Benefit of Farmers Markets

With so many lovely weekend markets around, I think you are foolish to not to get out and about for a few hours on a Saturday morning to get your fruit and veggies.

Local farmer markers are a perfect opportunity to buy excellent quality, with many locally grown produce and very affordable prices.

While there are many stalls at the local markets that serve as a reseller, who sell imported and local products, there are many local farmer and producer stalls selling to the public. It is a excellent way to see, talk with and taste what our local farmers and producers have to offer.

Some of the benefits of buying locally include;

• Supporting your local community, local farmers, and local producers.

• Locally produced food does not have to travel as far across the country.

• Food is not factory washed and not sealed in plastic or cardboard packaging, which leads to a fresher product.

• Generally organic fruit and vegetables sold at the markets, come at a cheaper price to the leading name supermarkets. In some cases,  a larger selection of organic products are on sale.

• The food at local farmer markets is usually fresher than supermarket bought. They also seem to remain fresher for a bit longer, when stored correctly at home.

• Variety!! Wondering around some markets, I have had to ask stall holders what certain herbs or vegetables are and how they are cooked as they are new to me. As these stalls are not operating on a quick turnaround method of supplying what the majority is demanding, you can come across some weird and wonderful delights that usually would not be stocked in a supermarket.

• The stall holders are so much happier than the teenage cashiers. They are always more than happy to answer questions, offer cooking or storage advice, and many actually encourage the ‘taste test’ before you buy.

So why not ditch the supermarket, and enjoy the fresh air, colourful sights and start being a farmer’s market weekend warrior.

I would love to hear about your favourite local farmers markets – please share a comment below about your favourite market spots

In Brisbane, my favourite markets so far (I have not managed to get around even half of them yet) include;

Kuraby Markets - Every Saturday 6-12pm kurabymarkets  

 

Beenleigh Markets – Every Sunday 6-12pm - Beenleigh Showground

West End Markets – Every Saturday 6-12 Davies Park - daviesparkmarket

Gold Coast Organic Farmers Market – Every Sunday 6am – 11.30am - gcorganicmarket

Rocklea Markets – Every Saturday 6-12pm –  brisbanemarkets

Product Labelling - Date Marks

To get the most out of our shopping dollars, it is handy to understand date marking. This can allow us to better understand when products are safe to eat and also at their best quality and nutritional value.

Product labelling requires the packaging of products to display a date mark. Date marking gives consumers and retailers an indication of the freshness of a product and when best to be consumed.

There is no requirement for any package food with a shelf life of more than 2 years to have a date mark. This could include any canned foods such as canned soups, canned vegetables and other cured or preserved foods. Some manufactures can still provide the best before date, so that consumers know when the product will still be expected to be consumed at its top quality.

Bread can have a ‘baked on” date, or a ‘baked for” date, instead of the best before date, as the shelf life of bread is considered to be less than 7 days in most cases.

Use-By Date
It is illegal in Australia to sell any product that has reached its use-by date. These products need to be eaten or thrown away by this date, as it is unsafe even if it looks fine. Products once they reach the use-by date can lose their key nutrients or even develop a build-up of bacteria, which can be harmful if consumed. Common foods with a use-by date include dairy products and meat produce.
 
Best-Before Date
These products can still be eaten after the best before date, as long as they are not damaged, deteriorated or starting to perish. The best before date must be added to any products that have a shelf life is less than 2 years. Many manufacturer’s also include information for ways to store the food, if these expressed requirements are met, than most foods with the best before date can still safely be eaten on or after this date. These products may lose some quality, but it is still expected to retain full colour, taste, texture and flavour as long as stored correctly.  Common foods with the best before date include canned foods, flour and sugars, biscuits, chocolates and chips.
 

Made In Australia

I think for the majority of us, when we see labels on products in supermarkets we do not truly understand what they mean. This can be extremely confusing if we are taking steps to be confident consumers wanting to support local Australian farmers and business, as there seems to be a variety of product labelling that claims ‘Product of’, ‘Made in’ and ‘Australian owned’.

Under Australian Consumer Law (ACL), the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is the enforcer and administrator of product and packaging labelling requirements for the country of origin claims which set legal standards in the Competition and Consumers Act 2010 (this has replaced the Trade Practice Act 1974). This includes a list of requirements that must be met before any business can publically list any claims of being a ‘product of Australia’ or ‘made in Australia’.

When business in Australia, do not adhere to the labelling regulation and provide misleading or deceptive information regarding the country of origin, they breach section 29(1)(k) of competition and consumer act 2010, which prohibits misleading conduct of false representation regarding the place of origin of goods.

Country of origin labelling shows the country that the goods where grown, produced, manufactured or packaged. In situations where more than one country of origin occurs, the labelling requirements are to list all countries or to disclose made from a mix of imported and local ingredients.

Country of origin information must be listed on all packaging for packaged goods, but for non-packaged food like fruit, vegetables and unpackaged meat, a sign located near the display area is sufficient. Some unpackaged produce may also have stickers like we see on apples, that state the farm and location grown.

When packaging labels state either of the following ‘A Product of Australia’, ‘Produced in Australia’ or ‘Produce of Australia’ means that all significant ingredients are grown in Australia and that the manufacturing process was performed in Australia. Some fresh produce can also present ‘grown in Australia’ when grown at an Australian farm.

‘Made in Australia’ and ‘Manufactured in Australia’ can be used when at least 50% of the costs of production, have been incurred in Australia. This means that at least half of the production processes are conducted in Australia, but not necessarily with the use of Australian ingredients. An example would be if a jar of jam claims to be made in Australia, the fruit and sugar could be imported, but the jam making and jarring process are conducted in Australia.

Some products have claims saying ‘Made in Australia from local and imported ingredients’, but there is no requirement to give a percentage rate, of what is imported and what is local. Many businesses used this label to cover any additional imports required for Australian seasonal shortages for processing foods. 

 

Company ownership is another confusing label. If a product states 100% Australian owned or ‘Proudly Australian Owned’, this means that the company is an Australian owned company, not that the product or produce was made or grown in Australia. A 100% Australian owned company can have products that are made, solely from imported ingredients or process and packaged overseas, so always check the back ingredients list to see if they disclose more information from where the ingredients come from. 

To Market Or Not - Opportunity Cost

Last weekend rather than heading to the supermarket to do my weekly shop, I set off to explore Rocklea markets. As I was driving there, I was thinking how this was a little out of my way. The drive to the markets took me an extra 20 minutes more than it would take to get to my local supermarket. It got me mentally weighing up the value and benefits of getting up early to go to the markets over shopping at my local supermarket.

One way to help explain the pros and cons we think of when deciding what to do, is a microeconomic theory known as opportunity cost. Understanding this can help us, when rationalising the best economic decisions and working out what benefits we value most.

We all have the same number of hours in a day, but we all make different decisions. What affects our decisions are opportunity costs. There are certain values we place behind every decision we make, which could be deciding the everyday household items we use or that long awaiting trip we are planning. We just may not know it or think about it, but every decision we make has a value to us.

When we decide to purchase one item over another, we are saying to ourselves, I value this more than the alternative. The opportunity cost is what you gave up to receive the item you chose. To put this in a simple example, if you have two choices either an apple or an orange and you chose the apple, the opportunity cost is the orange. You gave up the opportunity to take the orange to choose the apple, in this case the opportunity cost is the value of the orange you did not want. Value has two parts, benefits and cost. The apple may have been $1.00 and the orange $2.00; the apple may have been cheaper, but you also would enjoy the apple more. So the opportunity cost is the orange for favour of the choosing the apple which gave you more enjoyment when eating.

To make good economic decisions, we want to choose the option with the greatest benefit and the lowest cost. We also can make the best choices, deciding if the value of the benefits of the higher price is of more valued to us, than the value of the benefits of the lower cost.

The value of choice to you may be the benefit of time or enjoyment. The benefit does not have to be measured in financial terms. Time is value, and what you do with you time is just as valuable as what you do with your money. If you only had two hours, and you could either choose to go to the beach or the shopping mall and you decided to go to the beach, your opportunity cost is the time you could have spent at the shopping mall. Benefits of better health could also be a value. The decision to buy a can of coke for $1.30, or a bottle of water for $2.00, and you chose the bottle of water, your opportunity cost was the 70 cents you could have saved buying the can of coke, instead of choosing the higher health benefit.

In summary, scarcity creates choice and every choice has a value to us. That value can be looked at in terms of benefits and cost. Value is not always of monetary value, but also measured in terms of enjoyment or personal benefits. The opportunity cost is not the value of what we chose, but the value of the next best alternative we did not choose.

My decision to go to the market or to go to the local supermarket, also had values in terms of costs and benefits. The supermarket is closer, with a conveniently designed layout, that would have made my shopping trip from home and back in under an hour, giving the benefit of more free time to enjoy, but I think the supermarket fruit and vegetable range are limited, with some items expensively priced. The market, took a further 40 minutes driving time and longer time to walk around the stalls, but they offered highly competitive prices for fresher products. Here my opportunity cost, was the time I could have saved going to the supermarket, which was closer to home when I chose instead to go to the market, which had the wider range of fresher produce.

For us to become more confident consumers, we need to understand the factors that contribute to our decision making processes. If we can learn about costs and benefits and recognise what we value, we can start making the best informed purchasing decisions. For myself, I value a healthier lifestyle and a more sustainable environment. So thinking about these values, when I compare the alternatives I have on offer, will help to make the best choices for me.