Buffalo Rising Online

It’s before dawn on a warm Sep­tember morning. Farmers stand with boxes of colorful produce at their feet, lit by pools of bright light cast from the single bulbs that line the lengthy wooden shelter. Small trucks backed up to the structure with their doors flung wide, re­veal rows and rows of produce; peaches in bushel baskets, racks of muskmelons, and cases of peppers.

It’s a typical Tuesday at the Ni­agara Frontier Grower’s Co-operative Market, most commonly referred to as the Clinton Bailey Farmers Market. Since 1931, farmers have traveled great distances to arrive in the early hours of the morning at the market, located in the heart of Buffalo’s industrial food district. The pre-dawn wholesale business used to be conducted six days a week, but in the last few decades the changes in farm­ing and the decrease in demand for fresh produce has translated into a massive reduction in the number of farmers that buy, sell and trade at the market. They now make the trek to Buffal…