By Debby Woodin
dwoodin@joplinglobe.com
Some local residents have asked the Joplin City Council to consider establishing a farmers’ market.
David Sweeney, a Joplin dentist, suggested the idea to the council at a meeting Monday night.
“Having attended the market in Webb City and seeing what they have done, I would like to see a designated area here,” Sweeney told the council.
Sweeney said he thinks many Joplin residents would take advantage of an opportunity to buy locally grown produce.
“It would provide another good amenity for the downtown district,” he said. He suggested the city designate a location such as a pavilion in a city park or a vacant lot the city owns downtown for the market.
Rebecca Donham, who along with her husband owns Fourth Street Lofts and lives in one of the lofts, supports Sweeney’s idea for a downtown farmers’ market.
“For us to have a great place to shop with fresh produce and we could just walk to it, that would be great,” Donham said.
Webb City’s farmers’ market has grown from three vendors to 35 vendors, said Marilyn Thornberry, a volunteer who helps founder Eileen Nichols with the chore of running the venture.
The markets are established to be mutually beneficial to farmers and gardeners as well as consumers.
“Basically what we want is for the farmers to be successful. We’re going to help them any way possible,” Thornberry said.
She said it takes organization and rules for a market to operate successfully.
“There are rules and regulations that were set by the vendors before the market went into operation. The vendors set seasonal fees, how much they give at end of each day on their sales. We have a board of directors, and they have rules and regulations just like any organization,” Thornberry said.
The rules are designed to keep a fair market operating for those who sell as well as those who buy.
For instance, one rule is that no items are set aside for a buyer or sold before the market opens at 11 a.m. Thornberry said there have been complaints about the market not opening earlier in the morning.
“But our vendors want to pick in early morning. They want the product to be as fresh as it can be when they get here,” she said. “That’s why they start at 11 a.m. They have a 3 p.m. closing to give the vendors time to get home and take care of their farm chores before dark.”
Members of the tourism committee at the Galena, Kan., Chamber of Commerce started a farmers’ market there this year. It’s slow-going so far getting vendors involved, said Renee Charles, a committee member helping to run the operation.
There have been up to five sellers show up on market days, Thursdays and Saturdays, she said.
“We’ve not had a lot. They all tell me this is a bad year for gardening,” Charles said. “But we’ve had a lot of customers. They’re coming, and they want a market.”
One of the rules that the group had to set up was a method for collecting and turning in sales tax. She said the market volunteers submit a list of vendors each day to the state Department of Revenue, and then it is up to each vendor to pay in the amount of taxes they collect.
“Another rule is it has to be local produce,” she said. Committee members visit the farms of the vendors and allow farmers to come in from a 70-mile radius of Galena.
“You’re trying to help the local farmers,” Charles said. “And, that’s why people go to a farmers’ market — because they want to know where the produce comes from.”
Dan Pekarek, Joplin’s Health Department director, said there are both city and state regulations, though they’re pretty simple.
“The state has farmers’ market requirements,” Pekarek said. “We have our own policies. Under our code, they’re allowed to sell fresh, uncut fruits and vegetables by the individual growing them. They’re not allowed to sell home-canned or prepared items. That would have to be done in a licensed, inspected kitchen.”
Thornberry and Charles both said they don’t feel that the operations in their towns would be threatened by a Joplin market.
“We think there’s enough out there that everybody can have a piece of the pie,” Thornberry said.
State directory
Locations of about 70 farmers’ markets in Missouri, rules on operating them, and other information can be found on the state Department of Agriculture site on the Web at www.agrimissouri.com.
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Residents ask for a Joplin farmers’ market
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