City of Dallas Proposing Changes to How Farmers Markets Operate

All eyes in the farmers market community are on a pending revision to the City of Dallas ordinance that governs how, where and when a market can operate in Dallas as well as who can sell there and what they can sell. Some highlights:* Neighborhood markets - as the city will call them if it adopts the ordinance - will be able to operate 52 days a year as opposed to the current 40 days. That means a market like Good Local's White Rock farmers market will be free to operate year-round for the first time ever. * Everything sold at a neighborhood market must basically have been produced within a 150-mile radius of Dallas and/or in a Texas county contiguous to Dallas, with some exceptions allowed by the market director. Those exceptions? Think Texas Olive Ranch olive oil from Carrizo Springs, because there are no commercial olive trees within the 150-mile radius.   Continue reading...