Sustainability Visits- Adelaide Central Market

What is your name and your role here at the (farmers market, CSA, community garden)?
My name is Marion Warren and I am a shopper here.

Why do you choose to shop here/garden here/support this CSA?
I choose to come here because the food is a decent price for the great quality it is. Its nice to buy food that is made here in Adelaide and even some exotic food from other nearby countries like Tasmania.

When did you first start coming here?
I can't really remember. My daughter comes here a lot though, almost every Saturday.

Do you garden at home? Why or why not?
Yes I do. I have a pear tree, passion fruit, apples and peacharines (In America, peacharines are nectarines )

How did you find out about this place?
It's very well known. It's in the city and sometimes there are announcements of the central market. We just decided to take a visit down there one day and we found it very interesting.

What would be your advice to get others to do what you do?
Definitely garden your own food, it always tastes better and you can trust that its from your own backyard. As for the central market, I would give advice to buy here because there is a diverse amount of food and other produce. They even sell croc meat here. Plus there is less fat, sugar and other unhealthy ingredients that is sold at Woolworths or Coles (these are the most popular grocery stores in South Australia).
7. Does your daughter garden?
No, she doesn't want to. She doesn't have the time to constantly be taking care of it since shes always out and about.
8. If you didn't garden, would you go to the central market more often?
No, probably not. It's quite a drive to get there and its easier to buy at a grocery store where they have isle signs that say sauses, produce or dairy. The central market doesn't have those, there are just stalls set up everywhere and most people are selling the same thing, so it takes a while to go around the whole place and trying to find the best deal.
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What struck you about the location you visited? Was it what you expected, or very different?
The place was PACKED with people. The place was also underground which was really cool. It also had permanent stalls there which was different compared to most other markets. At first I questioned if it was a farmers market, which it mostly was. Some had locally grown food in Australia but some where grown on farms. So you get the best of both. I was also really surprised that the food at the market was cheaper than the grocery stores. Australia is a really pricey country, but after doing the currency differences with the US and Australia the prices were very close to our grocery stores.

Do you think you will start going to a farmers market more often? Or using a community garden? Or supporting a CSA?
I really want to visit a community garden and see what that's like. The Stein Family farm that Charlotte visited looked like so much fun and I plan on going there when I get a chance (probably summer time). But most importantly I want to buy from Farmers Markets. I personally know the difference in taste between store bought foods and farm grown produce. The food from the farm is so much better, and on the plus side it's healthier.

How do these locations fit into our essential questions of “Why Don’t People Live More Sustainably?” and “How Can I Convince them to do So?”
Well, the problem is that there are not enough farmers markets, community gardens or CSA's. It takes a long time to get to a farmers market (well at least for me since I don't have a local one). People probably chose to go to their local grocery store over a farmers market because of distance and time. We can convince them to limit their amount of trips to the store and take the time that they were going to use to go to the store and garden instead. We can definitely convince people to go to farmers markets and garden if they can taste the difference! This would be a test toward sustainability.