Benefits of hosting a farmers market in your community

Everyone has to eat. Social interaction around food is a universal activity with tremendous power to connect people with each other and with the sources of their sustenance. The cultural tradition of farmers markets is a particularly powerful way for consumers and growers to connect around food. Markets offer a combination of social and economic activity that enhances communities and is unparalleled by almost any other community activity.

Empirical evidence proves that, at a minimum, for every dollar spent at a farmers market another dollar is spent at the businesses adjacent to the market. More often than not a market’s economic multiplier is closer to $3 for every dollar spent at market. A valuable tool to gage the economic multiplier for the market in your community can be found at the Market Umbrella website: Market Umbrella is a non-profit farmers market organization based in New Orleans.

In addition to the “economic stimulus package” that farmers markets provide, markets also stimulate community building. People of diverse backgrounds, cultures, experiences, and economic profiles gather around a common theme and in so doing develop a shared perspective that benefits us all. Through this sharing we build simple sustainable activities that greatly enhance our health, our local environment, our local support networks, and even our local politics. Like families, communities who “eat” together thrive together.

And the “icing on the cake” is that the community doesn’t bear the principal financial burden for this work -- vendors in the market do. However, every market that has community support at multiple levels grows faster, becomes more vibrant, and achieves their goals far more effectively than those that do not. A great deal of information about all aspects of farmers markets can be found in an organized fashion at www.farmersmarketcoalition.org The Farmers Market Coalition is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to strengthening farmers markets across the United States.

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