Overview:
Long River Produce Market, formerly known as Atlas Farm Store, has changed its name after a disagreement with Atlas Farms owner Gideon Porth regarding the Apartheid-Free Communities pledge. The store's new name is a nod to the Connecticut River, which owner Kelly Hickey said provides fertile soil for the valley's farms.
SOUTH DEERFIELD — A new sign greets drivers as they pass by what was previously known as the Atlas Farm Store.
Now, the sign reads Long River Produce Market, a move that marks no changes in operations, but a shift in identity as the store takes a step away from Atlas Farm, spurred by recent differences in opinion over a Apartheid-Free Communities pledge.
“New Name, Same Game,” the sign tells customers.
According to Atlas Farm owner Gideon Porth, the market has sported the name “Atlas Farm Store” since opening in 2013. Kelly Hickey purchased the business from Atlas Farm in 2022. Since then, Hickey has run the store and Porth has run Atlas Farm as a separate business, with the store selling products from Atlas Farm and other growers within a 200-mile radius, according to Hickey.
A recent disagreement between the store and Porth regarding the store’s Apartheid-Free Communities pledge spurred the name change into fruition.
According to Apartheid-Free.org, the pledge states an affirmation to “freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian people and all people,” an opposition to “all forms of racism, bigotry, discrimination and oppression” and an intention to collaborate “to end all support to Israel’s Apartheid regime, settler colonialism and military occupation.”
While businesses that take the pledge often boycott Israeli products, Long River Produce Market only sells local products.
Instead, “It’s about having that public stance and showing support for our community members who are either working on that or affected by it, and making sure that people feel welcome,” Hickey explained.
“The intention behind the pledge is to build consensus among the public that what’s happening in Israel and Palestine is apartheid, it is wrong and it should end,” said Prepared Foods Manager Molly Merrett, who first told Hickey about the pledge campaign. “We want to send a message that if you’re brave and you take a stand for Palestinian rights, your community will support you.”
Hickey said the store posted the pledge on its community board in May, informing passing customers of their alignment with the movement.
Longtime customer and Rabbi Ben Weiner of Deerfield spotted the sign while shopping a few weeks ago. He described feeling blindsided by it, without “explicitly being told that’s what I’ve been supporting for all these months.”
“I felt a little confused and disturbed by that fact,” Weiner said.
He said he is not in support of every decision Israel’s government and military pursues.
“At the same time, I’m opposed to the notion that somehow it should be eliminated, which is what I see as the ultimate goal of campaigns like this,” Weiner commented, “to fundamentally change its existence, as well as the fact that [Israel] seems to get singled out in a certain way that I sometimes find to be a bit hypocritical as if it’s the only place that’s engaging in bad behavior.”
Though Weiner said he has stopped shopping at Long River Produce Market, Hickey said the store has largely received positive feedback from customers about the pledge.
Porth, however, was not in support of it.
“I don’t really feel like it’s the position of my business to engage on political matters, and I felt like the decision the store made on that was divisive and alienating to some of the customer base,” Porth explained.
He described the phrasing of “Apartheid-Free” as a “misapplied term” and the Apartheid-Free Communities movement as “an anti-Israel campaign that doesn’t recognize the right of the state of Israel to exist.”
Atlas being the family name of Porth’s grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, also intensified Porth’s discomfort with the pledge, “something that I felt the namesake of the store would certainly take offense to.”
After discussing the pledge with Hickey, the pair decided it was time to rename the store.
“It was important for me to create that distance, because my business name is really coming up with hers,” Porth said.
“It made the time clear to separate further,” Hickey said.
On Nov. 1, the store announced the name change to Long River Produce Market on Facebook. Hickey said the name grew from the Algonquian name for Connecticut, “Quinnehtukqut,” meaning “beside the long tidal river.” The new name celebrates the river that helps seedlings sprout into the store’s products.
“It’s very place-based and that’s what we’re all about,” Hickey said.
Since the announcement, customers have praised the name change in emails to Hickey, shoutouts on social media and conversations at the store, Hickey and Merrett said.
Max Webbe, a former employee at the store and consistent customer since, said the pledge and renaming inspired him to shop at the store more often and spread the word to his friends.
“The fact that [Kelly’s] sticking to her guns and supporting what she feels good about, I’m all for it,” Webbe said.
“I was so impressed by their integrity,” said longtime customer Nicole Blum whose own business, Carr’s Ciderhouse in Hadley, also adopted the Apartheid-Free Communities pledge. “When people take the risk and express those things, we need to show up and support that.”