Price survey of selected food items available at the Green City Market and local grocery stores

Nick Nichols pumped $200 worth of diesel into his truck last Saturday morning to make the 63-mile trip from his farm in Marengo to the Green City Market in Lincoln Park. At $4.82 per gallon, Nichols says his fuel costs are up about 35 percent over last year.

But while the rising gas prices may impact the cost of going to market for local Illinois farmers like Nichols, it may be making their produce a better buy for consumers. Food sold at grocery stores generally has farther to travel and consequently incurs greater fuel costs.

The costs of the fruits, vegetables, herbs and plants the Nichols Farm produces and sells at 16 area farmers markets are now more price competitive, said Nichols, a 29-year-old second generation farmer.

“Before, you could get things so cheap it made it real hard for us to compete,” Nichols said.

Traditionally, farmers markets have drawn consumers who put fresh, local food ahead of convenience and expense. And that is often still the case. But shoppers have taken notice of higher bills at the chain stores and some say that’s all the more reason to buy local.

“My wife and I can’t get out of Whole Foods for under $150 per week,” said Spence Medford, a loyal farmers market shopper who also shops at grocery stores near his Ravenswood home. “If  I’m going to pay the same price, or close to it, I’d rather buy my food” at the Green City Market.

Medford, 37, is also very in tune with the environmental effects that come with transporting food a long distance. He said when he buys tomatoes during the winter, he thinks about how far that tomato had to travel to get to his doorstep.

“I’m not foolish enough to think I’m really doing a great thing when I’m buying organic at Whole Foods,” Medford said. “I know it may not have pesticides, but it was driven a long distance to get here.”

Farmers markets have received a boost from a growing number of socially-conscious consumers like Medford, according to Lyle Allen, the executive director of the Green City Market.

“The general public understands the importance of supporting local farmers,” Allen said. “People get it and they’re here to support it.”

The demand for local and organic food is there, according to Jim Slama, president and founder of Sustain, a Chicago information institute that promotes family and organic farming.

“We just need to step up and grow the food,” Slama said. “There’s not nearly enough infrastructure for farmers who want to grow local food or expand into local food.”

Slama is one of 32 members appointed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to a task force as part of the Illinois Food, Farm and Jobs Act of 2007 that is developing recommendations for policy and appropriations to encourage local farming.

The legislation does not have a budget for implementation of policies and the task force proposal due at the end of September will have to be considered by the next general assembly. The creation of the task force was overwhelmingly supported by the state house and senate.

Slama said it could mark a turn in policy that has helped Illinois become a massive producer of commodities crops, such as corn and soybeans, but has produced very little of the food the state consumes. He said federal farm policies have been a big factor in that.

“It’s all about agribusiness in the Farm Bill,” Slama said. But he also said the pending Farm Bill, passed by veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate last week, does include more investment for crops often grown on small farms than past bills.

Still, Slama recognizes it will take time to lure Illinois farmers away from those commodity crops that are reaping large returns on the market today. He said farmers markets are great but there should be a push to get local food in the stores.

“The whole sale channel is where it’s going to happen,” Slama said. That is the only way this rich farmland state will change the status quo that sees 90 percent of food in Illinois imported from out of state, according to Slama.

Even Abby Mandel, who hopes the Green City Market she founded 10 years ago will develop into a year-round permanent market, said farmers markets can’t do it all.

“They aren’t always the best way to get food to people,” Mandel said. “They take so much time and effort of the farmers.” So Mandel said the Green City Market is also promoting regional food systems to make it easier for farmers to get their food to the city.

And while many Illinois farmers are doing well with commodity crops, Slama said there are some who have struggled. At last weekend’s Green Festival at Navy Pier, he said a few farmers approached him about transitioning to food crops.

“People are still looking for alternatives,” he said. “Are people coming in droves? No.”

But incentives outside of consumer demand could help.

Currently, grant money awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and state agencies spur farmers market shopping and promotion. This is in addition to support from some private nonprofits such as the Frontera Farmer Foundation, which awards capital development grants for small, sustainable farms serving the Chicago area.

But Slama said few small farmers have benefited from what is available. And Nichols said applying for federal subsidies would be more trouble than it’s worth.

“We do such a variety, to get a subsidy on one little thing would be such a headache that it would be real difficult,” Nichols said. While some Illinois farmers grow just corn and soybeans—two federally subsidized crops—on thousands of acres, the Nichols farm plants over 1,000 different fruits and vegetables on their 240 acres.