I’m writing to express my concern over the Town’s decision to cancel the Chestertown Farmers’ Market. While I appreciate that Mayor and Council are focused on our public health and safety, their decision is in direct contradiction to Maryland Department of Agriculture’s (MDOA) recommendation that there be no interruption to our food supply chain, including farmers’ markets and food banks. From the MDOA March 19 update “Reliable access to food is a human right and it is critical that our food supply chain maintain – and even be prepared to expand – operations through this state of emergency.” In addition to the state of Maryland, lawmakers in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Minnesota have all issued statements that farmers’ markets are essential services.
There are many of us that rely on our local farmers year round, eating only locally grown foods for reasons ranging from health to sustainability. And there are many local farm families for which our market is their primary source of income. Produce in a grocery store chain travels on average 1500 miles from farm to table, and has been handled more times than one would like to count. Meats travel even farther. In contrast, our locally grown produce and meats travel a fraction of the distance. And, our market takes place in open air with space to move away from others. Keeping our market open can be a win for both consumers and producers.
In this frightening time of COVID-19, MDOA urges farmers’ markets to make necessary modifications to promote social distancing and any other changes that reduce the opportunity for infection. Markets around the country are employing a variety of guidelines designed to keep folks safe: sanitary gloves required for market staff who handle money, increasing hand sanitizing stations for producers and customers, regular sanitizing of any touch surfaces, and allocating specific times for elders only. Most importantly, any producer or customer who feels sick should stay home.
I am encouraged that after receiving several letters and emails the Mayor and Town have agreed to revisit their decision at the next meeting of Mayor and Council on April 6th. I hope readers will join me in advocating for the reopening of our farmers’ market. With any luck I’ll see on the other side of the fountain on April 11th.
Stay healthy. Eat local. Flatten the curve.
Kim Kohl
Betterton
Michael Lamb says
I very much agree with this. The market serves the interests of the vendors, farmers, and customers and it is not inherently more dangerous than any enclosed grocery store. Let’s re-open the market, with suitable protections, as soon as possible.
Gren Whitman says
Re-open the market!
Steven Mitchell says
I agree that the Chestertown Farmer’s Market should re-open as soon as possible – preferably this Saturday.
I’m sure that the Mayor and Town Council were working from the information that they had at the time in making their decision at the last Town Council meeting to close the market. As we are all seeing, information about the COVID-19 pandemic is evolving on a daily and even hourly basis.
Since the time of the decision to close the Farmer’s Market, the Maryland Department of Agriculture and Governor Hogan’s office have decreed that farmer’s markets are an essential part of our food chain system and should remain open. I am certain that the Governor and his staff conferred with health advisors before coming to this conclusion and determined that farmer’s markets pose no more risk to the population than a trip to a conventional grocery store.
In an email that I received from Mayor Cerino yesterday responding to my advocacy for the Farmer’s Market to be reopened, he stated that the earliest that the market could be reopened would be April 11. His justification was that the Chestertown residents must “get used to the idea that for the foreseeable future, the Market will not be the social gathering place it has become over the past decade+.” We are all adults and understand the importance of maintaining a social distance from others that may or may not have the virus. I just want to get my food and get home – just like I had to do at the supermarket today. With people dying daily from this virus, I and others in the community are very well aware of the importance of social distancing in protecting myself and my family from this virus.
I urge the Mayor and Town Council of Chestertown to comply with the Governor’s wishes and open the Farmer’s Market this Saturday.
anne t stevens says
I agree with this. It makes sense for all.
Vic Pfeiffer says
I absolutely agree, and thank Kim for this letter. My wife, Patricia, has already written the Mayor & Town Council. In addition to Kim’s good suggestions, consider spreading the vendors out, having vendors separate their items from the consumers so we can see them but not touch them, marshaling volunteers to “police” separation, and if need be in the extreme, cordoning off the market and allowing a limited entry at any one time. Buying locally grown food outside is far better than inside closed spaces.
Susan Debnam says
Make it like our hardware store. Rope off and only let 7 people in at a time
Maria Wood says
The farmers’ market is a beloved institution in Chestertown, but it cannot operate during this public health crisis, for the safety of all. Locally grown food is still accessible while the farmers’ market is not operating: among other places, it’s available at the Guernsey Depot on upper High Street in Chestertown, at Chestertown Natural Foods, at Fresh Start in Rock Hall, and directly from many of the market vendors at their stands and locations.
Gatherings of more than 10 people are prohibited—the farmers’ market involves more than that number even before customers show up. The very clamor to reopen the market proves that keeping numbers below 10 would be as good as impossible. This prohibition on gatherings is not frivolous—it is a drastic measure to prevent even more drastic consequences. The catastrophe of COVID19 has not yet reached our region, but it is coming. Additional cases have been announced in both Kent and Queen Anne’s Counties just since I began typing this comment.
Telling people who “feel sick” to stay home is inadequate. This virus is readily transmissible before carriers are symptomatic. Some people seem to transmit it without ever noticing symptoms. Health care workers from China to Italy to Seattle to Spain to New York have warned us: the devastation from this pandemic is “apocalyptic.” They have pleaded with places, like ours, that haven’t felt the full brunt of the outbreak yet to take it seriously. They tell us “this virus does not allow normal life.” They assure us that the worst-case scenario is what is going to happen. To imagine that our community will be spared is folly, and is patently unfair. It’s unfair to the workers in our tiny 15-bed hospital, and to the loved ones of people who will need care, and to the public as a whole. Even if perfect social distancing precautions were possible, they would not prevent the pandemic.
There are alternatives. There are the aforementioned businesses. A CSA could be set up for farmers market vendors. Customers could pay online in advance and receive a box at their homes. Some farmers markets are reimagining themselves in a drive-through model for this crisis. We owe it to ourselves, and to each other to take seriously the calls for drastic measures, so that we can return to our Saturday morning traditions and regain some sort of normalcy as soon as possible.
Beryl Smith says
I think you are wrong here. Being outdoors is preferable to being indoors with no limit on the number of shoppers at any one time. Reducing the number of hands that are placed on the produce also is a limiting factor. Think how many must have touched the produce in the super market before you got there! And fresh and local is certainly preferable to prepackaged and pawed over.
Maria Wood says
I did not advocate for supermarket produce. There are plenty of places to get locally-grown, short supply chain food that has passed through few hands, and not been pawed over. Don’t go to the supermarket: go to small locally owned businesses like the Guernsey Depot and others, or go straight to the source and get your produce directly from the farms, which is almost certainly safer than any retail outlet, including the farmers market.
As to prepackaged foods, while I agree that they are generally not as appetizing as fresh, local options, they too are almost certainly safer. Food that’s been packaged and remains sealed until it’s in your kitchen has far fewer opportunities to pick up the virus than unpackaged food (of course the outside of the packaging is as likely to have picked it up as any other item).
Coronavirus is here—we can’t see it, but we know it is here. No one is immune. Eating healthy, exercising, taking our vitamins, and spending time outdoors will not protect us from it. It’s a serious, dangerous illness for a significant portion of people who get it, and it spreads easily. Medical professionals are finding that only about 10% of coronavirus patients who get intubated survive—to the point where hospitals are talking about a blanket decision across the whole health care system not to attempt resuscitation at all.
The farmers market will re-open, and we will be able to resume our favorite customs and enjoy the lovely luxuries of fresh locally produced food in the middle of town each week. But to conduct it now is simply not worth the risk, especially when there are other alternatives to get the exact same foods.
Barbara Lloyd says
Very well said Maria. This is a very serious thing that some people don’t seem to understand. As a healthcare worker who was actively employed until a week ago I urge everyone to stay in please, if not for your own safety then for the safety of others.