I am a vendor at the Schlafly Farmers' Market in the town of Maplewood. I help sell the produce and baked goods of an urban farm and bakery in the city of St Louis. Today I saw something unexpected.
7:20 PM PT: Here is what I learned from my fellow market vendors who did speak to the mother:
"They were talking about how Ed Martin supports small farms. They emphasized that Chris Koster is aggressively trying to shut down raw milk producers in Missouri."
and from another,
"They said to tell folks I know to support Ed Marting because his opponent attacked small farmers in favor of big agribusiness."
Thanks for the Election Diary rescue!
I was confronted by an odd sight today. A family of market regulars, a tall woman in her 50s with long, graying hair and her two equally tall teenage daughters with hair to their elbows, dressed in long skirts that made me think they are home-schooled, very religious, or maybe very hippie-ish, shopped around the market. They spend almost an hour at our small market, buying produce from many farmers. They are very interested in supporting local agriculture and seem passionate about knowing where and from whom they get their food.
So I think they're great. They bought a pound of green peppers and some bread from us. One of our biggest customers of the night, actually. But tonight, their normally plain dresses and shirts were completely covered with bright blue, red and white stickers. I saw those stickers from across the market and parking lot. The obviously were extremely enthusiastic about supporting Ed Martin for Attorney General.
I didn't ask them about the stickers for Ed Martin. I wish I had, but I was inside when they came to our booth. I would have liked to approach them with questions, but I'm shy and I had no idea what to say and wasn't in the mood to want to hear about Ed Martin and Missouri republicans. I don't know enough about the positions and records of Ed Martin and Chris Koster, the current Democratic Attorney General. They moved on the next booth before I got back. But after leaving our booth and buying something at the next over, they came back, asking my coworker, "Did you know that Chris Koster is against small family farmers? That's why we're supporting Ed Martin." My co-worker just moved here from New England and is not up to date on Missouri politics and said nothing. I may have asked something, but I wasn't there.
As I learned later, the mother and daughters were more specific with another vendor. They told her they were against Chris Koster because he has been fighting against farmers that offer raw milk.
A Google search of "Chris Koster raw milk" told the story.
On two different days in April, undercover inspectors from the county health department approached the young women and asked them if there was any extra milk for purchase. In each case, a couple of gallons were available because customers hadn’t shown up. So the girls sold the milk to the inspectors.
Seven months later, Mr. Koster filed a lawsuit to prevent the Bechards from distributing milk.
Now, you might get the impression that Missouri has some pretty tough laws prohibiting raw milk sales.
Actually…no.
Missouri dairy farmers are allowed to sell raw milk on their farms. And they’re allowed to deliver it to customers. They’re even allowed to set up a distribution point in a parking lot to deliver pre-paid orders of raw milk to customers.
What they’re NOT allowed to do in that parking lot is sell milk to walk-up customers.
I don't know the details of the lawsuit and the results. If anyone knows more details please post. I may ask the mother next week. So my question to all of you readers is, How can I tell these folks that supporting a candidate as radical and regressive as Ed Martin, who wants to get rid of any and all regulations on agriculture (as far as I can tell - especially regarding our many
puppy mills, which many Republicans in Missouri now seem to equate, disturbingly, with "small farmers" - should not get anyone's vote, especially a women and her daughters who love farmers' markets and local food. I need some talking points and facts, basically, for next Wednesday at the market. I also just wanted to share this bizarre (to me) meeting of worlds.
These women think they are on the side of the small, family farmer by supporting Tea Party favorite Ed Martin.
A notable point of the above mentioned article on the raw milk lawsuit says,
But two good things have already come of this controversy: 1) The Bechards are getting plenty of free publicity for their farm store: bechardfarm.com, and 2) this case probably has a lot of people asking for the first time: What the heck is raw milk?
Note: I will update this once I hear back from my fellow vendors and coworker about precisely what the mother and daughters said to them about Ed Martin and Chris Koster.
Wed Oct 24, 2012 at 11:01 PM PT: According to the family's website, http://www.bechardfarm.com/... the case was dismissed in the city of Springfield. I'm glad to read that. But I still don't think the person is right that the Attorney General should be voted out, for a "no regulations on anything" Tea Party candidate.