How small scale bears fruit

Lindy Laird | 11th May 2009

The Whangarei Growers' Market is an example of how locally based and focused initiatives can help overcome the tyranny of distance and economies.

Translate distance and economy into fuel and costs, bring in a Transition Town initiative that encourages communities to act, produce and buy and sell locally, and it's full circle back to the growers' market model.

Whangarei's Transition Town group is a new arm of a global movement aimed at helping build "resilient" communities that can adapt to environmental and consumption crises such as "peak oil" - or the future unsustainable costs and limitations of oil - and climate change.

Robert Bradley and Murray Burns, co-founders of the successful local produce-only market, were invited by the Whangarei Transition Town group to speak at a seminar on Saturday about their "resilient" and sustainable local community food venture.

Mr Burns outlined the market's history, while Mr Bradley spoke about its philosophies.

The market existed and thrived with no committee structure, no advertising costs, no manager and no profit motive other than the individual stallholders' need to sell their produce, Mr Bradley said.

The Whangarei market had about 6000 customers every Saturday morning.

It shifted around 25 per cent of the weekly produce sold in Northland - all of it grown or produced locally, Mr Bradley said.

The concepts of both the market and Transition Towns hark back to small-scale economies of yesteryear, when people could make a living out of their own produce and labour by having an accessible customer base and low distribution costs.