Urban Oasis Project to Miami: Let Us Open Our Farmers Markets

\When the pandemic forced everything to shut down in mid-March, nearly all farmers markets – at the height of their growing season – closed up, too. Over the past six months, many South Florida farmers and artisan markets have reopened in different forms.

Some, like the Redland Community Farm and Market in Homestead and the Pinecrest Gardens market, have opened as drive-throughs; others, at Dadeland and Aventura, have moved indoors. Key Biscayne and Coconut Grove’s Saturday markets, like many of their counterparts in Broward and the Florida Keys, have stayed open. Others, like Urban Oasis Project and Farmers Markets to Go, set up robust online ordering platforms to keep business going during the shutdown. A few have closed down for good, like Southwest Community Farmers Market at Tropical Park.

Movie theaters, bowling alleys, museums, the zoo are gearing up to join already-open casinos, national and county parks, malls and beaches in reopening. But the popular Legion Park Farmers Market in the city of Miami is not. Market organizer Art Friedrich of Urban Oasis Project wants to know why.

“We had previously been told that October 24th looked like a real possibility,” he says. “Most cities across the country never shut down their markets, and shopping outdoors in open air in a socially distanced environment is far safer than going into grocery stores and many other now-permitted activities.“