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A growing greenbelt appetite

NEWS HIGHLIGHT

A growing Greenbelt appetite

The Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation recently announced a new
Greenbelt Farmers' Markets Program aimed at attracting more Greenbelt
farmers to the growing number of markets in and around the region.

August 8, 2008, Toronto, Ont. – The Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation recently announced a new Greenbelt Farmers' Markets Program aimed at attracting more Greenbelt farmers to the growing number of markets in and around the region.

The foundation is investing $200,000 this year to boost the size of markets and the range of local products sold with the aim of increasing financial returns for Greenbelt farmers.

The foundation met with market managers, many of whom are farmers themselves, as the first step in determining how to increase the success of these markets: more farmer participation was expressed again and again as the number one need.

While there has been an unprecedented explosion of farmers’ markets in Ontario, public demand is still outgrowing the number of markets that exist and the number of farmers at those markets. In a recent poll conducted by the Greenbelt Foundation, 42 per cent respondents specifically shop at their farmers’ market for local foods, and 91 per cent say that if given the choice, they would prefer to buy local.

“Consumers are ripe for fresh, local food and this is creating enormous possibilities for farmers in the Greenbelt,” says Burkhard Mausberg, president of the Greenbelt Foundation. “Now is the time to go to market.”