Detroit Economic Club

Stabenow Wants Eastern Market To Expand Sales Days

date: April 11, 2011
SOURCE:The Detroit News

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow says she is working with officials of Detroit's Eastern Market to help them increase the number of days the outdoor and shed merchants are open for business.

Up to 40,000 people visit Eastern Market's Saturday market — a local food district with more than 250 independent vendors and merchants processing, wholesaling and retailing food. At the heart of Eastern Market is a six-block public market in business since 1891.

"Why should Eastern Market only be open on Saturday? Why not Sunday? Why not every day?" said Stabenow, D-Lansing, at an appearance at the Detroit Economic Club in Southfield. "They are looking at expanding."

Stabenow became chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee in January.

Eastern Market Corp. President Dan Carmody said the market is going to expand by adding a seasonal Tuesday market that will start in July.

The market is also working to raise $1 million more to renovate Shed Five and build a community kitchen. That would allow the market to open Sundays and feature more locally prepared foods for sale.

Stabenow also helped the market secure funding from the U.S. Agriculture Department to add two new Detroit neighborhood markets. The funding is also helping to boost advertising and programming for the markets that are at Wayne State, the North End and the east side, among other locations.

"It's difficult to get new markets started," Carmody said.

Eventually, the market would like to build two permanent food halls — like food halls in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. — to have small food vendors operate all week. The market hopes to build a 35,000-square-foot north hall as early as next year that would include a new restaurant that featured local food, small vendors and more community kitchen space — including a teaching kitchen.

Stabenow also wants to ensure that more food processing is done in Michigan — rather than shipping the raw fruit to other states.

And she is hopeful of convincing Whole Foods to locate a store in Detroit, having had multiple conversations with Whole Foods CEO Walter Robb. "They are very interested in Detroit," Stabenow said.

The market offers fruits, vegetables, fresh-cut flowers and transplants, eggs and dairy products, homemade jams, maple syrup, locally produced specialty foods, pasture and grass-fed meat and even an occasional goose or rabbit.

Michigan has more than 8 million acres of farmland generating more than $7 billion annually and it helps support one out of four jobs, Stabenow said. The state has the most diverse selection of crops, except for California. Michigan grows "everything — except for cotton, rice and peanuts."

Michigan is number one in producing pickling cucumbers, but not number one in processing pickles.

"We are shipping the cucumbers to plants in other states and they make pickles and they put them in jars and we get them back here," she said. "My question is, why can't Peter Piper process pickles in Paw Paw? We can."

She noted that some companies, including Better Made and Kellogg's, process Michigan crops.

She noted that Detroit is likely to have farms soon.

"I told the mayor I'd never thought I'd be helping him from the Agriculture committee," Stabenow said. "That's an important part of Detroit's future."

She also said the state is positioned to take advantage of the next generation of biofuels like cellulosic ethanol.

Automakers have sued to block a higher blend of ethanol at pumps called E15. Stabenow says she wants to ensure that both the current blend used by most vehicles — E10 — and the higher blend are available. "There has to be a couple of choices there," she said.

The EPA hasn't yet approved the labeling that will allow E15 to be sold for vehicles newer than the 2001 model year.

David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

dshepardson@detnews.com

(202) 662-8735