photo from jonathan020 on flickr.com
I recently learned from a friend (who lives in Boston) that the post-market bulldozing that we saw was from an outdoor market - not a farmer’s market. The difference is that the produce is not necessarily coming directly from farmers; it may be bulk, or surplus from food vendors. The prices are thus cheaper than most grocery stores (more info here). So maybe that would explain the buying frenzy that resulted in so much garbage.
Oops, maybe I let an outdoor market give farmers markets a bad name … but then I looked online and came across some pictures of “real” farmers market in Boston. Smaller scale, but similar photos: a big pile of garbage. I wonder what happens to this pile. I can only guess that it does not get sorted and recycled and composted.
I am definitely not trying to point the finger at Boston, and I’m not trying to criticize markets. If we looked in the dumpster of any grocery store, we’d see much more garbage than this. Many markets actively recycle and/or compost. This picture is just something to keep in mind as we decide which markets to support.
8 months ago