By Jeff Plotner
Peoria farmer’s market at the riverfront
It was perfect weather for one of Peoria’s last farmers market of the season. The market runs from 8 a.m.-12p.m. on Saturdays between the months of June to September. The local market features fresh vegetables, bread, baked goods and handmade jewelry from vendors who mostly grow, make and bake their products in the area. Anyone wanting to indulge in the healthy haven on the riverfront can find free parking in the lot across the street from the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria.
One charismatic vendor, Denny Moldenhaur, a central Illinois farmer that I had conveniently parked next to, had set up shop in the previously mentioned parking lot. His truck bed overflowed with watermelons, squash, peppers, a white bucket containing popcorn kernels and apples plucked from his grandfather’s apple tree.
Moldenhaur’s makeshift selling stand.
“I didn’t use any pesticides on it even though I’m a university-educated farmer,” Moldenhaur said. He pointed to his blue and orange tennis shoes that were his school colors. For those of you who need more clues, Moldenhaur went to the University of Illinois and graduated with a degree in Agriculture Business.
Moldenhaur is following the growing trend in agriculture away from pesticides in substiute for natural growing methods. In a recent article published by the Huffington Post, pesticides have been accused of being linked to ADHD in children and of the 1.2 billion pounds of pesticides used annually in the U.S., less than .01 percent actually eliminates the bugs the pesticides are intended to kill. Mathematically, that statistic translate into 120,000 pounds accomplishes its goal of killing the crop-harming bugs, while the lion share of pesticides ends up on your dinner plate.
The alleged health threat of pesticides was not the reason for one of Moldenhaur’s customers to buy from a local, pesticide-free grower instead of shopping at the typical grocery store.
“It tastes better on a BLT,” Randy Davis said.
The quality of produce at a local farmers market compared to produce you would buy at the grocery store tends to taste fresher. There are a couple reasons for this delicious difference. On average American produce takes a 1,500-mile journey from the field to your dining room table, so the fruits and vegetables are taken before they can turn ripe so they can survive the trip. This transportation, which depends mostly on gas-guzzling trucks, causes a higher price at the store to pay for the expensive gasoline and the salary of the truck drivers. Since the farmers at the market are local, they can allow the fruit to fully ripen before picking and transporting their crop to the community without the added economic variables that plague larger farms.
Whether the local produce is better than what you find at the grocery store is true or not, or if buying local is a conscious support for community farms, the popularity of farmers markets is only growing. From 2013-2014 the number of registered farmers markets in the U.S. grew by 1.5 percent according to Agricultural Marketing Service. And the controversial findings of the effects of pesticides on the food consumer promises to accelerate the public’s interest in alternative sources of produce that came from familiar dirt.
Sources:
http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/ams.fetchTemplateData.do?template=TemplateS&leftNav=WholesaleandFarmersMarkets&page=WFMFarmersMarketGrowth&description=Farmers+Market+Growth
http://www.entomology.umn.edu/cues/ENT50092011/insecticides/PesticideUSeHistory.pdf
http://www.cuesa.org/learn/10-reasons-support-farmers-markets
https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/935019