Sheila Keller Powell- Farmers’ Market Geography Lessons
Sheila is part of the Utah Geographic Alliance, a semi-retired teacher / “preacher”/ presenter providing resources for teachers, and is always promoting the “gospel” of geographic literacy….wherever she roams.
I have been following the exponential growth of farmers’ markets in our state (UT) for several years. Most of our bigger cities and smaller towns now have farmers’ markets as outlets for fresh “locally” grown, lower cost fresh vegetables/fruits, and as community gathering events. My small town, which is agriculturally-based & under pressure from rapid urbanization, has a privately run farmers’ market, but has few truly agricultural vendors (instead it has more art/crafts vendors). I was convinced our town needed a “true” (agricultural produce and products only) farmers’ market, and so I went to our community council meeting to propose the idea of a farmers’ market in our town. I did my homework in order to prepare for the meeting; and geography was at the top of my list. Apparently I convinced the community council of the need for a farmers’ market, because I quickly found myself, along with a volunteer from the community council, in charge of organizing and co-managing a small farmers’ market in my town for about 7 weeks August-October of this year. WOW! What a lot of work, and geography was involved at every turn in the organization process:
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