Where Storm Takes Food Off Tables
The Union Square Greenmarket is expected to have fewer offerings because Tropical Storm Irene damaged an estimated 140,000 acres of farmland in New York State alone.
By ADRIANE QUINLAN
Published: September 2, 2011
The farmers’ market at the Whitehall Terminal of the Staten Island Ferry will have no heirloom tomatoes from Wilklow Orchards in upstate New York. Mike Betit, a farmer from Vermont, will not be taking summer squash to the Union Square Greenmarket, and Hector Tejada, another New York farmer, will not show up at all this fall at the markets in Union Square or Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
All 12 acres of Mr. Tejada’s farm in New Paltz were flooded. “I lost everything,” he said, adding that he had laid off his two workers and gotten a job at a nearby farm that was spared.
With Tropical Storm Irene having inundated many farms in New York, New Jersey and Vermont, the greenmarkets that have become a weekend staple for many New York City residents and a daily stalwart for chefs will have a little less green.
Winds strong enough to topple cornstalks, and floods high enough to drown entire farms, have changed the kinds of food that New Yorkers who “buy local” will find.
“We have no idea what we’re going to do,” said Maritza Wellington Owens, the founder of Harvest Home, a group that runs farmers’ markets in low-income areas. “We might have to shut markets down. It just might come to that.”
Some regulars say they depend on the greenmarkets to supply their businesses. “It’s devastating for them, and consequently it’s devastating for us,” Mary Cleaver said of the vendors she relies on to stock her farm-to-table restaurant in Chelsea, the Green Table, with Hudson Valley fruit for its harvest salad.
Ms. Cleaver was shopping for peaches at the Union Square Greenmarket, which on Friday seemed as well stocked as ever.
But even there, some of the regular vendors said they would be unable to offer their usual goods.
A Vermont farm, Consider Bardwell, will probably have no more fresh goat cheese to sell at Union Square by Monday. The stress of the storm meant that the goats produced less milk.
The market in Fort Greene will not have its usual spread of heirloom tomatoes from Wilklow Orchards in Ulster County, including black princes and white beauties. The farm’s entire nine acres of tomatoes were washed away.
“My dad doesn’t even want to look at it, he’s too upset,” said Becky Wilklow, 24, who works on the farm. “It’s hard to make money being a smaller farm, and the greenmarket is really nice.”
For many of the small, family-run farms that supply farmers’ markets, the storm could mean financial ruin. “This is the peak of our season,” said Adina Bialas, who runs J & A Farm in Goshen, N.Y., with her husband, Jeff, and saw most of their 10-acre farm submerged. “At the end of August, September and October, that’s when we see our income.”
The fallout from the storm at the city’s greenmarkets is wide and somewhat random. Many of the smaller farms grow a wide array of produce, only some of which was touched by floodwater, and each lost something different. And those who lost everything may still be at markets this weekend, selling what they picked before the storm hit.
Michael Hurwitz, director of the greenmarket program at GrowNYC, which runs 53 markets in the city, estimated that 10 percent of the farmers he works with were affected by the storm.
“There are at least 13 — probably 15 to 20 — that come from the black dirt,” Mr. Hurwitz said, referring to a farming region in Orange County, N.Y. “We know their farms are underwater.”
In all, the storm damaged 140,000 acres of New York farmland, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said.
Adding to some farmers’ concern is a federal guideline stipulating that any crops exposed to floodwater should be considered contaminated and unfit for human consumption.
“You get a lot of nasty things in floodwater,” said Michael Moran, a spokesman for the State Department of Agriculture.
Ms. Bialas worried about the prospect of having to discard produce even if it might not be contaminated. “Do you play the safe route and go bankrupt and go out of business?” she said.
Organizations that operate farmers’ markets in poorer neighborhood worry that farmers with limited supplies after the storm might choose to sell at those greenmarkets where they could charge a higher price.
“They need to go where they’re going to make the maximum value for their product,” said Jacquie Berger, the executive director of Just Food, another group that runs markets in poorer neighborhoods.
In low-income neighborhoods where obesity is a problem, farmers’ markets offerings are often some of the healthiest food.
“People have limited options to buy fresh, nutritious food, and farmers’ markets play an important role in meeting that need,” Kim Kessler, the food policy coordinator for the Bloomberg administration, said in an e-mail.
Ms. Owens, who started Harvest Home, said the decimation of so many farms might make New Yorkers better appreciate the “connection between the food that’s on their table and what’s happening on the farms.”
“It might be a wake-up call, she said, “to show how dependent we are on our farming community.”
Discussion questions.
ReplyDelete1. Is it a good idea to shut markets down considering the fact that farmer's market play a huge role in selling fresh and healthy food?
2.Ms. Owens, who started Harvest Home said that this is maybe a "wake-up call" to show us how dependent we are on our farming community. Do you really think that the society is aware enough of the importance of farming or its consequences?
1. I think shutting down the markets is inevitable if there is no produce to sell. But I think the markets should continue to be open even if there is little to offer to customers.
ReplyDelete2. I would be devastated if something like this was to happen to the Athens Farmers Market. I'm there every Saturday and Tuesday getting as much as my budget allows. Unfortunately, I think many students in Athens are unaware of the farmers market, so if something like this was to happen, they may not notice. I think farmers markets are more prominent in places like New York City so more people depend on them so this tragedy is a wake-up call for them.
1. Shutting the markets down is probably not a good idea unless there is a critical shortage of food. The article mentioned that most of the farmers lost only one main crop, so the selection at the market should still be reasonably diverse.
ReplyDelete2. I think people who shop at farmer's markets are aware of how much they appreciate fresh food and how important it is to their lifestyle. However, I'm not sure that most farmer's market regulars fully realize, until disaster strikes, the consequences of not even having a fresh food option.