Farmers' Markets

Introduction

An Alternative to Convenience Stores
The corner of 175th St and Broadway in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City is lined with fast food restaurants and convenience stores. The freshest produce is usually a box of onions and potatoes in a nearby bodega. On Thursdays, though, the corner becomes a virtual garden, as farmers from nearby Long Island and New Jersey set up tables overflowing with the freshest fruits and vegetables of the season. The ripe tomatoes, fragrant basil, dark green kale, and juicy peaches -- all available with Farmers' Market Nutrition Program coupons and food stamps -- offer more nutrition and taste than is regularly available in this predominantly low-income, Dominican and African-American neighborhood.

The Washington Heights farmers' market is one of the almost 4400 markets in the US -- nearly twice as many as a decade ago and up from 3700 just two years ago. (USDA Agricultural Marketing Service) The popularity of farmers' markets is growing so rapidly in part because of the alternative they offer. As in Washington Heights, there is a crisis of both food quality and health in many communities around the country. There is also a farm crisis in rural America -- family farmers can't afford to farm their land and rural populations often don't have access to fresh food grown nearby. Farmers' markets, where a local farmer sells a cornucopia of just picked produce directly to consumers, are a tasty and healthy alternative to the industrialized, corporate-driven food system.

Fresh Kale for All
In both urban and rural communities, farmers' markets can be an important provider of fresh food to people who don't have a nearby grocery store or reliable transportation. Many markets accept Farmers Market Nutrition Program coupons, and an increasing number are able to accept EBT cards (the electronic version of food stamps), making fresh and nutritious food accessible to the underserved low-income communities that need it most. Markets provide good nutrition and a critical link between producers and consumers in communities as varied as Washington Heights and upstate New York and farmers and nonfarmers around a Native American reservation in Colorado.

Markets for Farmers
In an age of mad cow disease and contaminated spinach, farmers' markets offer the opportunity to talk to the person who grew your apples or raised your beef. For farmers, these markets can be the key to survival. In an era in which an average of only twenty cents of every food dollar goes to the grower, and large agribusinesses and development pressures are driving many small and midsize farmers out of business, markets that sell direct to the consumer provide the farmer with a fair price. Despite the challenges of running a small farm, many family farmers continue to farm because they love farming and are committed to the work. As stewards of the land, they use organic or other sustainable growing practices to care for the land, and they value the opportunity for connection with the people who eat their food.

In very rural areas, lack of transportation, resources, and isolation of farmers and consumers can lead to a "rural food gap," in which even people living near farmland have no access to healthy food. A farmers' market or farm stand can be a critical piece of rebuilding the capacity of a rural economy and reestablishing a connection between the farmer and the consumer -- particularly those who live down the road from each other.

Community Benefits
People come to farmers' markets for many reasons -- for the joy of eating seasonally; for the nutritious vegetables they can't find anywhere else; for the beauty and smells of the bounty of herbs and produce.

Farmers' markets are good for consumers, farmers, and for the community. By keeping local farms viable, markets sustain regional open space. Markets in town and city centers create new gathering places to bring customers downtown, where they shop at local businesses as well as at the market. Author Brian Halweil says that shoppers are 10 times more likely to have a conversation at a farmers' market than at a supermarket. Furthermore, buying from local producers and businesses keeps dollars re-circulating throughout the region, which is good for the community's economic health. Farmers' markets can also provide extra income for community gardeners and employment for local youth.

Farmers' markets can be a way to preserve and create a market for culturally traditional foods and crops. Farmers can respond directly to their shoppers' wants, and are able to provide the community with culturally appropriate foods that may not be available anywhere else. This is a particularly important benefit for many new farmers' markets being established on Native American reservations. In these communities, the process to develop a new market includes discussion of the preservation of cultural identity and the viability of the traditional land-based society.

Arizona Tepary Beans and Maine Black Oxford Apples
There are farmers' markets in every state of the country and on several Native American reservations. Market infrastructure ranges from a few tables set up for several hours a week in a parking lot to dozens of farmers housed in a permanent structure attracting thousands of customers. In many rural areas, a farmer's market may simply be a roadside stand, piled high with the fruits of fields only a few yards away. Some markets in Alaska run for two months of the year; markets in Hawaii are open year-round. Market specialties are as diverse as the regions they grow in -- ranging from avocados and artichokes in California to traditional dried beans in Arizona to apples and wool in Maine, depending on the season and the weather.

Farmers' Markets and Healthy Cities
Deeply rooted in American history and reemerging strongly in the 21st century, farmers' markets are an important response to the urban crisis facing the U.S. In addition, they help to create what the World Health Organization calls "healthy cities and communities," as they link urban and rural food producers and consumers within a more sustainable food system. Farmers' markets, along with other local and regional food initiatives, point the way toward an alternative food system, one no longer controlled by the industrial agriculture and corporate agribusiness which dominate so much of our food processing, distribution, and marketing, with increasingly negative impacts on our health, communities, and environment.

Updated 1/2007