What is a farmers market?

A farmers market is a public and recurring assembly of farmers or their representatives selling the food that they produced directly to consumers.  Farmers markets facilitate personal connections and bonds of mutual benefits between farmers, shoppers, and communities. By cutting out middlemen, farmers receive more our food dollars and shoppers receive the freshest and virtually flavorful food in their area and local economies prosper. Each farmers market defines the term "local" co-ordinate to the agronomics of its region and regularly communicates that definition to the public. Farmers markets likewise implement guidelines and operating rules that ensure the farmers market place consists principally of farms selling straight to the public products that the farms have produced. In order to protect both farmers and consumers, some states have even established their own formal definitions which specify market characteristics in more detail. The number of farmers markets in the The states has grown rapidly in contempo years, from just nether 2,000 in 1994 to more than than 8,600 markets currently registered in the USDA Farmers Market Directory.

What will I find at a farmers market?

Information technology depends. Farmers markets vary in size and always reflect a region'southward agriculture and seasons. Some markets are seasonal and comprised of a small number of vendors, while others involve hundreds of vendors and accept place year-circular. It is a source of pride to farmers and marketplace shoppers akin that the products available at farmers market place represent the agricultural of a region or state. Depending on the fourth dimension of the twelvemonth, you might find avocados, olives, steak or artichokes in Texas or California, and be more than probable to detect paw paws, peanuts, pork, and peonies in Virginia.

Some markets concentrate on produce, while others carry everything from fruits and vegetables to baked appurtenances, meat, eggs, flowers, and dairy products. Some may conduct locally made crafts or prepared foods as a complement to the agronomical products they sell. Every bit the number of markets grows, so does the multifariousness of foods available.

How practise farmers markets decide what to acquit?

What is at marketplace depends on a combination of location, season, and market place rules about what can exist sold. Many farmers markets but carry locally-grown, locally-made and/or locally-processed, foods, and create a arrangement of guidelines that ensure vendors are producing what they are selling. Farmers markets are unique insofar equally they give shoppers transparency while also protecting local farmers from having to compete with lost-cost, depression-quality, often imported meat and produce. The cracking thing about farmers markets is that if you are ever unsure about what a product is, where it came from, or how it was grown, you lot can merely ask! Some direct-marketing farms fifty-fifty offer tours.

Are farmers markets simply open in the summer?

Peak harvest season is usually superlative market season, and some markets are only open in the leap, summer, and early autumn.  In 2010, roughly 15% of all farmers markets were open in the winter months. Nevertheless, year-circular farmers market thrive in many states. Many markets are expanding their seasons or transitioning to year-circular operation by offering their shoppers items including meat, eggs, dairy, bread and other products that are available fresh throughout the yr. Even in colder climates, farmers are implementing a variety of season-extending techniques that can protect crops from frosts and allow them to be picked and sold fresh for more weeks of the year. You can learn more about what is seasonally available in your community here.

How can I find a farmers market near me?

Farmers markets are in every state and located in all kinds of places– from Chief Streets to urban center centers, from parks to parking lots, from sidewalks to shopping centers. To find a marketplace nearly yous, inquire your neighbors, friends, Google, and colleagues, or search for i in USDA'southward Farmers Market Directory, or at LocalHarvest.org and EatWellGuide.org. A big number of states accept a land farmers market association that tin likewise provide you with data. Yous can find a list of the statewide farmers market associations that are too FMC members by clicking here.

If you live in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, California, Kentucky, New York, Iowa, Illinois, Pennsylvania, or Massachusetts you lot are lucky enough to be in a state with the most farmers markets in the land.

Do farmers markets only take greenbacks?

There are many ways to pay at farmers markets. Cash normally works all-time simply many farmers markets as well accept credit and debit cards. Moreover, the United states Department of Agronomics (USDA) has partnered with FMC to provide eligible farmers markets and directly marketing farmers with the equipment necessary to take Supplemental Nutrition Assist Program (SNAP) benefits. In the past five years, the number of farmers markets and straight marketing farmers authorized to take SNAP has grown rapidly and the amount of SNAP dollars spent at farmers markets has virtually tripled.

In addition, more than 3,390 markets accept Women, Infant and Children (WIC) Farmers Market place Nutrition Program vouchers and 4,590 markets participate in the Senior Farmers Marketplace Nutrition Plan (SFMNP). In 2015, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service reported that over $38 meg was spent at farmers markets through these 2 programs solitary. Some markets have even adult their own locally based currencies, similar HealthBucks in New York and Fresh Bucks in Rhode Isle.

Who operates farmers markets?

Some cities are home to regional market place networks, such every bit Greenmarket in New York City, the Sustainable Nutrient Center in Austin, Texas, FreshFarm Markets in Washington, DC, and Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance in Seattle. Many markets operate independently, or with the help of city or nonprofit partners, sometimes transitioning to a stand-alone nonprofit equally they grow. No matter how farmers markets organize, there is always a market managing director who enforces the market bylaws and oversees the daily business of the market. The market place manager is mostly the best point of contact for any questions.

Is produce from the farmers market better?

More than 85% of farmers market vendors traveled fewer than 50 miles to sell at a farmers markets.  In fact, more than than one-half of farmers traveled less than x miles to their market, according to the USDA.  Some farmers markets require that all of their produce come up from a specified mileage limit. For example, all farm products sold at the Morgantown Farmers Marketplace in West Virginia are grown within l miles. Compare that to most supermarkets where 7 to fourteen days can get by betwixt the time produce is picked and when it becomes available to shoppers. In that time, fruits and vegetables travel, on boilerplate, more than 1,200 miles before reaching grocery store shelves.  Locally grown produce sold at the farmers market is made available at the peak of freshness and nutrient content. Moreover, when farmers can select plants and fauna breeds for superior flavor and quality without having to worry well-nigh nearly shelf life or long-distance aircraft, quality and taste improves. You lot can likewise discover food at the farmers marketplace that virtually grocery stores don't stock such as farm-fresh eggs, lamb, duck, or heirloom tomatoes.

Why should I store at a farmers market when my supermarket sells organic, and sometimes fifty-fifty local food?

While some grocery stores exercise carry a small number of local and organic products, near cannot equal farmers markets in the variety and quality of local foods, let alone guarantee farmers a off-white price. In 2017, American farmers receive simply 17.4 cents of every dollar American's spent on food. At farmers markets, farmers caput hope with upwards of xc cents on the dollar. Shopping at a farmers market is also a wholly unique feel where farmers and shoppers get to know each other, do concern, and assistance each other.  Coming together friends and neighbors at the farmers marketplace while shopping and supporting local businesses is just fun. When was the last fourth dimension you told your friends to run across you in Island

Are prices for nutrient the same at farmers markets every bit in grocery stores?

Farmers market vendors are local entrepreneurs who, similar other retailers, fix prices that allow them to reasonably cover their costs. Prices vary past product, only a number of studies (including 1's from Seattle, NOFA-VT, and Leopold Center) found that like produce are typically less expensive at farmers markets than at nearby grocery stores. A recent Economic Research Service report showed that less healthy foods tend to have a low price per calorie, increasing the difficulty of adding fresh fruits and vegetables into American diets. Nonetheless, a price study conducted by students at Seattle University showed that most vegetables sold at the farmers marketplace had lower if not comparable prices to their grocery store. Farther, in 74% of the communities examined in Anthony Flaccavento's toll comparison written report of Appalachia and the Southeast, produce was less expensive at farmers markets compared to supermarkets, on average by 22%. One toll reward that farmers markets offering is the ability to buy fresh food in majority at the height of the season and preserve or freeze for later use when the product would otherwise exist more expensive, hard to find, or of lower quality.

When I shop at a farmers market place, where does my money get?

At a farmers market, you hand your coin to the person who grew or fabricated the products in forepart of you.  Co-ordinate to the USDA, more than 150,000 farmers, ranchers, and agronomical entrepreneurs are selling quality products straight to consumers.  These direct sales at farmers markets exceeded $1.5 billion nationwide in 2015. A series of case studies past Civic Economics shows that for every dollar we spend at a large chain, about 15 cents stays in the area, while locally endemic enterprises like farms trap 30 to 45 cents. Boise, Idaho'southward Capital Metropolis Public Market generated an estimated $four.5 1000000 in economical activity for the local economy in 2011 and in Iowa, thanks to the efforts of the Northeast Iowa Food and Fettle Initiative, sales of local food by farmers in northeast Iowa rose from less than $10,000 in 2006 to over $2 meg by 2010.  The majority of the money spent at markets, and the jobs that come up with it, stay in the communities where the markets are located. The 52 producers of the Williamsburg Farmers Market in Virginia generated an estimated $48,969.84 in land sales revenue enhancement in 2011, supporting the state economic system. 32 per centum of Crescent Metropolis Farmers Market shoppers in New Orleans report spending money at nearby businesses, resulting in $3.2 million in projected gross receipts and an annual contribution of $151,621 to local sales revenue enhancement revenue.

How does shopping at a farmers market assistance my local economy?

Farmers markets generate business organization, and concern creates jobs. A 2011 Economic Research Service report found that fruit and vegetable farms selling into local and regional markets utilize 13 full-fourth dimension workers per $ane million in revenue earned. Comparatively, fruit and vegetable farms that are not selling locally employed only three full-fourth dimension workers per $1 million in revenue.

Farmers markets also bring business to neighboring stores and communities where the market is located. Spending coin at farmers markets keeps your coin in circulation within the local community, preserving and creating local jobs. A 2010 study of the Easton Farmers Marketplace in Pennsylvania, for instance, constitute that 70% of farmers market customers are also shopping at downtown businesses, spending upwardly to an extra $26,000 each week. This is very different from many major grocery stores where a big percentage of sales leave the customs, and possibly fifty-fifty the state or the region. A Virginia Cooperative Extension report showed if households in Southern Virginia spent 15 percentage of their weekly food budget on locally grown food products, $90 1000000 in new farm income would be created for the region.

How has the current economic crunch impacted farmers markets?

Despite the recession, farmers markets are booming.  The Food Marketing Plant found that local and sustainable foods were a top buying trend for in each of the concluding 8 years. Economist Ken Meter of Crossroads Resource Center notes that, equally a business organization model, farmers markets are inherently flexible, which offers them protection from desperate economical changes. "They tin can adjust price and accommodate their product to get consumers' needs met. Retailers and big stores with big overheads and big expenses tin can't exercise that."

What happens to food left over at farmers markets?

Almost vendors have a adept sense of how much will sell on whatsoever given marketplace solar day, and prepare for it accordingly. Yet, if in that location are leftovers at the cease of market, vendors are gear up to recycle unsold produce into value-added products. For instance, excess tomatoes become lycopersicon esculentum sauce and apples get apple cider. Unsaleable produce tin can be composted to return nutrients dorsum to the farmers' fields. In addition, many markets also accept donation arrangements with local food banks, soup kitchens, and other social service agencies. Farmers at seven farmers markets making up the Neighborhood Farmers Market place Alliance in Seattle donated 44,000 pounds of fresh, local, quality produce to food banks in 2011. Through a partnership with a local health food store, farmers at the Webb Urban center Farmers Marketplace in Missouri donated enough fresh produce to serve 4,000 vegetarian and vegan meals to tornado relief volunteers working in the rut after the Joplin tornado last May. These are but a few examples of the ways farmers give back to the communities that host their markets.

How do farmers markets preserve farmland?

As the number of markets grow around the country, so do the number of farmers. For instance, Alabama had 17 registered farmers markets in 1999, involving 234 farmers. Fewer than ten years afterwards (2008), at that place were 102 farmers markets involving one,064 farmers in the same state. This ways that with the assistance of farmers markets, hundreds of farmers choose to stay in agriculture over another profession, thereby helping to preserve Alabama's farmland and rural traditions. Further, farmers markets allow immature farmers to network and learn from more experienced farmers. The Webb Metropolis Farmers Marketplace runs a mentoring program that partners their well-nigh experienced growers likewise as state extension horticulturists with younger farmers who want to improve quality and production practices. "Last week our inspection team visited iii farms and saw, for the showtime fourth dimension, drip irrigation in activeness on those farms", says Eileen Nichols, Market Manager. "Before starting the mentoring program, they either had no h2o in the fields or were trying to use small sprinklers."

Seven Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance (NFMA) markets in Seattle support 9,491 acres of farmland in diversified production, stewarding natural resources rather than selling out to industrial residential evolution. "This represents a four-fold increase in the concluding x years," says NFMA Executive Director Chris Curtis. Fifty-fifty smaller markets nationwide champion acreage in the hundreds, such equally Georgia's Lilburn Farmers Market, which supports 10 farms stewarding 500 acres of farmland.

Chicago's Green City Market place, established in 1999, required that all of its 2012 vendors possess i of eight 3rd-party certifications. Nearly half of the 44 farmers chose the USDA Organic Certification, ensuring clarity for consumers regarding chemic usage and contributing to the long-term health of farmland. Believed to exist the first of its kind to require such product-practice certification, the Greenish Metropolis Marketplace serves every bit a model for new markets and farmers alike.

I honey my farmers market. What tin I do to support it?

Purchasing as much as you lot can from your customs'due south farmers marketplace is the simplest style to demonstrate your back up. Some markets have "friends of…" programs where yous can contribute straight to the marketplace's operation and back up its educational programs. Others may be recruiting neighborhood volunteers or providers of in-kind design, writing, or bookkeeping services. But ask the marketplace managing director how yous tin can help best. Yous can also back up the Farmers Market Coalition's national efforts to strengthen farmers markets (through educational activity, leadership development, National Farmers Market Calendar week, and other technical aid programs) by making a secure on-line donation.

These FAQs were developed in collaboration with USDA Agricultural Marketing Service.

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