Boston Makes Farmers' Markets More Affordable

The organic and local food movements are often criticized as elitist. Take a look at the price tags of some organic and farmers' market products, and it's easy to understand why folks feel this way. In many cases, it's not that people don't want to purchase grass-fed beef from a local purveyor. It's that a pack of Ball Park hot dogs from the local supermarket is more convenient to get to and a heck of a lot cheaper. For families on fixed incomes, food choices oftentimes come down to the bottom line.

One innovative program in Boston aims to break down food barriers. The Boston Bounty Bucks Program provides $10 credits to people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program whenever they shop at local farmers' markets instead of supermarkets. That extra dough shows up on their electronic benefit transfer cards (EBT), which are quickly replacing traditional food stamps. The program could serve as many as 82,000 Boston residents.

The program provides a pretty significant incentive for low-income families to go out of their way to buy food from farmers' markets instead of grocery stores and bodegas. "It's easier to buy mac 'n' cheese for your family than to come here and buy fresh pasta and vegetables," Megan Harrington, market manager for the Boston Public Market Association, told The Boston Globe. "But our food here is a lot healthier than a carrot that was shipped from California two weeks ago."

Food from a local farmers' market is a lot healthier for the earth, too. The Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA) estimates that the average American meal travels about 1,500 miles from farm to table. In some cases, ingredients travel as many as 10,000 miles. All that shipping creates massive amounts of carbon emissions that contribute to global warming. If more folks started purchasing the majority of their food from local farmers' markets (most of which include farm products from no more than 100 miles away), think about the effect that would have on combating climate change.

In addition to creating a much more environmentally friendly food scheme, I'm a big fan of programs like this because they really are win-win. Yes, they help low-income residents gain access to healthier, more sustainable foods. But they also boast serious benefits for small farmers. Unlike Big Ag producers, which ship industrially grown products all over the world, most small farmers make their money locally, oftentimes at farmers' markets. The more people shop at local markets, the more small, ecologically minded farms can stay in business. It's an extra expense for city, state, and federal governments—but it's also one that's clearly worth its cost.

Photo Credit: Dan4th Nicholas via Wikimedia Commons