As I visited Haile Farmers Market Jan. 17., I noticed an irony — the word “farmer” in Haile Farmers Market is clearly the least important word in the sequence.
An abundance of designer-wearing and eight-dollar-cold-brew-sipping shoppers were buying goods from overpriced sticker shops and artisan carpenters. Virtually no one was seriously buying groceries from the few farmers selling produce. In Gainesville, a growing number of markets are drifting into a different identity — less “farm stand” and more “Etsy-inspired outdoor mall.”
Farmers markets are supposed to be the city’s antidote to industrial food: shorter supply chains, more money staying in the region and a direct relationship between the person who grows the food and the person who eats it…