom Preston was recognized as the Market Manger of the Year. In almost 13 years at the Market, Tom has made countless improvements in facilities and operating procedures. However, more importantly, Tom s sincerity, honesty and principled management approach has helped him gain the respect and cooperation of tenants, Board and staff. Congrats Tom This honor is well deserved. The Conference Committee is already hard at work planning for the 2012 Conference which will be held in Los Angeles, California, probably in late February or early March. Feel free to email program ideas to our conference co-chairs, James Haydu and Michael Janis. C O N F E R E N C E PHOTOS OF T O U R S Ben Vitale presents Tom Preston with Market Manager of the Year award at the Saturday evening banquet. Thank you to our Sponsors of the 2011 Annual Conference C I T Y M A R K E T KANSA S C I T Y, MO B R A V O S T OP CH E F On Sunday, April 17, 2011, Bravo s Top Chef: The Tour rolled up at the City Market in Kansas City, MO. The culinary throw down was between Top Chef Chef Testants Nikki Cascone from Season 4, and Hector Santiago from Season 6. During three live interactive shows, the Chef Testants had 15 minutes to prepare a dish with the signature ingredient beef. Hector won the first battle, but Nikki won the second and third, to be named Top Chef. Audience members were able to taste each dish, ask questions and hear backstage secrets of the Chef Testants. The City Market was the second stop of a 20-city promotional tour.
Page 3 June 2011 S Y R A C U S E S RE G I O N A L MAR K E T Vendors Lisa Zaccaglini (right) and Mike Shuster (center) sell their Mu Mu Muesli cereal product to Jane Schmid in early April at CNY Regional Market at Park Street in Syracuse. We launched in Syracuse at the market and we built our business there, said Jon Stadt, owner of Flour City....Yet its ability to serve as an incubator or sometimes a launching pad for small food-based businesses is one of its hallmarks. This is where Plainville turkey got its start, way back in the 30s, market director Ben Vitale said. This is our mission. What we do is provide opportunities for agriculture and commerce in Central New York. Serves as an Affordable Launching Pad for Food-Based Businesses Don Cazentre, The Post-Standard April 23, 2011 Syracuse, NY Mu Mu Muesli is a natural cereal company from a village just east of Cooperstown selling in 115 stores across the Northeast. Flour City Pasta is a Rochesterarea business gaining a culinary reputation and selling its product as far away as New York City. Ask the owners of both of these small-but-growing Upstate businesses to pinpoint the start of their success and they ll give you the same answer: The Central New York Regional Market, in Syracuse. Closer to home, Wake Robin Farm, of Jordan, a maker of cheese and yogurt, got its initial boost from the market. So did Organically Hip, a cookie-mix maker based in Clay. We launched in Syracuse at the market and we built our business there, said Jon Stadt, owner of Flour City, a pasta-making business based in the Rochester suburb of Fairport. He sells at the market every Saturday. We ve had success, and it all started in Syracuse, he said. Mu Mu Muesli co-owner Mike Shuster, whose business is in the Route 20 village of Sharon Springs, calls the Syracuse regional market a crossroads of connectivity. The regional market in Syracuse being there, interacting with customers, getting word of mouth that made our sales explode, said Shuster, who joins his partner Lisa Zaccaglini at the Syracuse market every Saturday. Mu Mu Muesli sold at markets in places such as Schenectady and Westchester County without getting the kick-start it found at the regional market, Shuster said. Syracuse is where we took off, he said. The regional market can sometimes seem like a venue in search of an identity. It thrives as marketplace for local farmers in the growing season, a pre-holiday gift shop in the run -up to Christmas and a year-round outlet for local and non-local products, not all of them food or food-related. It sometimes seems more flea market than farm stand. Yet its ability to serve as an incubator or sometimes a launching pad for small food -based businesses is one of its hallmarks. This is where Plainville turkey got its start, way back in the 30s, market director Ben Vitale said. This is our mission. What we do is provide opportunities for agriculture and commerce in Central New York. At the Market Three small but growing food businesses (among many) you can find at the Central New York Regional Market 7am to 2pm each Saturday: Mu Mu Muesli: Based in Sharon Springs, owners Mike Shuster and Lisa Zaccaglini make muesli a fresh, hand-blended untoasted cereal, with no added sugar, but plenty of organic oats, plus nuts, raisins, flax seed and dried fruits. Flour City Pasta: From Fairport, near Rochester, owner Jon Stadt makes his own products with pasta-making equipment imported from Italy. He has shapes like pappardelle, rigatoni, linguine and orzo, and flavors like sweet potato, chipotle, lemon basil and Thai chili. Wake Robin Farm: Owners Meg and Bruce Schader run a small family farm just outside the village of Jordan, where they make milk; plain, vanilla and maple-flavored yogurts; and five artisan cheeses, from mellow to pungent. If you go: The CNY Regional Market, 2100 Park Street, operates 7am to 2pm every Saturday throughout the year (with a flea market each Sunday). During the May-to- November growing season, the market is also open 10am to 5pm on Thursdays. The Thursday market opens this year on May 5th.
Page 4 National Association of Produce Market Managers P. O. Box 291284 Columbia, SC 29229 napmm.org Over 60 Years Serving The Produce Industry B O ARD O F D I RECT O RS Expires 2012 Betty Allison Jim Farr Michael Janis Expires 2013 Deb Churchill Fred Cole Francis Horne Janel Leatherman Tom Preston Expires 2014 Ronnie Best Tommy Crochet Randall Fogelman James Haydu Dan Kane Bryon Rhoades Ben Vitale S Y R A C U S E S RE G I O N A L MAR K E T ( C O N T D) June 2011 Vitale said the market tries to be accommodating by charging relatively modest fees to vendors. The fee is $600 for the May-to-November growing season for in-state farm vendors (and triple that amount for out-of-state vendors), plus a $1 million liability waiver that typically costs a vendor about $300 per season. Vendor fees support almost all of the state-run regional market authority s annual $1.4 million budget, he said. During the growing season, about 300 vendors fill all the market s 460 stalls. The companies experiencing recent success credit the market as a low-cost venue for the owners of small businesses to meet their customers face to face and find out what s on their minds. That s how our whole product line came together, said Maria Euceda, co-owner of Organically Hip, which recently moved its mix-making operation from her home in Clay to a production facility in Lyncourt. We d be there and customers would talk to us, give us feedback. That s how we came up with our gluten-free product, because customers asked about it at the market. Most markets of this type think of most seasonal farmers markets offer such contact between vendors and customers. But the vendors who found success in Syracuse say something here is different. The people who come on Saturdays have a certain sophistication, said Shuster, of Mu Mu Muesli. Maybe it s the university, or the diversity of the people who come to the market. Saturday, the market seems like it s in a little small town, yet so urban. Though based in Rochester, Flour City has had much more success in Syracuse, Stadt said. Rochester is a little more conservative about these things, he said. There is an across-the-board diversity of people who come to the Syracuse market. The boost the market has given these food companies has taken them in different directions. Mu Mu Muesli and Flour City Pasta used the market to generate word-of-mouth and take their trade to stores and markets in other cities, though the owners of both still show up in Syracuse every Saturday. I wouldn t give up on this market, Stadt said. This is home base. Organically Hip grew at the market, then moved on. It no longer sells there, though its owners still cite the market as their starting point. It s how our name grew, and how we came to be as successful as we are, said Euceda, whose cookie mixes are sold in more than 20 stores in three states. Wake Robin Farm, meanwhile, used its initial regional market success to get its product placed at supermarkets in the area, including Wegmans. They ve recently withdrawn from the big stores, yet still sell every Saturday at the regional market (and at small outlets, such as the Syracuse Real Food Co-op). Meg Schader, co-owner of Wake Robin, said she and her husband, Bruce, would have had to invest in more land, more cows and more equipment to meet demand at stores like Wegmans. But we wanted to remain what we are, a small company that knows its customers, she said. That s why we love the market. We didn t want to go down the path of not connecting with the people who buy (our products). This is success for us. Food & Drink Editor Don Cazentre can be reached at (315) 470-2297 or by e-mail at dcazentre@syracuse.com. You can also find food & drink stories at www.syracuse.com/ food.
GreenSheet Insert June 2011 G E O R G I A S FIRST NEW AG L E A D E R IN 41 YE A R S Revamps Business Plan By Jim Offner, The Packer March 21, 2011 For the first time in more than four decades, Georgia s agriculture industry has a new government leader. Gary Black took over as Georgia s commissioner of agriculture on Jan. 10, succeeding Tommy Irvin, who had occupied the office since he was first appointed to the job in 1969. Irvin retired after his term was completed in 2010, citing age and ill health as reasons. Irvin was the longest-tenured state officeholder in the country. More is changing than the name on the commissioner s office door, said Black, 52, who, with his family operates and raise cattle at Harmony Grove Farms in Commerce, Ga. Meet the Commissioner Throughout Georgia and the nation, farmers, legislative leaders and regulatory officials trust and respect Gary W. Black for his experience and judgment in agricultural issues. In 2010, the people of Georgia put their trust in him as well by electing him as their 16th Commissioner of Agriculture. We re going from a pretty central-controlled area to one where you empower managers to make decisions on the ground, he said. That s a model that works very well in private business, and I believe it can in government circles, as well. Black said his first order of business is to make the Atlanta State Farmers Market, Forest Park, Ga. and the entire agriculture department more efficient, particularly in a time of budget austerity. We re busying getting the department into the 21st Century, Black said. People just in four weeks have already responded in a remarkable way. Black said he is not a micromanager. He has brought in a team of experts to run various aspects of the department and maintain a full-time presence on the terminal market in nearby Forest Park, Ga. Billy Skaggs, for example, is the department s new chief operating officer. From a marketing standpoint, Billy has been intimately involved with farmers markets for years, he said. On the ground, he has been working with producers in their own markets. That s going to be a very positive plus. Marketing is just one of the departments operational programs, Black said. Jack Spruill has been brought in as division director of marketing, a position formerly held by now-retired Bobby Harris, who was Irvin s assistant commissioner. The marketing program that Spruill will run includes the farmers market, international trade, commodity commissions, the George Grown program and the Vidalia onion program, Black said. He s got a great background in international and domestic work. He s got a lot of practical experience and management background that s going to help us tremendously. The department also has hired Paul Thompson to manage the farmers market and serve as a full-time liaison, Black said. Thompson has been the Haralson County extension coordinator. He replaces market manager Craig Nielson, who is moving back to the Consumer Protection Division of the department. He s just a solid, hard-working managerial professional presence that we ll bring to the market, Black said of Thompson. The division of responsibilities also makes sense, since experts will handle specific areas that fall within their own expertise, Black noted. We re going from a pretty central-controlled area to one where you empower managers to make decisions on the ground, he said. That s a model that works very well in private business, and I believe it can in government circles, as well. Upgrades on the terminal market will be scheduled as regularly as budget constraints allow, Black said.
GreenSheet Insert June 2011 G E O R G I A S FIRST NEW AG L E A D IN 41 YE A R S ( C O N TD) We ve been fortunate for a number of years we ve been told we can have a regular maintenance schedule, he said. We believe it s the management style to bring relationships along. That s where we re going to have our gains this year, in efficiencies. Black said he does not want his department to be an obstacle to vendors on the market. We want to make sure our customers can still operate well. We re not here to balance the budget on the backs of the customers, he said. That s not the way to do it. Efficiency is central to Black s mission as commissioner, he said. One thing we re looking at, department-wide, we have a wide range of inspectors and this has little application in produce, he said. My view is one inspector from the department should be cross-trained to do it all and leave the business owner alone. That s not the case now. Enforcement will stay the same, but it will be less cumbersome, he said. Our regulatory responsibilities don t change, Black said. The department s 43-member steering committee met for the first time under Black s administration Feb. 28. The committee s role is to seep into every nook of responsibility the department has and look for better ways to see those duties through, Black said. That s where I respect those who will help us set those priorities that are essential, and we ll set our resources on those needs, he said. The department operates on a budget of about $40 million, but that also has been adjusted to reflect a decline in revenues. It s a different formula of give and take, Black said. We re not going to be totally made whole by that process, but we ll get pretty close. Black has a background in beef production, but he s no stranger to produce, which is due in part to his 21 years as president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council, he said. I worked with growers for years and have a pretty extensive policy background on a lot of issues, he said. Black says he is drawn to market initiatives, but he said he wants to be smart about it. That includes targeting specific markets for Georgia-grown produce, particularly Vidalia onions. We want to be laser-like there, he said. The Atlanta Farmers Market is a key tool that can grow, Black said. I still think it s an asset we ll have to polish up, he said. There are a lot of people who rely on it. There s tremendous business there, and it s been there for years and years and years. We need to be there in everything we do. Location is an asset in these times, and we ve got to take this hard asset and make it the best it can be. Vendors said they look forward to the new era on the market. Mike Jardina, president of J.J. Jardina Co. Inc., said he likes what he has seen in Black s first weeks on the job. I ve had some conversations with Gary, and we re on the right track to at least clean up the market, and we re going to have some discussions down the road as to how we re going to move forward, he said. We re sort of in a transition period now, and there are not a lot of details. But we re going to put some groups together to have discussions over the next couple of months. It s a little early to know what Gary has up his sleeve. Black said he does not want his department to be an obstacle to vendors on the market Efficiency is central to Black s mission as commissioner, he said. I worked with growers for years and have a pretty extensive policy background on a lot of issues, he said. I ve had some conversations with Gary, and we re on the right track to at least clean up the market, and we re going to have some discussions down the road as to how we re going to move forward, he said (Mike Jardina).
GreenSheet Insert June 2011 F R A U D AT FARMER S M A R K E T S Jim Prevor is widely recognized as a leader in understanding and assessing the state of the perishable food industries. But when NBCLA sent undercover reporters to follow the trucks headed to the Farmer s Market, they wound up at big wholesale warehouses in downtown Los Angeles. But when NCBLA made a surprise visit to the Cypress field listed on its permit, Frutos couldn t show us most of the produce he was selling, such as celery, garlic, and avocados. Jim Prevor s Perishable Pundit February 2, 2011 We ve written many pieces discussing the merits of locally grown produce, but we have written just a tiny bit about the problem of fraud in local farmer s markets. The NBC affiliate in Los Angeles, however, has been doing a series about the enormous amount of fraud that goes on in farmer s markets. In a piece called, False Claims, Lies Caught on Tape at Farmers Market, the reporters, Joel Grover and Matt Goldberg, explained their findings: There are now more than 300 farmers markets in the LA area, with more opening every month. But an NBCLA undercover investigation has revealed that some farmers at these markets are making false claims and flat-out lies about the produce they re selling. These findings grew out of an investigation: NBCLA s investigation began this summer, when we bought produce at farmers markets across the LA area, and then made surprise visits to farms where we were told the produce was being grown. We found farms full of weeds, or dry dirt, instead of rows of the vegetables that were being sold at the markets. In fact, farmers markets are closely regulated by state law. Farmers who sell at these markets are supposed to sell produce they ve grown themselves, and they can t make false claims about their produce. Some of the vendors were legit: We did find plenty of vendors doing just that, like Underwood Farms, which sells produce at 14 markets, all grown on a family farm in Moorpark. But when NBCLA went to look at the farms referenced on the permits vendors have to sell at Farmer s Markets, they found many that were abandoned or didn t grow the cornucopia of items these vendors sold. NBCLA, for example, bought over 20 items from individual vendors all of whom, by state law, are restricted to selling only items they themselves grew. But when NBCLA sent undercover reporters to follow the trucks headed to the Farmer s Market, they wound up at big wholesale warehouses in downtown Los Angeles: But our investigation also uncovered vendors who are selling stuff they didn t grow, like Frutos Farms which sells at seven different farmers markets in LA and Orange counties. During our investigation, we bought 26 different types of produce from their stands at the Century City farmers market, at the Larchmont market and at the Buena Park market. Frutos Farm s state permit to sell produce at farmers markets says their farm is in Cypress. NBCLA asked owner Jesse Frutos, Everything you sell at farmers markets is grown in your Cypress field? Jesse responded, Correct everything. But when NBCLA made a surprise visit to the Cypress field listed on its permit, Frutos couldn t show us most of the produce he was selling, such as celery, garlic, and avocados. So NBCLA asked, Do you grow avocados here? Avocados? No, not here on the lot That I ll be honest. That stuff came from somewhere else, Frutos said. Somewhere else? NBCLA s undercover cameras followed Jesse s trucks on farmers market days, and saw him going to the big wholesale produce warehouses in downtown LA.
GreenSheet Insert June 2011 F R A U D AT F A R M E R S M A R K E T S (CONT D ) We saw him loading up his truck, with boxes of produce from big commercial farms as far away as Mexico. He bought many of the types of items we saw him selling at the farmers markets. After documenting this, NBCLA asked Jesse, You are selling some things at farmers markets that you didn t grow, that you got at wholesale produce markets? Jesse admitted, Yes. NBCLA also noted that all kinds of unsubstantiated and often false claims were being made about pesticides: And during our investigation, NBCLA examined another big claim made at farmers markets that their produce is pesticide-free. NBCLA bought one container of strawberries, from five different vendors, at five farmers markets, including a vendor called The Berry Best, at the Torrance farmers market. NBCLA s undercover shopper questioned the Berry Best s owner about the strawberries: These are pesticide-free? Owner Mary Ellen Martinez responded, Yes, they are. To see if that s true, we took our five samples to a state-certified lab, and had them tested for pesticides. Results showed three out of five samples we tested sold berries that did contain pesticides, including the sample from the Berry Best. NBCLA went back to Martinez. We found four different pesticides in your berries. Do you know how that happened? we asked. Responded Martinez, Nope. She later said pesticides might have drifted into her field from neighboring farms. But according to our lab, that s unlikely because the pesticide level on her berries appears too high to have drifted from another farm. Martinez ended the interview with NBCLA, telling us to leave her stand, You re getting on my nerves right about now. The oddity of the article, though, is that the conclusion is completely belied by the entire report. Speaking to consumers, the reporters suggest the follow as their conclusion: So, how do you, the customer, know if a farmer is selling locally grown produce that really came from his farm? Operators of farmers markets we spoke to suggest shoppers get to know vendors they buy from, and ask them a lot of questions. Ask for the exact location of the farm where the produce is grown. If they claim their produce is pesticide-free, ask them what methods they use to control pests on their crops. Ask exactly when the produce was picked. If the farmers can t give you specific answers, or seems unwilling to answer your questions, market operators say you should walk away. Of course, all the fraudulent players interviewed gave direct answers and made specific claims to NBCLA. The idea that if you get to know a businessman committing fraud you will know whether he is fraudulent is ridiculous go ask Bernie Madoff s victims! These are criminals defrauding the public, and this is a police matter. The fact that the operators of the farmer s markets don t act aggressively to prevent such a problem and that so little is heard about this from the pro-local community indicates the degree to which ideology has transcended reality. We saw him loading up his truck, with boxes of produce from big commercial farms as far away as Mexico. She later said pesticides might have drifted into her field from neighboring farms Martinez ended the interview with NBCLA, telling us to leave her stand, You re getting on my nerves right about now. Of course, all the fraudulent players interviewed gave direct answers and made specific claims to NBCLA. The idea that if you get to know a businessman committing fraud you will know whether he is fraudulent is ridiculous go ask Bernie Madoff s victims!