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Celebrating 30 Years of Farmers Markets in L.A.
Photo by Robbie via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr
Photo by Robbie via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr
It was 30 years ago when Vance Corum and others founded the first locally established certified farmers market in the region. From its Gardena home, the trend exploded and today we find a plethora of options seven days a week. To that end, early next month there will be a celebration at the Little Tokyo/Arts District Farmers Market with a salsa contest, a chef demonstration and a contest sponsored by GOOD Magazine and others that has entrants redesigning the modern day farmer's market (you have up until September 1st to enter).
“Farmers’ markets are coming of age. Customers want beautiful, abundant marketplaces and farmers need large crowds of people,” Corum told GOOD. “Farmers have plenty of production; the challenge is for us to create strong markets in cities and towns across America that recreate and improve upon the local food systems of the past.”
That local system Corum speaks of is when 95 percent of Americans lived on a farm. Today, less than one percent of the population lives on a farm. "As our food production slips further and further afield, our urban residents have suffered—physically and economically—from a lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables," says GOOD.
The event will take place on September 3rd. A blog has been set up in anticipation of it.
Related: Celebrating 75 Years of the Original Farmers Market
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