WITH SARAH NOSS
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SFR: What was the impetus behind the formation of the Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute?
SN:
In 2002, when the master plan in the Railyard was finished, the master plan called for the Market to be a tenant and also called for our current location to be turned into the park. So the Farmers Market realized they were going to need to find a new location, and it was becoming more and more clear that open space in the downtown area was disappearing, so they realized they wanted to stay in the Railyard and in order to do that they would need a structure there. So the Farmers Market, which is a for-profit organization, decided to create a nonprofit arm, which is the Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute, and really our focus is to design, fund and build this building, and then to afterward create programs to support agriculture in northern New Mexico.
I know you've had one benefit, received legislative funding and plan to break ground in January, but how is the money being raised in general?
We've gotten some federal funding; we got a HUD [Housing and Urban Development] grant several years ago to help pay for architectural fees. The rest of the money and the bulk of it is going to go into construction. We're doing a community-based fund-raising campaign. We need the entire spectrum of donations.
What were you doing before becoming the Institute's executive director in July '05?
I'd been in the nonprofit world for about 13 years, so right before I was freelancing for a number of nonprofits for about a year or so, and before that I was development director at Cornerstones, and before that I was raising money at the hospital.
So you're not a farmer.
I am not a farmer, but I definitely understand the miracle of it and all the backbreaking nature of it. There was a time when I was younger when I was a landscaper trying to support a writing habit, so I spent quite a lot of time in the soil, and when I was applying for this job I realized I really care about it because I think it's everybody's responsibility to take care of the earth and to keep people on the land.
Will the new location address some of the pedestrian issues that have gone on for the Farmers Market?
A key thing is it's still going to be an outdoor market even though we're building a building. The market hall will be used for overflow and for winter market, and then at times we'll lease it out to other groups in the community. The west side is the alameda, a pedestrian walkway, and on the north side is this big plaza that's going to be constructed, so I think it's going to be a great place to hang out. There are actually going to be bathrooms and a place to wash your hands. We definitely want to step up the amenities.
The Santa Fe Farmers Market will be LEED certified [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a program of the US Green Building Council]. Can you explain more about that?
We wanted to do a third-party rating system for the green building, because if you have to achieve a certain number of points it means you've actually done what you said you wanted to do. So you look at things like how you are utilizing the site; is the site located next to transportation, bike paths; and in construction if you're using recycled materials-there's a certain percentage you have to use; if you're recycling your waste-we're going to try to recycle 50 percent of our construction waste. The Railyard requires we catch all the water off the roof anyway, and there will be solar hot water for the market hall. The ambient lighting thing is interesting. What they want is from any vantage point in the building for there to be views out the windows, so not only will the building have a lot of light during the day, but there will also be views to the outside.
What will the Institute's educational programs in the future be?
Over the last year, we've been doing a planning process that has manifested in five or six regional meetings with farmers in northern New Mexico. It's been an interesting process because we've learned there's not really a nonprofit dealing with major hardcore issues of small agriculturalists.
What are those issues?
Farmers are aging and their offspring aren't as interested in farming. Another issue is that farmland in northern New Mexico is located in some of the most beautiful areas, next to rivers and, generally speaking, lush valleys, and those areas are becoming prime targets for development. Developers are buying farmland and transferring water rights to other areas, and then that agricultural land will never be used again. And then there's the fourth issue that our farmers live pretty close to the bone. They derive a lot of their income from the markets, and it's hard for them to expand their operations. So we're working with the New Mexico Community Development loan fund, a micro-loan fund that uses USDA rural economic development money, so farmers can get low-interest loans to build greenhouses, do drip irrigation on their farms. We're going to start pursuing that particular program right away so that by the time we're done building we can segue right into helping farmers put business plans together and help them see what the possibilities are for expanding production.
Isn't it a good time to address these issues given the increased concerns about the food supply?
The timing is perfect. We just showed the movie,
The End of Suburbia
, about peak oil production. I think our lifestyles are going to change because the days of peak oil are going to come to an end. And what that's going to mean to us is we have to be more local-everything from heating our houses to the kind of food we eat.
Especially if we want to eat spinach.
That's true. The spinach scare really underscores how vast our commercial food production is. It really underscores the need to be more local, because then if things like that happen, it's contained in a local area. When you know your grower and where your food comes from, not only is it more nutritious, but it's better for you.
