About Farmers Markets
Farmers' Markets bring you the freshest and most nutritious fruits and vegetables.
There's no better place to buy fruits and vegetables than at a Farmers' Market. Period.
What's inarguable is that farmers’ markets offer food of superior quality, help support smaller-scale farmers in an environment that's more and more difficult for anyone not doing industrial-scale agriculture, and increase the amount of local food available to shoppers. All of this despite still-inadequate recognition and lack of government support.
Farmers' markets are not just markets. They’re educational systems that teach us how food is raised and why that matters.
"Producer-only" farmers’ markets, as opposed to markets that sell food from anywhere, are really the ideal. The organizations that run these tend to be nonprofits, and often use volunteers to keep going. In many cases they are mission-driven: organizers want to make sure small farms remain viable and that we — nonfarmers — have access to good local food. At this stage of the game, there is no higher cause.
The quality of produce in producer-only markets — that is, places where people sell what they grow — is phenomenal, especially right now.
Cheaper
In 74% of the communities examined in Anthony Flaccavento’s price comparison study of Appalachia and the Southeast, produce was less expensive at farmers markets compared to supermarkets, on average by 22%.
Open Year Round
In 2010, about 15% of all farmers markets were open in the winter months, and the average seasonal farmers market in the U.S. is open for approximately four and a half months of the year.
Supporting Local Businesses
A 2010 study of the Easton Farmers Market in Pennsylvania, for example, found that 70% of farmers market customers are also shopping at downtown businesses, spending up to an extra $26,000 each week.
Closer and Fresher
According to a survey conducted by Farmers Markets Today magazine, more than 85% of farmers market vendors traveled fewer than 50 miles to sell at a farmers market in 2008.