Why no farmers market

Editor,
Being a recent transplant to Porterville, I’ve spent much of the last year and a half exploring what the area has to offer. One thing I can’t get over is the lack of any farmers market in Porterville.

I figured that moving here — the so-called breadbasket of the country — would give me easy access to local and seasonal produce, dairy products, meats, etc. Unfortunately, this is not true. In fact, many towns in this vicinity offer farmers markets except Porterville. I go to the Springville and Visalia farmers markets, sometimes to find out I’m buying from a Porterville farmer. It just seems ironic that I’m surrounded by farmland, yet I have to drive 20 miles to Springville or Exeter or 30 miles to Visalia to get to a farmers market.

After doing some research online, it looks like Porterville used to offer a local market; I’m wondering if there’s hope or interest of that being revived? I would do everything I could to support that effort. Knowing that a farmers market (especially downtown) would keep money in Porterville, support local farmers, draw customers to local surrounding businesses and strengthen the general community, there seems to be many people that stand to benefit from a local farmers market.

Let’s look at it this way, Porterville is losing out on a huge opportunity to take advantage of existing resources (local vendors and a sizable population) and turn those into a viable solution for strengthening Porterville’s economy and downtown atmosphere.
Joy Wright
Porterville