Defining what makes a Farmers' Market

Here's an item from Washington that I couldn't help but share. Just outside Seattle a Safeway store advertised an upcoming farmers' market. The catch? There would be no farmers selling produce at the Safeway Farmers' Market, according to Martha Tyler, the Redmond, Wash. Saturday Market manager:

I was driving by a Kirkland Safeway and noticed a huge yellow banner announcing a “Farmer’s Market” over the weekend. As the manager of the Redmond Saturday Market (the Eastside’s oldest Farmers Market), I stopped in to talk to the manager of that store. Naturally, since I know many of the farmers, I wanted to know what farms would be represented. To my disappointment, the manager told me they were setting up tents in the parking lot this weekend and regular Safeway employees would be selling regular Safeway produce “farmer-market style.”

Long story short, Tyler contacted some other farmers' market managers in the area and they all lodged a formal complaint saying that the legal definition of a farmers' market includes farmers selling direct to customers. Safeway immediately capitulated and changed the name of its event, according to a report on KUOW (the story doesn't appear to be on its site yet), Seattle's NPR station. It's an interesting way for a major chain to try and catch a part of the regional food-system market though. How far behind can we be from a big chain that does decide to put actual farmers front and center. Will that be good for the farmers? Will it be bad for farmers' markets? Let us know what you think below.