For the Love of Markets

“We have food deserts in our cities. We know that the distance you live from a supplier of fresh produce is one of the best predictors of your health. And in the inner city, people don't have grocery stores. So we have to figure out a way of getting supermarkets and farmers markets into the inner cities” - Michael Pollan

Every Saturday in Indianapolis at 1125 East Brookside Avenue local farmers gather together for the Indy Winter Farmers Market. This event is hosted by Growing Places Indy and runs all winter long, ending in the month of April. It is a common place for farmers and people alike to come together and enjoy the fruit (no pun intended) of the hard labor needed in order for local farmers to earn their wage. Without the farmers market, many of these farmers would be out of a job. Winter months are hard. When the community comes together and buys locally, the farmers market suddenly becomes a place where jobs are created. It’s a less popular fact that may slip your mind while you sip your coffee from the local roaster and walk up and down the rows of fresh vegetables. In response, I wrote this song:

Indy Winter Farmers Market

It’s Saturday, I make my way down to 

The farmers market on East Brookside Ave 

There’s all the produce you could ever have 

I sip a coffee and make my way 

This is the place 

Where local food makes 

Local economy grow. 

At farmers markets everybody wins 

The farmer and the people both pitch in 

To form a catalyst of local wealth 

And do a service for our public health 

It’s Saturday, so make your way down too

The farmers market can also be a practical way to solve the problem of food deserts. A food desert, defined by the USDA, is an area with at least 500 people where there is not a grocery store within one mile. Currently in Indianapolis, the Far Eastside is considered a food desert. Good Food Connections is a local organization comprised of farmers and activists working to help solve this problem. Amongst these is an urban farm called Chickadee Gardens. The founders of this farm are are dedicated to being present in the Far Eastside in order to bring food to those who don’t have easy access to it. I wrote this song to highlight their efforts: 

Chickadee Gardens

Nick and Laura have a farm 

called Chickadee Gardens in the east 

in conjunction with community 

to cure the local food desert 

they have three clever named goats 

that they'll later use for meat 

and they pasture raise their poultry 

To be models of health and learn together 

and feed the neighborhood food thats better 

than what they would buy at the store 

to build community for something more 

permaculture is their view 

to use the earth and make it new 

and stop killing all our food 

by monocropping

To be models of health and learn together 

and feed the neighborhood food thats better 

than what they would buy at the store 

to build community for something more