The Manifesto for Localisation starts with your Friday morning Farmers Market.
Many of us have been making different choices about what we eat, who we buy our food from and how we grow and make our food for a while now; we first started the market in 2009 in Ohoka.
Over the decade and more the market has been a place where many different small food artisans and artisan crafter’s have gathered to sell their wares. For many who shop here it is simply a place to find and source foods that are not available elsewhere perhaps more artisan and specialist in nature, and foods that are of a better quality and foods that are grown locally. It has over time become a place of community too, for those who appreciate the benefits of the sharing a market space sometimes with other like minded folk.
Essentially but at a more complex level it is a working market in that it is about local economies and trade; it provides what people are seeking and enables the producers to sell direct to those customers. Relationships are built upon levels of trust that some may say have been eroded by the current industrial food complex that centralises and dominates our access to food. At its most basic level and central to the Friday morning market is the ability for smaller food producers to trade and for customers to access food.
This farmers market is a collective of many different businesses, but each business and individual trader is independent, they are in the first instance the owner, operator, creator and grower of food that is bought locally and the artisan of hand crafted products as well as the garden related.
This working market is part of what is now called a parallel food system; a place of trade that operates alongside the dominant industrial food complex. It does not compete with the industrial food system instead it provides something different from it, an alternative. The necessity to comply with some of the food industry standards means this alternative system works with aspect of it but strives to maintain a healthy independence from it.
It is this alternative food system that our customers have supported over the years for many different reasons; actions that make the market the success it is and ones that ensure alternative lifestyle options for all who are part of it from those producers to the customers. Regular shopping leads to regular income for those food producers. Local money stays and is spent in the local area, local economies benefit; small food artisans thrive, land use reflects these changes in food production, water quality improves, as does soil with regenerative farming practices like organics often being the preferable method of food production, rejection of the Genetically Engineered, access to affordable good quality food leads to better food eating options and a healthy populations, to mention a few of the positives. The implications are far and wide reaching for those who wish to be part of this system.
Enlightened local body representatives also have the opportunity to appreciate the down stream effects in their local well fed and well farmed communities as a result of their support of markets like these.
What started out as a grass roots response to the over arching toxicity and centralisation of food by big business often in the form of an event or special weekend treat, has resulted in a thriving alternative food market that has become a weekly habit for so many.
This food system which is not unique to Ohoka Market supports many small independent food artisans and producers, sustaining small farmers and providing opportunity for others to join. We rejoice in what the Waimakariri region and our neighbouring regions provide.
Every time you shop at your Farmers Market, you are supporting and fostering the growth of good farmers, and producers in your region. You are an integral part of change which is necessary if you really want to do something about the quality of your food and the state of your health. But just being a customer is good enough!
You are much appreciated by your producers of good quality food.
Ohoka Farmers Market is a real country market. Our customers are both rural and city based, young and aged, many with families and politically diverse too. Our common ground is good quality food. Many of our stallholders are based within Waimakariri or very close in neighbouring regions from coast to hinterland but we also draw the best from seasonal regional producers.
The family that works and run’s the market have done so since its inception. They have resided in Ohoka for a long time, and lived in the Waimakariri and Canterbury region most and all of their lives. They have long been active participants in the market with it finally evolving into a shared generational experience.
Beyond the market… In the past 2016 - 2012 when it was easy we have gifted 40kg of apples and plums from our market growers, to a low decile school in the area every fortnight seasonally. The market has also supported local Charity Jams, Westpac Air Rescue, the Cust Volunteer Fireservice, NZ Cancer Society, SAFE, and numerous other charitable groups in the region who are compatible with our local food objectives but our focus is on the working participants of this market. With that mind OFM also ask everyone who supports the market to refrain from using the market to promote yourself, or anything you think or decide needs promoting. Please do not use it as a place of protest or awareness of and for their own or for others political, social, personal objectives. We are an inclusive community event but our objective is to simply provide access to good quality food every Friday morning. Help us keep it simple.
Thank you from the stallholders for your continued support and long may that continue.
