The Farmer's Market at Queen's will re-open on Wednesday, 26 August 2009. We will operate in front of Stauffer Library (Union Street between University Avenue and Alfred Street) every Wednesday between 9 am - 4 pm during the fall term.
During the winter term, we will operate in the Lower Ceilidh of the John Deutsch University Centre (JDUC) on the following dates:
The Farmer's Market at Queen's brings local, high quality and fresh tasting food to the Queen's community through regular markets on campus. The vision of the market is to provide students easy access to locally produced food, thereby allowing an alternative to the traditional commercial food industry.
There are many reasons for purchasing locally produced food, including environmental, economic and quality concerns. On average, food imported into the Kingston region travels approximately 4600 km to reach your plate: this equates to the distance between Kingston and Vancouver. Reducing the food miles of the products you consume has the potential to create a dramatic impact on greenhouse gas production; presently about 9% of greenhouse gas production in North America is directly related to industrial agribusiness. Economically, family farm operations in Ontario are increasing giving way to larger commercially oriented operations. In the drive to maximize profits, farmers are left with a very small share of the return from their goods: on average, only 21¢ on the dollar. Furthermore, food produced from commercial farms tends to have reduced nutritional content since producing quality goods is the part of the process which requires care and well maintained farms. Farmers' markets are a way for people support local agriculture.