Farmers’ Market Advisory Council to Hear Petitions Tonight

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The Bloomington Farmer’s Market Advisory Council is scheduled to meet tonight.

Those normally quiet meetings are expected to be more lively tonight, as community members ask the advisory council to ban a Brown County vendor from the farmers’ market, due to their alleged ties to a white supremacist group.

At least two petitions are asking the City of Bloomington’s Parks and Recreation Department – which runs the Farmers’ Market – to ban Schooner Creek Farm, alleging the owners are members of Identity Evropa.

Identity Evropa is considered a White supremacist group, by both the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. Members of Identity Evropa helped organize the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, in 2017, which left one dead.

WFHB reached out to Schooner Creek Farm for comment on this story.

Schooner Creek Farm’s owners are Douglas Mackey and Sarah Dye.

In an FBI interview, a 21 year-old Indiana man who vandalized a Carmel synagogue with Nazi graffiti last year, told investigators he met with two Identity Evropa members, Sarah and Doug, at Indy Diner, in Martinsville.

According to the interview, Nolan Brewer told investigators the Sarah he met with uses the handle ‘Volkmom,’ on Identity Evropa’s Discord. Online activists leaked information from Identity Evropa forums, including posts from Volkmom.

Bloomington residents have been pushing to have the vendors removed from the Bloomington Farmers’ Market. But City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department’s Marcia Veldman said the city’s hands are tied, since Schooner Creek Farm hasn’t broken any market rules and the city could face a first-amendment lawsuit if they ban the Brown County vendor, due to their political and racial beliefs.

The nine member Advisory Council consists of members appointed by the Bloomington Board of Park Commissioners. Tonight’s meeting of the Farmers’ Market Advisory Council takes place at 5:30 in Bloomington city hall.