Food choices dictate market forces

By Jim Mynard
CASEY Farmers Market regular stallholder Jim Lake from Kartanji Park lamb farm said the Casey market had the potential to become the biggest Farmers Market in Melbourne.
He said serious shoppers were attracted to the market and it would only grow with time.
Market manager Geoff Rankin said the popularity of farmers’ markets representing local small growers was being influenced from many directions including the constant attention to food related issues which have sprung from the record levels of obesity, diabetes and cancer.
He said there was an increasingly vocal school of thought that said food choices should be about more than convenience and price and that people’s eating decisions affected their health.
“People have a right to know how their food is produced and where it comes from and what they are putting into their bodies and, unfortunately, this transparency is not readily available in other outlets.
“Lobby groups are concentrating on the scathing appraisals of the intensive farming of animals in a factory like production system.
“Farmers markets allow customers to develop a relationship with the supplier with whom they can talk directly.
“They can discuss how the food has been grown and the facts about what they are eating.”
Mr Rankin said one of his favourite desserts was now berry pavlova made from meringue cases supplied by Labertouche free-range eggs filled with low fat yoghurt and topped with fresh or frozen berries from Mountain River Berries.
The Casey Farmers Market is conducted on the first and third Thursday of each month between 9am and 1pm at Max Pawsey Reserve, Fountain Drive, Narre Warren.