A farmers market is a weekend staple across America during the warm weather months. It’s a community spot where you can buy local produce, foods, and crafts — maybe even listen to local music.

But in Bloomington, IN, fears of white supremacists infiltrating the organic produce caused a shutdown of their market.

Farmers Market in WA. Personal collection.

The trouble began when busybodies began snooping into the court records and leaked internet archives of the Schooner Creek Farm. Now this farm has been participating in the Bloomington farmers market for years, but the snoops found out that the husband and wife who run it had posted on white nationalist websites. Then all hell broke loose.

The town held public meetings, local talk radio buzzed with the controversy, and the local newspaper covered it. Activists have petitioned that Schooner Creek Farm be banned from the farmers markets, while some customers claim they no longer feel safe. Another vendor considered bringing his shotgun to the market. You know, just in case Nazis show up.

Plus, Antifa — dressed all in black, of course — protested in front of the Schooner Creek Farm booth one weekend. Other activists have handed out buttons which read, “Don’t Buy Veggies From Nazis.” And late last month, police arrested a professor from nearby Indiana University as she held up a sign and blocked the Schooner farm stand. Police advised her to leave the market or face arrest, which she declined, so they led her away in handcuffs.

Things got worse. The Three Percenters, a right wing group, popped in to support Schooner Creek Farm, even though the owner told them to stay home. The police will handle it, she said. They showed up anyway.

So the mayor of Bloomington suspended the farmers market last month.

And guess who suffers the most? The farmers who just want to sell their produce.

Now just how horrible are the views of Sarah Dye, the woman at the heart of the controversy, who with her husband Douglas Mackey owns Schooner Creek Farm?

Dye calls herself an “identitarian,” which the Anti-Defamation League claims is associated with the “American Identity Movement.” According to the ADL, the group focuses on preserving “white American culture,” and opposes immigration. Sarah Dye says it’s “a way of viewing the world that emphasizes the importance of identity.” But she added,

“We absolutely reject supremacy in all of its forms.”

Now have Dye and Mackey ever promoted white identity at the farmers market? Did anyone buy a zucchini with swastikas cut into the sides? Did Dye ever pack supremacist literature into the paper bags alongside the kale?

“No, never. I’m just there to sell produce. As I have been for nine years.”

Now I certainly don’t know what Sarah Dye’s mindset is, and I might find much of her beliefs to be abhorrent. But she wasn’t promoting her cause, nor was she the one who began the ruckus. You can blame progressives for that. They were out to punish someone with whom they didn’t agree.

But as one honey vendor at the Bloomington farmers market said,

“Everybody has a right to their personal beliefs. I may not agree with their beliefs, but they’re still people.”

The Bloomington farmers market reopened last Saturday, with extra police, cameras, and a “larger comfort zone” for customers. Meanwhile, I hope those farmers affected by the shutdown — who had nothing to do with this — are still able to make some money after all their honest labor.

Featured image: personal collection.