Photo by Zé Eduardo... /flickr.com
Farmers’ markets may be the key to providing malnourished city dwellers with fresh produce from local farms.
Polish food is no doubt well-known for being usually fresh, free of chemicals, and really rather good. Which is why many are wary of supermarkets which push for large industrial farms that provide low-quality produce at knock-down prices. But with organic and fresher alternatives still readily available, the problem remains of how to promote and sell them, especially when coming from small family-run farms.
Polish agricultural produce is still revered throughout the country and abroad. But a business model concerning farmers’ markets may be a hard one to push through, especially as EU subsidies are preferential to larger industrial farms, and sanitary requirements are geared towards produce being having a long shelf life. It’s up to farmers to change their way of thinking and act in order to save the countryside, and to keep local produce at the high level that is becoming more and more rare in shops and increasingly in food markets.
But are farmers’ markets wishful thinking? Maybe now, but the future of rural areas such as the land surrounding Kraków or many other cities in Poland may depend on it for survival in the future.
Click on the audio icon to listen to the report by John Beauchamp.