Organic Farmer’s Market Dalat
Bees4life happliy announces to be active for bees offline since the beginning of the year 2019.
Offline? What does it even mean?
Well, we understood that it’s cute to publish bee-related content. It is also nice to involve people in the online world through Facebook & Instagram.
Still, something was missing.
We wondered, what could we do?
We got back to the problem with our insect decline up to 75 % in the last 30 years. And we also knew that the root cause for this problem are the toxic chemicals of our food production system.
As a result, we opted for 2 kick-off projects in the city of Dalat, Vietnam: the Organic Farmer’s Market Dalat and the first community garden of the same city, called Bee Garden.
With the help of many volunteers, we launched both projects in the beginning of the year 2019.
Why do we need organic farmer’s markets?
If synthetic chemicals in our food production are the problem, then Bees4life should support the farmers who stand up against those substances.
This is what the market organization committee did. For 6 months, the 4 members of the committee (Eila Rain, Mateusz Buzko, Bui Anh Tuán and Leonie Hofsäss) researched, chatted, visited, interviewed and gathered a bunch of special farmers:
Farmers who grow food without using synthetic pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in the area of Da Lat, Vietnam.
You might wonder, what other advantages do farmer’s markets have in general and why do we need those places so desperately?
We need organic farmer’s markets to:
👉 Support people who chose a natural way of agriculture as their life mission and lifestyle. Farmers providing clean food to local citizens & visitors.
👉 Re-establish a personal relation between farmer and customer. We need to regain an understanding of where our food comes from and why it is seasonal.
👉 Create a direct sales process without middle parties. This gives the farmer up to 100% of the price share, which he or she can then derive to better prices for the customer.
👉 Shorten the distances between producer and consumer, reducing also CO2 transport emissions.
If we really look at the big picture of how we will feed the world in the future, without compromising our planet – farmer’s markets are the answer.
We need to downscale agriculture and decentralize the distribution mechanisms. Ony in this way we can simplify sales and marketing procedures for the reasons mentioned above.
Two more requirements for the Organic Farmer’s Market Dalat
The market organization team had 2 more requirements to make it the market of our dreams:
1) The sales process had to be plastic-free, so no plastic bags or packaging are allowed to be issued by the vendors. We encourage customers to bring their own reusable bags. Reusable cotton bags are for sale at the market, in case people forget their bags.
2) All products have to be local and from the vendor’s own production. No third-party products are allowed. Vendors only sell what they produce.
Once we got all the vendors together, we organized the first market event in February 2019, which was a success. Since then we kept organizing one event every month, growing it bigger and bigger.
Story to be continued….
Find the date of the next market day on the Facebook page of the Organic Farmer’s Market Dalat:
Phiên chợ nông sản hữu cơ Đà Lạt – Organic Farmer’s Market Dalat
The local & plastic-free Organic Farmer’s Market in Da Lat, Vietnam
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