#133 Real Pros Are Always Learning - Cat Fields White, Farmers Market Pros

Meaningful Marketplace Podcast

How do you spell CAT? Wrong. It’s CATT, at least when you’re talking about Catt Fields White, the high-powered organizer, teacher, consultant, author, podcaster and believer in connecting farmers and those who believe in nutritious, creative foods through 21st century farmers’ markets. Her background prepared her well for this path, starting out as a food writer, then becoming a marketing consultant for restaurants, then a construction project manager for a company that built restaurants, then a turnaround consultant for restaurants. One of her turnaround clients, after receiving Catt’s advice, simply offered her their restaurant and so she operated it for a few years. Then she took all that accumulated knowledge and shared it with independent restaurant owners through a trade publication she started from scratch. But after the kids were grown and out of the house, Catt tired of the car-oriented life of Phoenix, AZ and moved to downtown San Diego, CA where almost everything was accessible on foot. The only thing missing was grocery shopping. The few Italian delis in Little Italy didn’t add up to a full shopping experience for fresh items, so she offered to the Little Italy Association to start a farmers’ market and with all her restaurant and purveyor contacts, began putting the pieces together. The idea was to split the profits and so everyone agreed. However, about six months into operation, the Association felt the traffic was too light, the market was an embarrassment to the neighborhood and wanted to shut it down. Catt convinced them to give it a little more time and that turned out to be the tipping point, success from then on. Dubbed the Little Italy Mercato in 2008, it has grown into the county’s largest weekly year-round farmers’ market, stretching over six city blocks, with 180 tents any given Saturday and around 22,000 attendees. They have added a Wednesday market so that local neighbors can shop without the crowds. Just as Catt shared her restaurant knowledge as a consultant and publisher, she began sharing the steps to her farmers’ market success with other farmers. She founded Farmers Market Pros to make the journey easier for small farmers, food makers and other market managers and to advocate for farmers markets’ critical place in local food systems. She usually worked in conjunction with community associations and business improvement organizations, stayed close to operations until managers could be transitioned in. Now with Farmers Market Pros, she consults all over the US and is headed soon to Canada and the UK as her fame and reputation keep growing. Farmers Market Pros is where Catt offers education to farmers through her Vendor 101 program series, a conference called InTents: A Farmers Market Conference, and her weekly podcast, Tent Talk. All meant to educate and help farmers be successful. Find out more at cattwhite.com, Instagram at @farmersmarketpros and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FarmersMarketPros. Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall.