THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 23, 1996 TAG: 9610230012
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 45 lines
For 20 years Virginia Beach farmers toted their goods to the quaint city-owned market at the corner of Dam Neck and Princess Anne roads.
For 20 years shoppers traveled from throughout Hampton Roads to buy fresh produce in a rural atmosphere.
But a fire on Aug. 22 left two-thirds of the Virginia Beach Farmer's Market a smoldering ruin, and now City Council must quickly decide whether to rebuild the market, relocate it or abandon it altogether.
The market is worth saving - either in the same location or nearby. The Virginia Beach Farmer's Market was much more than a low-rent agrarian theme park for suburbanites. Its stalls and the merchants who leased them provided a necessary outlet for the produce of the city's small farmers. Where else could a farmer with a few bushels of snap beans or a few dozen watermelons sell his or her produce? Merchants at the Farmer's Market often stocked their shelves with small quantities of locally grown produce.
Louis Cullipher, the city's director of agriculture, reckons that 47 small farmers a year were able to sell produce through the market.
``(The market) was really the only outlet many of these small farmers had,'' Cullipher said.
The market's value as a charming amenity should not be underestimated, either. Having the opportunity to buy fresh produce in an open-air setting was a pleasant alternative to traditional supermarket shopping.
The fire came at a particularly inopportune time. A task force had been studying the future of the Farmer's Market with an eye toward enlarging the operation and melding it into a ``Farm Park and Equestrian Center'' - perhaps at the nearby Lake Ridge tract.
City Council should commit itself to the preservation of the Farmer's Market - and small family farms.
Temporary quarters have been erected on the charred market site. Those quarters should be enlarged and winterized as a stopgap measure until rebuilding can begin.
City Council is holding public hearings on the Farmer's Market tonight at 7 in City Council chambers on the second floor of City Hall at the Municipal Center.
This is the time for those who support small family farming in Virginia Beach to mount a show of strength. by CNB