WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:31 — 2.7MB)
EDITOR’S NOTE: According to their website, Schooner Creek Farms previously donated to WFHB.
Schooner Creek Farms maintains their booth at the Bloomington Farmers’ Market.
The organic produce vendor was at the Bloomington Farmers’ Market, this past Saturday. Area residents are circulating petitions to remove the southern Brown County vendor from both the Nashville and Bloomington Farmer’s Markets.
The proprietors of Schooner Creek Farms have allegedly been linked to the white supremacist organization, Identity Evropa, by online activists and FBI testimony from an Identity Europa member who vandalized a synagogue in Carmel, last year.
Identity Evropa is considered a white supremacist and hate group by both the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League.
In an interview with an FBI investigator, the Identity Evropa member who vandalized the Carmel synagogue stated he was a dues-paying member of the organization, who activists allege was in communication with Schooner Creek Farms’ proprietors through online forums.
At least two petitions demand the Bloomington and Nashville Farmers’ Markets revoke their vendor agreements with Schooner Creek Farms.
In Friday’s Bloomington Community Famers’ Market Newsletter, Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department Program Coordinator Marcia Veldman wrote, “Some of you have reached out to me regarding allegations of extremist political views of a particular Market vendor. Thank you for sharing your concerns and working through our existing structure in place to handle conflict. It is incumbent on all of us to work together to ensure and environment where all can feel and be safe and welcome regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, housing status, or disability status.”
Veldman told WFHB, community members concerned by the alleged ties between Schooner Creek Farms’ proprietors and Identity Evropa are invited to attend the Farmers Market Advisory Council meeting, next Monday, at 5:30 p.m. at Bloomington City Hall.
She said the Bloomington Farmers’ Market cannot kick vendors out, unless they’ve broken one of the Farmers’ Market rules, which largely relate to the mischaracterization of produce, such as selling non-organic produce as organic.
Veldman said Schooner Creek Farms has not violated any of the Bloomington Farmers’ Market’s rules.
