
On the subject of
farmers markets, there has been a lot of behind the scenes goings-ons at Provo's Farmers Market over the last 7 months, which Raquel and I used to run. We have a great love for our local farmers, cooks and craftspeople here in the area and have worked very hard since April of 2008 when Raquel was asked to run it, to assist in the creation and sustaining of a market that supports them and is a thriving cultural event.
Raquel has been working in organizing community events around the arts and culture in Provo for the last 10 years or so and we have learned much from her dealings with the politics of Provo. Our motivation has always been to plug up the talent drain of people we saw leaving the area due to lack of support and venues for art and cultural events. The unfortunate truth of the current political situation in Provo is that there is a virulent component of people that is devoted to rooting out those "artists types" along with their often successful and vibrant events. They seem to have the ears of the decision makers and the result is that opportunities to support, collaborate with and embrace very promising events and projects are passed up or downright turned down or ignored.
The goings on at the Farmers Market grow out of this climate and its success this year prompted some really horrendous politics that Raquel and I worked extremely hard, through many sleepless and stress filled nights over 7 months to improve and move beyond. We were successful in assisting and cultivating a vibrant community space that built enough momentum and awareness to "get the ball rolling" for a market to support our beloved farmers, as well as the communities other local economic endeavors. But our farmers primarily need support and the encouragement to know that this community will support them if they choose to feed us rather than California's alfalfa appetite.
However it was quite apparent that the politics were not going to change, despite our and many of our friends' efforts to foster something collaborative and work
with various components of the city and community organizations. So after much deliberation we resigned, trusting that the building momentum would continue to support the vendors, the people we had come to know and love.
Many months of hard work, coupled with such stress and anxiety of working with people who demonstrate their dislike of you and your honest efforts to improve your community and foster arts and culture, takes its toll. So we are pushing off on a new, slower foot, focusing on improving our small urban farm.
What made things ever so much more difficult after our resignation is that the city staffers who took over the market after our resignation, in their stress running an event that is a LOT more work than they were led to believe by those who wanted us out (we spent 40-60 mostly unpaid hours a week to run it) started some malicious, hurtful rumors about us and why we left. But this week we received a very kind and courageous email from one of the responsible people apologizing for his role, and recognizing us for the hard work that we did, for which we are very thankful, and feel like it is a healing first step.
So we want to thank everyone for supporting the vendors at the farmers market, and for supporting us through a difficult time. Provo has some deep seated problems, but we trust that change is on the horizon, even if it is coming more slowly than we would like to see it come.