The Ottawa Farmers' Market at Lansdowne Park is considered by many as a weapon against climate change and food scarcity, but it is fighting to be included in plans to redevelop the park so the market can operate year-round in the Aberdeen Pavilion.
“We are saying farmers, not fish,” says Andy Terauds, president of the Ottawa Farmer’s Market Association, in rebuttal to a proposal featuring an aquarium in the Aberdeen Pavilion, commonly called the “cattle castle,” built in the late 1800s to house agricultural exhibitions.
“That was its purpose, so we would like to bring it back to that,” Terauds says.
The city signed a two-year pilot project with the farmers’ market association in 2006, allotting space in the north-west corner of the park.
|
Read more: |
That agreement was extended for another two years, scheduled to end in 2009. The contracts include a clause in which the city promises to give the market a permanent space when the project ends, but does not specify location or size, says Terauds.
All vendors at the market must adhere to two main restrictions set by the market association. They must be local, meaning within 100 kilometres of the city, and they must be farmers. Re-sellers are not welcome.
Colleen Ross, president of the Women’s National Farmers Union, put forth the new Lansdowne Park redevelopment plans at a symposium organized by Food Secure Canada, a new Canadian organization which seeks to unite people and organizations working for food security, at Bronson Place earlier this month.
“The Ottawa city council is talking about taking away Lansdowne Park from the farmers' market and making it into some commercial enterprise . . . on one hand good things are happening, but on the other hand, people still aren’t getting it,” she said.
What people aren’t getting, Ross suggests, is the idea that eating locally and seasonally is the biggest defense against food scarcity and climate change.
“On my farm I grow food, not commodities,” said Ross.
She and other speakers lectured the audience about the need to change the way people look at food if we want to protect the planet while ensuring there is enough food to go around.
Rene Segbenou, who came from Benin in West Africa to speak on behalf of the Coalition for the Protection of Africa’s Genetic Heritage, suggested that if solutions to the food crisis are to be found, different perspectives must be considered.
Segbenou and Ross both advocated locally owned, smaller family farms that grow a range of produce.
Having a farmers' market that only supports local farmers would fit perfectly into this model and is the reason why Ross raised the Lansdowne market issue at the symposium.
Walking in the Lansdowne market on a Sunday, however, you will find a farmer and his pears that came all the way from the Niagara fruit belt. It begs the question of how serious this “local” requirement really is.
“We’ve asked Torrie to be here,” says Terauds, referring to Beamsville farmer Torrie Warner. “Compared to other sources, he’s local. He is outside 100 clicks, but for us he’s local for that product.”
The six- to seven-hour commute, Warner says, has been worth it.
“It is very difficult for me as a producer to hear that people can’t get good plums or pears here in grocery stores. It’s sad,” Warner says, explaining there is serious demand for his product, specifically in the Ottawa region.
Warner is not permitted to sell anything that more local vendors at the market offer, such as apples, but he does say some customers have mentioned they prefer him and the Lansdowne market to the vendors at the Byward Market downtown.
On a regular-season Sunday, the Lansdowne market will have 5,000 to 8,000 people walk its strip, Terauds says. The Lansdowne redevelopment proposal said bringing more business to it and local stores is the main objective.
Terauds cites research conducted at the University of Guelph in response.
“For every dollar spent at the farmers' market, $2 to $3 is spent in community businesses.”
Terauds says gross sales this year at Lansdowne at around $2 million imply $4 million to $6 million spent in the community.
“We don’t know what’s going on,” Terauds says of the plans for Lansdowne. “Whenever you don’t know, it feels like a threat, [but] we will work with whomever.”