Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Cornell Daily Sun
Submit a Tip
Sunday, July 27, 2025

HR-0789.jpg

Ithaca Farmers Market Reopens Amid New Tariff Policies

Reading time: about 2 minutes

The Ithaca Farmers Market reopened on Saturday, bringing the community fresh produce, crafts and products for the start of spring.

With the tariffs from the Trump administration affecting markets nationwide, both customers and merchants were concerned about how they would impact the Ithaca Farmers Market. Nonetheless, the market was lively with a crowd of customers excited to support their local farmers.

Despite the recent policies, merchants are optimistic about the season and the community’s willingness to shop locally. However, when asked about how recent economic policies have affected them, some merchants mentioned that they had to increase their prices.
Jacques Schickel, owner of Jacques Schickel Pottery and member of the Ithaca Farmers Market’s Board of Directors, said that he has not had to increase prices in response to the tariffs yet because a lot of his materials come from the United States.

“No, [prices were not affected] by the tariffs,” Schickel said. “When COVID happened, that’s when material costs went up.I have a store of supplies, so I haven’t gone to get new raw materials yet. I would imagine a lot of the clay that I use comes from the U.S.”

Kash Iraggi-Wiggins, owner and operator of Balance Aromatherapy, said that her company’s prices will rise in response to the tariffs.

“Well, all [the farmer’s market businesses’] prices will have to go up — mine had to go up.” Iraggi-Wiggins said. “My label shot up, and all sorts of things that will have to go up. We’ll just have to wait and see, but I think we, small businesses, try our very best.”

Merchants still think it is too early to tell how business will be this season. Many customers  were excited to support their local farmers in spite of price increases.

Lizemarie Cirone Ph.D. ’28 expressed her admiration for the Ithaca Farmers Market, praising the culture of transparency and openness between merchants and customers there.

“We’re part of the CSA in the area, and I think the farmers market is a great place to come supplement that stuff because you can ask the person that’s selling you the stuff where it came from,” Cirone said.

“There’s sort of a direct link to the locals, which I really like. But yeah, I would say definitely for eggs, we’ve been supporting people locally, a little bit more,” Cirone said.

Sarah VanOrden Morrow, co-owner of Crosswinds Farm and Creamery, says the tariffs have not affected customers’ support of the Ithaca Farmers Market and she’s optimistic that customers will continue to support local farmers as they have always done.  

“I don’t think it [the tariffs] has influenced our customers,” VanOrden Morrow said. “Most of our customers already support local farmers, so they’re just continuing to do that.”


Read More