Farmers’ markets: from the countryside to the city without intermediaries

It’s 5 a.m. and we are in Fontibón Park with a low sky of gray clouds, characteristic of Bogotá. There are approximately 15 peasant market stalls. As soon as we arrive, Mrs. Lucelly scolds me, telling me that I should have gotten up earlier, that I missed the arrival and unloading of the trucks at 3 a.m. I think that without those two hours of sleep I wouldn’t be able to say anything sane.

Lucelly Torres is the coordinator of Agrocomunal, an organization that since 2004 has been organizing peasant markets in Bogotá so that at least 350 producers from Cundinamarca, Boyacá, Tolima, and Meta can sell their harvest directly, thus generating well-being for the peasant and the capital’s consumer. She was born in Herveo, Tolima, and in her previous jobs, they called her “the volcano” because of the vitality and drive with which she works. She has been a teacher, journalist, communal member, social leader, and also a poet who tells the benevolence and harshness of life in couplets.

Lucelly Torres. Credit: Andrés Bo/Dejusticia

We start the tour of the market. In the first stalls are the fruits and vegetables that, in the words of Mrs. Lucelly, are the essence of the peasant market. We greet Mr. Eduardo, a producer from Nuevo Colón, Boyacá, who has been working in the Fontibón market for more than 15 years selling pears, apples, blueberries, strawberries, and vegetables, among many other greens, from 25 neighbors of the municipality. He tells us that this market has brought well-being to many families. By not having intermediaries, they can bring fresher products without preservatives, the environment is protected by reducing transportation and the use of plastic and styrofoam, they sell at fair prices, and the consumer pays less. What in technical terms would be called food sovereignty.

This problem of intermediaries has been documented by different sources. The League Against Silence did a study where it revealed that intermediaries keep the biggest profits and impoverish the peasant to the point that some “prefer to leave their products at the entrance of their farms for a transporter to pick them up at any price.” That is why Agrocomunal is committed to this type of short circuit markets, that is, without intermediaries, where there is a direct relationship between the peasant and the consumer.

We continue our tour of the ‘amasijos’ (a type of baked goods), one of the most desired stalls. At a glance, you can see ‘almojábanas’ (cheese bread), ‘arepas’ (corn cakes), ‘pan de yucas’ (cassava bread), ‘resobados’ (a type of bread), yogurts, free-range eggs, ‘mantecadas’ (pound cake), ‘masato’ (a fermented drink), ‘chicha’ (a corn-based drink), among other delicacies. I ask why the chicken eggs are green, and Victoria, the vendor, tells me they are green because they are laid by black Nicaragua breed chickens, but the flavor does not change.

Victoria Moyano is one of the producers who comes every eight days to sell her products in Fontibón. It is worth mentioning that 75% of this market is led by women and that this space has served to strengthen the autonomy of the peasant women. She comes from Arcabuco, a town in Boyacá four hours from Bogotá. “It all started because my grandmother taught my mother to grind corn and make amasijos and masato. All without chemicals or anything. They sold in a small store in the town. Then my uncles arrived and now it’s us. After that, Agrocomunal came to the town and gave a talk and invited us to bring our products to Bogotá. And here we are.”

Victoria Moyano and her family. Credit: Miguel Galezzo/Dejusticia

She tells us that this amasijos stall brings together seven producers that benefit more than 20 peasant families, including female heads of household, older adults, and a person with a disability who makes yogurt. The production process requires discipline and order. On Tuesdays, each producer gets the supplies they need to make the amasijos. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, the cows are milked and they work on the production. On Fridays, all the producers meet and pack between 7,000 and 8,000 products in a truck to bring to Bogotá.

Victoria, while attending to another eager customer, tells us that thanks to this market they all have a better quality of life. For example, she went from living in a mud house to a brick house. Her youngest daughter goes to school and her other daughter is studying architecture at a university in Bogotá.

Finally, we get to the part with the typical foods. There is ‘lechona’ (stuffed pork), ‘rellena’ (blood sausage), ‘chorizos’ (sausages), ‘tamales’, potato soup, among others. Mrs. Lucelly says that a respectable peasant market has to have typical foods. “The market is a meeting point for families where, with the products and food, remembrances, longings, and territory are cooked. People leave full of vitality because they found something that is part of their life.”

Carmen Cogua and her husband Juanito come from the municipality of Tena and are famous for their emblematic ‘rellena’. Carmen tells us that the ‘rellena’ is her husband’s recipe, that he learned to make it from his mother and his mother from his grandmother. They bring about 300 portions and sometimes by noon they have nothing left. They have been in this market for more than 17 years and Juanito says he built his house on ‘rellena’.

Before finishing the tour, we meet Mr. Efraín Villamil, one of the founders of Agrocomunal. He is a 71-year-old man with a solid and profound speech. In each of his words, the weight of an impeccable political formation is felt. His answers are never short, nor a yes or a no, but he is one of those people who starts talking and when you think he has gone off on a tangent, he comes back and connects all the points with an unexpected coherence.

Efraín Villamil. Credit: Miguel Galezzo

His political life began at the age of 15. “On March 19, 1969, I left my house and found the community of Fontibón gathered. They were electing the community action board… ‘come here, young man, you are the secretary of the board!’ And they immediately got me into this business.” From there, he began to dedicate his life to community work. He was linked to the Patriotic Union and ANAPO. He is part of the Federation of Community Action Boards and works on the construction of a network between these boards and the peasants. He is also a survivor of the violence in this country.

He tells us that Agrocomunal was born in 2004 from an alliance between communal members and peasants without political party overtones. Its objective was to defend the rights of peasants and consumers to cultivate, produce, and eat in dignified conditions. To do this, they wanted to bring the market to the city without intermediaries, unlike what happens in centers like Corabastos. Although they work with their fingernails and without financing, they currently hold about 12 peasant markets in Bogotá. The main ones are in Fontibón and Floralia.

The immediate dream of Agrocomunal is to have a collection center in Bogotá. That is, a warehouse where food from the countryside can arrive to ripen naturally without chemicals, and from there, be distributed to peasant markets, shopkeepers, restaurants, community markets, consumers, etc. A place where nothing is lost.

He studied Sociology at the age of 50 and says that his knowledge comes from the teacher Fals Borda and the dialogue of knowledge with people. “This work gives one the satisfaction that we have not come to this world to vegetate but to be transcendent and to build the dreams of having a country with social justice, equal opportunities, and freedom.”

It’s 4:30 p.m. and there is almost nothing left in the stalls. There are also no words left to tell the story of Camilo Quiroga and his vegetables. That of Marlene and her ‘cocadas’ (coconut sweets) from San Basilio de Palenque. That of Mrs. Ana and her healthy breads for diabetics. That of the ‘chucula’ (a hot drink) from Ciudad Bolívar. That of the ‘viche’ and ‘pipilongo’ (two local plants) from the Pacific. The whole market was sold out and the peasants are getting ready to return to their towns. They will see each other again in eight days, at 3 a.m., when under the coordination of Mrs. Lucelly the trucks loaded with hundreds of fresh products arrive at Fontibón Park, ready to bring the countryside to the city.