Make Space for Markets
For more than 30 years, Vancouver Farmers Markets have brought local farmers, food producers, small businesses and neighbourhoods together. Our markets are busy! Vendors are selling more, thousands of people visit our markets every year, and an ever increasing number of small businesses want to participate.
But the spaces, infrastructure, policies and planning meant to support them haven’t kept pace. The governance system ideally meant to support markets often ends up adding friction by lack of favourable policies, unavailability of basic facilities at markets, unexpected curveballs leading to market relocations at the eleventh hour, and more. And the pressure invariably gets passed down to farmers, vendors, market staff and ultimately shoppers. And sometimes, the people who make markets possible may decide that the cost of participating is simply too high.
We want ‘Fresh Food for All. Fair Wages for Farmers.’
We want direct to market farms and small food businesses to remain viable choices for the next generation. And, we want our city’s people to continue having access to local food.
These goals depend on having a local food infrastructure that supports farmers markets. We are asking for farmers markets to be treated as a permanent part of the city’s social, economic and food infrastructure, and not as temporary events competing for leftover space.
And so, it’s time for us to speak out asking our decision makers to make space for markets, not just for this or the next market season, but for the long term future of Vancouver’s local food system.
What does ‘Make Space for Markets’ actually mean?
It means making sure markets have the space, infrastructure and planning support they need to work.
MORE CERTAINITY
Year-to-year permits and uncertain access make it difficult for vendors to plan, invest and grow. Markets need greater consistency and longer-term certainty.
WATER, WASHROOMS, POWER
Markets need reliable access to washrooms, water and power for vendors, shoppers and staff. What we depend on mostly so far are temporary work arounds. Access to safe, reliable facilities can make markets more functional and accessible, reducing the need for temporary or improvised solutions.
ACCESSIBLE LOADING AND PARKING
Farmers arrive with trucks full of food. Vendors need to unload, set up and safely move products. Markets need loading zones, vehicle access and parking solutions that actually reflect how a market operates.
PLANNING THAT INCLUDES MARKETS
When parks, plazas, roads and public spaces are being designed or redeveloped, market operators need to be at the table early, especially before decisions have already been made, leading to markets getting relocated.
Farmers Markets don’t just happen.
There is a resilient system that goes behind each market day.
Farmers Markets may look like a collection of tents that pop up for a few hours each week and then go away. But there is a much bigger infrastructure system that works to make markets happen week after week, rain or shine.
Farmers grow the food, load the truck, drive into the city, unload, and set up. Staff and volunteers arrive much earlier to ensure a safe market set up. Shoppers arrive. Small businesses meet customers. Local food circulates through neighbourhoods.
What can you do? Ask the right questions.
The next time you talk to a City or Park Board representative, ask:
Where will farmers markets fit in Vancouver’s long-term plans?
And get specific:
- How can markets have longer term permits for greater certainty about where and when they can operate?
- How will markets have reliable access to water and washrooms?
- How can markets become accessible for all and provide safe loading and unloading areas for vendors?
- How will market sites provide power and other basic infrastructure?
- How will farmers and small businesses get the space they need to operate?
- How will market operators be involved before public spaces are designed or redeveloped?
The election may soon be over, but the work doesn’t end there.
We’re continuing to ask Vancouver’s elected leaders, City staff and Park Board to make farmers markets part of long-term planning, and to address the practical infrastructure challenges facing markets today.
