New York City’s Farmers Markets Set New Safety Standards

On March 5, as the novel coronavirus was starting to spread and the threat of a shelter-in-place order in New York City loomed, Michael Hurwitz, director of Greenmarket, took action. There are 26 open-air, farmer-driven markets throughout the five boroughs, and Hurwitz anticipated the need to quickly change the way they operated. The first rule he instituted in early March: no more samples. Sure enough, within two weeks, shopping for food would become a more urgent matter, as would the rules around how to handle and sell it,

Greenmarket, which creates a community of agricultural producers and New Yorkers who want locally grown, organic produce, had the potential to be upended by the pandemic. When Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a stay-at-home order on March 20th, the markets qualified as essential businesses, but going about their business safely, enforcing social-distancing, would be tricky. The markets are gathering places, with thousands of people in close quarters, handling food that’s not wrapped in layers of plastic. To get the fingerling potatoes, fresh eggs, and baby mesclun, you have to physically go to one of the markets. On a typical sunny spring Saturday, an average of 300,000 people would go through the market in Union Square, Greenmarket’s flagship location in downtown Manhattan. “On a fall weekend day, when it’s peak produce, that number might reach 400,000,” says Hurwitz.