MOUNTAIN HOME — Change is in the air for the Mountain Home Farmers Market, with the seasonal event just around the corner.
The downtown market on the Baxter County Courthouse square attracts as many as 30 vendors and scores of shoppers twice weekly from late winter to early fall. Most vendors are locals selling homegrown produce or handmade farm-based products such as preserves and baked goods. But some are "resellers," who buy produce from others sources to hawk at the market.
The city has required all vendors to post placards showing their names, address and whether they are a "producer" or a "reseller." The idea is that buyers should know whether wares are homegrown or trucked in from other areas.
This practice could go by the wayside, however, after a town-hall meeting Wednesday. Mayor David Osmon said after the gathering that he would recommend that the City Council amend the ordinance governing the farmers market to separate resellers from producers.
The meeting drew about 50 people, including more than a dozen local growers. While most in the audience favored keepingthe resellers, a majority of hands went up when Osmon asked if the city should segregate them from local producers.
The practice of reselling has sparked grumbling in recent years. Some home growers prefer an outright ban, saying a farmer's market should feature only local produce. Others say the market needs the resellers to attract a bigger base of customers.
"I'm not here to take sides one way or the other," Osmon told the town-meeting audience.
"We're looking for improvement," he said, referring to himself and the City Council. "We're not looking for a fuss and a fight."
Mary Faith Michael, who has sold her homegrown produce at the market for more than 25 years, has strong feelings about the experience.
"It's a wonderful thing, and I am very passionate about it," Michael said at Wednesday's meeting.
"I think the market should be for producers of what they sell," she said, adding that growers have a special relationship with customers. "You can tellthem how you grew it, where you grew it, what variety it is. That you can't get from a reseller."
But more and varied produce brings more buyers, and that's good for all vendors, countered Dave Leedham, who raises organic produce at Lone Pine Farm in Baxter County.
"Diversity is an excellent thing for business," noted Leedham, who said the market needs resellers.
Most farmers markets are a mix of growers and resellers, Craig Andersen, a horticulture specialist at the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service in Fayetteville, said by telephone Thursday.
Resellers help markets thrive by satisfying consumer demand, he said.
"In our state, we always have much more demand than we have growers. That's always an issue - recruiting growers."
In the state capital, homegrown-only farmers were assigned space under the east pavilion of the downtown River Market beginning with last spring's Little Rock Farmers Market. Importers set up shop under the west pavilion. There was some bickering, River Market management said, but things calmed down and the separate tables will be back this year.
Arkansas has about 50 farmers markets, and they're as varied as the communities they serve, Andersen said.
"They're all different. They're just like kids. Every one we love, and every one definitely goes through growing pains."
Even as Arkansas becomes more urbanized, he said, "We have a population which remembers its rural roots." Farmers markets help Arkansans stay in touch with those roots, he said, and higher incomes allow some to pay more for locally grown produce.
Besides, farmers markets are just plain fun - as a place for people to socialize with neighbors and friends; for weekend gardeners to get growing tips from local farmers; for buyers to take in the beauty of a wildflower bouquet, the taste of a vine-ripe tomato and the scent of fresh-baked bread.
"It's entertainment. It's an experience. There's lots of very positive things about the markets," Andersen said.
But problems surface in the absence of clear-cut rules, he added.
In Mountain Home, for example, vendors vie for prime selling spaces under shade trees.
"Competition is fierce for those shady spots," said LisaBiggs, who sells homemade baked goods.
A city ordinance limits market vendors to 36 inner parking spots on three sides of the courthouse. The practice of occupying spaces on a first-come, first-serve basis has caused friction.
Some growers complain that a few resellers arrive as early as midnight on market days to snag the best spots. Some resellers purposefully "spread out," they say, to take up more than one parking space, even handicapped parking, which is forbidden by the city ordinance.
Andersen said many communities avoid such conflict by assigning spots based on vendors' longevity and how often they attend the market. But opinion was mixed, and no clear consensus emerged when Osmon took a straw poll Wednesday about assigning spots to vendors in Mountain Home.
The mayor also floated the idea of a farmers market authority to establish rules and regulations consistent with city and state law. He said the City Council has the power under state law to appoint the authority, which could include growers and a reseller.
Andersen said, though, that "very few" market authorities operate in Arkansas.
Arkansas, Pages 13, 19 on 02/24/2007