3 Questions

Fifth-generation New Mexico rancher Adan Manuel “Manny” Encinias, whose seven children are ensuring a sixth generation, started selling his family’s pasture-raised beef at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market in 2021. His steak and roast cuts were impressive. So was his commitment to sustainable local food systems and to growing a network of farming and ranching communities. Just two years later, Encinias was handed the reins of the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute, after former Executive Director Andrea Fisher Maril retired. He’s not only the first Santa Fe Farmers’ Market vendor to helm the institute, he’s the first man and the first Hispanic person to hold the position. The institute supports the market’s mission to provide the community with easy access to locally grown food. With his rich background in agriculture (he holds a Ph.D in ruminant nutrition from North Dakota State University and master of science degree in animal science from New Mexico State University), Encinias is expanding that mission, even as he’s still at the market, selling his prized beef raised on his family’s Buffalo Creek Ranch in Moriarty. (Lynn Cline)

In what ways does the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market nurture our community?

The market is unique in that it’s a year-round market in the middle of the desert. And from a nurturing perspective, beyond providing fresh, healthy, local food, the market gives a unique sense of community. It’s a regular place where people can gather and feel refreshed with a sense of kindness and giving.

Sharing, bartering: that’s part of the communities of Old New Mexico, the fabric of what builds New Mexico, that neighborhood community feeling. When you have these amazing conversations with market regulars, that’s what our souls miss in normal everyday life. That’s the one time when you’re not only eating delicious food, you’re filling your soul.

I always say it’s a shot in the arm as a vendor to be able to go and sell at the market. It’s inspiring to be connected with other farmers and ranchers and also to consumers who appreciate what they do. That’s the most important part. There’s nothing but gratitude at the market. It’s one of the most positive environments that I’ve been in in my entire career.

How does the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute support the market?

We’re the nonprofit arm of the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market and we work to develop programs that help farmers and ranchers, and we also develop programs to help consumers. So when you work on both ends of the spectrum—food production and food distribution—the biggest challenge is bandwidth. We need to cultivate farmers to grow food for the community and to keep agricultural lands in production. On the consumer side, we have so many opportunities to improve access. So many people don’t have access to food year-round, so the challenge is what areas do we, as an institute, want to work with. The simple solution is knowing we can’t do it all, but by working with other partners, we can work on ways to overcome the challenges.

I think we’re breaking through barriers. Fifty percent of farmers at the market are women. That’s amazing. The number of first-generation farmers at the market, that truly describes how the ownership of agriculture is changing, the size of agriculture is changing. We know that small farms and ranches contribute significantly to rural New Mexico. Ninety-four cents out of every dollar goes back to our community, so we’re circulating more money and that doesn’t happen with large-scale agriculture. We’re producing food locally. The food’s being consumed locally and we’re circulating money with the providers. That’s the testimony of how these small local food systems can not only provide healthy food, but support the economy.

What plans are afoot to make healthy, local food more accessible to our communities?

The biggest challenge for us is to get out of the conventional farmer’s market set-up where we have a venue and farmers come into the venue. We are looking to serve communities like the Southside with mobile markets. The network of community partners we’re working with has long histories with these segments of our communities and know what each community is looking for. So we’ll be working to have these pop-up farmers’ markets weekly in different locations. Our goal is to improve fresh food access year-round so that consumers can use nutrition benefits like SNAP and Double Up Food Bucks. We’re coming to them instead of them coming to us. We’re in the planning stages and, by the first of July, we’ll hopefully have a calendar of locations.

The uniqueness of this pop-up market is if we want to change people’s eating habits, it has to be year-round, not just in the season. It’s part of our Local Food for All/Comida Local para Todos program, our flagship program that we launched last year with help from the Christus Fund. We engaged with over 2,000 individuals in the community that had been underserved and struggled with food and nutrition challenges, so we know that the need is great, the opportunity is great and we’ve been able to develop partnerships with just the pilot program. (Lynn Cline)