About Smart Markets

Why Smart Markets?

Smart Markets, Inc. was formed to respond to a need in Northern Virginia for well-managed, well-publicized and guaranteed producer-only farmers’ markets. Farmers’ markets can and should reward their hard-working farmers and other vendors for their long hours in their fields and kitchens — and on the road — with viable attendance and sales that represent the demand in this area. Our hope and expectation is that we will combine product quality and quantity with customer diversity and delight to achieve that goal.

Farmers’ markets bring together a diverse population around a shared objective: supporting families by buying and serving real food — with real flavor. Many shoppers don’t even know that they are also supporting local farmers, preserving small farms, promoting sustainable agriculture and contributing in numerous ways to the protection of our environment. Smart Markets will provide a model of cultural outreach, offer nutrition and cooking education, and encourage activism on issues of environmental protection and community development within the nurturing spirit of vibrant and bustling markets.

Objectives:

  • Educate the public about the short-term joys and long-term benefits of eating healthy from an early age, of the nutritional advantages of buying local and of the importance of sustainable agriculture to our environment;
  • Provide a forum for teaching adults and children how to shop at a market and how to use the produce and products in preparing healthy and delicious meals;
  • Provide a venue for multiethnic cultural exchange and the promotion of a shared interest in raising healthy children;
  • Serve as a lively and interactive catalyst for community-building activities; and
  • Encourage and support thriving neighborhoods.

We welcome you to become more than just buyers — we want you to join us in celebration of the good life, good times, good feelings and good food. We invite you to grow and prosper with us — and to have fun doing it!

Is Smart Markets Organic?

Our shoppers often ask us whether our vendors sell organic products. You will not find many certified organic farmers in this area, as most of our farmers are working farms that are too small to earn what it takes to become certified organic since the U.S. government took over the certification process about 15 years ago. Many of the farmers who come to markets in Northern Virginia are farming in a sustainable manner, using minimal pesticides and fungicides only when necessary in this humid area to be able to grow crops such as apples, for instance. They have either given up their organic name or have not sought to be able to use that term. And unless they are certified by the government, they cannot use the term. In addition, chemicals have become very expensive to use. There are various relatively inexpensive methods for controlling weeds and thereby pests, so farmers who regularly used chemicals years ago have also reduced their dependence on them.

The real benefit of shopping locally is that you can ask your farmers how they farm, and most are happy to tell you about their methods and to explain the impact on the food you buy. Buying organic from exotic locales — and even from California — is no guarantee that your food is actually organic or safe. I wouldn’t trust any official in Mexico to certify anything; this opinion is informed by the advice of Mexican farmers in Virginia whom I know. And many of the recent food scares in greens and sprouts have come from commercial organic farms in this country.

We will have sustainably, naturally or biologically grown produce in all of our markets next year, and the farmers will have signage to let you know who they are. The Mennonite co-op that comes to our Oakton market comprises farmers who use minimal pesticides early in the growth cycle, and they will tell you which produce has been sprayed and which has not. Even our old-time West Virginia farmer who is still bringing apples and winter veggies to our winter markets is bringing produce that now has no residue at all. And none of it has been waxed or treated since picking to prolong its life or looks while in the root cellar or cold storage.

Ask what you want to know, and you will learn what these small farmers deal with in this area where they are all working to extend their growing season and how their solutions affect their crops. And once we welcome back our farmers for the summer season, there will be information on our website about those who grow in an organic way.

For more information, see our brochure, "Why Buy Local?"

Our Weather Policy

High winds, inclement weather or extreme temperatures may prompt the cancellation of a market. Vendors and shoppers should not have to brave dangerous conditions to get to and from a market. We also consider whether weather conditions would limit our vendors’ opportunity to realize a profit after driving a long distance and paying for staff and truck rental. We will give notice of cancellations on our website as soon as possible. If shoppers have placed special orders, vendors will be in contact to make arrangements for delivery. And during winter, if we have scheduled an indoor event, we will only cancel that market if roads are unsafe.

We have given careful consideration and undertaken nationwide research to develop this policy, and we want you to understand that we considered the general safety and well-being of our shoppers and our vendors when doing so. While we may not be legally responsible for the safe passage of both, we do feel a deep moral obligation not to put anyone in harm’s way. In the case of our vendors, that harm can come from not only driving thorough dangerous conditions but setting up to sell in a market where no one in his right mind would come to shop.

About the Founder

Smart Markets, Inc. was founded in early 2008 by Jean Janssen, a longtime activist and entrepreneur in Northern Virginia and a twenty-five year resident of Fairfax County, Virginia. Smart Markets represents the confluence of her lifelong interests in food, nutrition and cooking and her passion for community outreach and activism. Ms. Janssen’s expectations for Smart Markets reflect her diverse experience and organizational expertise.