Opinion is divided on the future of Ireland's farmers' markets. Are they an elitist fad or saviours of the rural economy, asks Michael Kelly
The problem with farmers' markets in Ireland can be summed up in one word - inconsistency. Anyone who does the rounds of markets will be familiar with the broad spectrum of experiences that they can throw at you. On the one hand it can be a genuinely thrilling alternative to the supermarket. You roam from stall to stall, bursting with enthusiasm as you stock up on fresh, seasonal and local produce. You chat amiably to stallholders, sip fresh coffee or eat a freshly barbecued free-range sausage.
And just when you think you will never darken the door of a supermarket again, on another weekend jaunt the majority of stalls seem to be selling brown bread, cakes and jams, which are nice and all, but you can make them at home. There is one solitary fruit and veg stall with a frankly uninspiring array of produce and, wait a minute, bananas and oranges? They're not local or seasonal. There is no meat or fish available, but there is a stallholder selling Che Guevara T-shirts. And speaking of farming, where are all the farmers?
At the last count there were 126 farmers' markets operating across Ireland, and new ones open up almost every week. You get a sense of a movement at a crossroads - it is either a short-lived elitist, bourgeoisie fad, or it is the saviour of the rural economy and a bulwark against supermarket hegemony. A fitting juncture then for the movement to host its first get-together, which it did recently at the Farmers' Market conference in Athlone.
The Government turned out in force, sending two Ministers along: Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív and Minister of State for Food and Horticulture, Trevor Sargent. The latter's arrival (by train, no less) created a palpable buzz, and when he informed us that he used to sell his own vegetables to a Co Meath market, some delegates swooned. He talked about whipping refusenik local authorities into shape and addressing the anomalous situation where some authorities are the markets' most passionate advocates, while others treat them like a boil. As one speaker put it, markets are funded in some counties and fined in others. "Local authorities have a long-standing responsibility," Sargent said, "which has been allowed to wither and which I am trying to rekindle."
The consistency issue was articulated most forcefully by the movement's high-priestess, Darina Allen, who set up Ireland's first farmers' market in Cork in 1999. When Allen talks about what markets should be like, you can't help wishing that she was involved in your locality, cajoling and encouraging producers and organisers.
Markets must be there every week, she said, so that consumers are not confused about when they are on. She advocates short evening markets to cater for modern shopping patterns. There should be a market controller to monitor quality, and a code of practice which producers must sign up to. She tells the story of a stallholder caught un-wrapping a cake and trying to sell it as home-made. "If we break the bond of trust with the consumer," she said, "we are doomed."
Markets must offer variety. Breads, jams and cheeses are important. But what about wild game and rabbits, rare-breed meats, live chickens, fresh fish, home-made stocks, old varieties of apples? What about educational stalls showing people how to sow seeds or a "forgotten skills" stall that shows people how to make butter?
Allen believes that stallholders and consumers have a part to play when it comes to the thorny issue of markets being perceived as expensive. For their part, stallholders need to tell the story of their food. "A lot of people," she says, "don't realise that it takes 100 days to rear a really good chicken and that's why they have to cost €15, whereas the ordinary chickens are produced in 38 to 41 days." And as for us consumers, we can't have it both ways - we can't expect wholesome, fresh, nourishing food at discount store prices.
The problem is how we go about bringing our markets up to the level of our aspirations. Is there an argument for a national standard, or tasking local authorities with regulating and monitoring to ensure the markets do what they are supposed to? Or will that just suck the life out of it? There is no real consensus on this central issue and that's a worry. "I think it's imperative that we have some sort of protocol in place," says food writer Clodagh McKenna. "If a market wants to call itself a farmers' market then it should be regulated. I think we should establish a national expert group to come up with a well thought-out set of regulations."
Darina Allen, on the other hand, believes that self-regulation is the way forward. "Rather than getting involved in national regulations where one size fits all, I think every market should have a code of practice and protocol, and a strict one at that, which is what we do in Midleton." But not every market has a protocol in place and therein lies the problem. "If local authorities make a space available for a market," says Denis Shannon, who organises markets in Co Wexford, "they could also write down basic criteria that they expect of producers. In England you have to be producing within 50 miles of a market. There's a lot of merit in that."
As conference chairman John Bowman said: "This is not just about markets - it's about the health of the nation."