Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Market Corrections
THE RETURN OF THE SMALL FARMER
(though the Weiser family of Te-
hachapi, California, may have its quirky members, none of them could really be con-
sidered revolutionaries. And when they started selling their produce at farmers' markets
back in the early 1980s, they weren't trying to change the world; they just wanted to get
what they thought was a fair return on their labor.
Even so, what began as the agrarian dream of a former high school guidance counselor
is now a business that sells its fruits and vegetables all over the United States and grosses
more than $1 million a year. But if that big-money talk makes you think of gentlemen farm-
ers wheeling and dealing over the long-distance lines, forget it. You can still find one of
the sons, Alex Weiser - small and wiry and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt - at several of the
more than a dozen farmers' markets around Southern California every week. Indeed, the
Weiser family represents one of the most profound transformations in American agriculture
in the past twentyfive years - the return of the small family farm as a viable way of doing
business.
Just when it seemed that modern farms had to get bigger or die, along came farmers'
markets to save the day. By going to the market, growers were able to realize the full cash
value of their produce, rather than the measly 20 percent or less that was the norm in main-
stream agriculture. The markets also allowed farmers to experiment with new crops that
might not have fit into the supermarket produce section and even paid them a premium for
doing that. In so doing, farmers' markets shook the foundations of the produce industry by
unleashing consumer demand for fruits and vegetables that were more varied and more fla-
