Farmers Markets Suffering from Fuel Prices

No surprise here, but skyrocketing fuel costs have not spared farmers who sell produce at Greenmarkets, the AP finds. Upstate strawberry grower Franca Tantillo estimates that roughly half the money she earns at a Manhattan Greenmarket is spent on transportation costs. And it’s not just getting back and forth from the city that’s more expensive; fuel costs have driven up the price of fertilizers and animal feed, and plastic supplies for greenhouses cost more. As the costs are passed on to their urban customers, farmers like Elly Hushour, who sells goat cheese that she drives in from her farm in Pennsylvania, predict that "local soon will not be that important.” And maybe Union Square soon will not be that mobbed?