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- Farmers’ Markets Help Revitalize New Orleans’ Downtown Core
- By Jeffrey Carter
Ontario Correspondent
- The City of New Orleans has rediscovered its rural connections with the establishment of the Crescent City Farmers’ Market in the mid 1990s. Richard McCarthy, executive director of the Crescent City Farmers’ Market, says the effort has even helped reduce the crime rate in the streets of New Orleans, one of the most economically challenged cities in America.
“Downtown advocates wanted to have a downtown market because it made the area appear safer and when it appears to be safer, it becomes safer,” McCarthy says.
McCarthy spoke at the National Catholic Rural Life Conference annual meeting in Dearborn, Mich. on Nov. 9.
There are now 50 to 60 vendors involved and three different markets that attract around 3,000 shoppers a week and it’s growing. Buyers who enjoy the fresh taste of Louisiana and Mississippi can shop Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays year round.
McCarthy jokes that people turning up for the original Saturday market, that runs from 8 a.m. to noon, are either early risers or are on their way home from New Orleans’ famous nightlife.
Conservatively, the three markets generate $2.4 million annually in direct sales and many times that amount when the indirect impact is counted, McCarthy says. The organizational budget for the markets adds up to just $150,000. The market has a staff of four.
McCarthy says today’s markets began as a development project through the Loyola University New Orleans. Under the university umbrella and with support from farmers, chefs and community leaders, McCarthy established the Economics Institute, “a nonprofit organization working to promote ecologically sound economic development for individuals, families and small businesses in the food and agriculture sector of the Greater New Orleans region.”
The emphasis on food and agriculture was a natural fit. Many people living in New Orleans, La. and Mississippi are obsessed with food, McCarthy says. McCarthy himself is an avid gardener. He and his wife, when they’re not cooking or eating, are often making plans for their next meal.
Eating local foods and eating seasonally are traditions in the region the market is helping to reestablish, McCarthy says.
New Orleans’ markets originated when the area was a French Colony, McCarthy explains. They were usually housed in buildings owned by the city. With the sale of these buildings to private interests and other changes, the markets began to fail. By the 1960s, they were gone.
“In the old days, there were markets in every quarter of the city,” he said.
Today’s markets are open-air affairs established with a minimal amount of capital investment. Stalls cost just $20 a day. The markets have proven a boon to both the vendors - farmers and fishermen - and to the surrounding businesses, McCarthy says.
In the beginning it wasn’t an easy sell. People in the city and people from the surrounding rural areas were disconnected. Some rural folk were even afraid to venture into New Orleans where poverty, crime and violence are a concern.
Farmers and fishermen also questioned the economic potential of direct-to-consumer sales. What they found, however, was much different.
“The problem was not demand . . . The bigger problem is the supply. We thought there were more farmers then there are,” McCarthy says.
There have been many success stories.
Lester L’Host brought his citrus fruit on the first day he attended the market. He sold everything in about an hour and was soon on the phone calling his wife to bring another truckload, McCarthy says.
Pete and Clara Gerica found that they could concentrate less on fishing for volume by selling their shrimp and fish directly to consumers for higher prices. Clara now brings her sister and daughter to the market and her husband has more time away from his boat to help with organizational work in the fishing community .
For some vendors, the market has been a way to expand their businesses.
Henry and Jessie Amato found greater profit in marketing strawberry wine rather than just the strawberries. They now make other fruit wines and their wines can be found on store shelves and are exported to Japan.
Ken and Jamie Mauthe found a way to add value to the milk from their dairy operation. After working with a chef to develop a recipe based on local tradition, they began marketing Mauthe’s Creole Cream Cheese and other products. The response was overwhelming.
“On the first day, there was a line of people 70 feet long. It looked like an AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) convention,” McCarthy says.
The markets are also an excellent educational opportunity. Farmers and fishermen explore new ideas with each other. They’ve also opened new channels of communications with consumers.
“In some ways we became that human face of agriculture,” McCarthy says. That human face, at the Crescent City Farmers’ Market at least, is changing. “What we’re seeing is the average age of our growers is getting younger which is totally counter to the trend in the rest of the country,” McCarthy says.
Visit the market’s Web site at www.crescentcityfarmersmarket.org.
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