Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T11:22:05.987Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Farmers' markets and the local community: Bridging the formal and informal economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2009

T.A. Lyson ,
G.W. Gillespie Jr  and
D. Hilchey
T.A. Lyson
Affiliation:
Professor of Rural Sociology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.
G.W. Gillespie Jr
Affiliation:
Senior Research Associate, Department of Rural Sociology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.
D. Hilchey
Affiliation:
Agricultural Development Specialist, Farming Alternatives Program, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.
Get access

Abstract

Farmers' markets are important but inadequately studied contributors to local economies. They allow individual entrepreneurs and their families to contribute to the economic life of local communities by providing goods and services that are not readily available through formal, mass markets, and they bring producers and consumers together to solidify bonds of local identity and solidarity. Using data collected from 115 farmers' market vendors in three regions of New York in 1993, we examined the characteristics and operations of three categories of vendors: full-time growers, part-time growers, and non-grower artisans and craftspeople. Drawing on theories of mass production and mass markets, we show how farmers' markets represent intermediate social structures that bridge the formal and informal sectors of the economy.

Keywords

direct marketingcommunity development
Type
Articles
Information
American Journal of Alternative Agriculture , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , September 1995 , pp. 108 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.DuPuis, E.M. 1993. Sub-national state institutions and the organization of agricultural resource use: The case of the dairy industry. Rural Sociology 58:440–460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Ferguson, J.L. 1985. General Foods Corporation: A Chronicle of Consumer Satisfaction. Newcomen Society of the United States, New York, N.Y.Google Scholar
3.Gillespie, G.W., Lyson, T.A., and Harper, D.. 1994. Diversified rural livelihood strategies among low-income farm families in the Northeast. Dept. of Rural Sociology, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N.Y.Google Scholar
4.Jenkins, N.H. 1994. To market, to market. Eating Well 4(6):77–81, 110.Google Scholar
5.Johnson, D.N., and Bragg, E.R.. 1994. 1994 National Farmers' Market Directory. Agricultural Marketing Service, U.S. Dept. of Agric, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
6.Keller, M. 1989. Rude Awakening: The Rise, Fall, and Struggle for Recovery of General Motors. Morrow, New York, N.Y.Google Scholar
7.Kent, R. 1992. Down-home clothes. Countryside Magazine, Nov.–Dec., p. 130.Google Scholar
8.Lifton, L.R. 1989. Rational firm behavior in response to environmental uncertainty: Collective marketing activities in the New York wine grape industry. Ph.D. Thesis, Field of Development Sociology. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N.Y.Google Scholar
9.Lyson, T.A., and Geisler, C.. 1992. Toward a second agricultural divide: The restructuring of American agriculture. Sociologia Ruralis 32:248–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10.Lyson, T.A., and Gillespie, G.W. Jr., (in press). Making more milk on fewer farms: Neoclassical and neostructural explanations of changes in dairy farming. Rural Sociology.Google Scholar
11.Markin, R.J. 1963. The supermarket: An analysis of growth, development and change. Bull. No. 36. Bureau of Economic and Business Research, Washington State Univ., Pullman.Google Scholar
12.McKenna, R. 1989. Who's Afraid of Big Blue? Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
13.National Municipal League. 1915. The relation of the city to its food supply. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
14.Perrow, C. 1993. Small firm networks. In Swedberg, R. (ed). Explorations in Economic Sociology. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, N.Y. pp. 377–402.Google Scholar
15.Piore, M., and Sabel, C.. 1984. The Second Industrial Divide. Basic Books, New York, N.Y.Google Scholar
16.Sabel, C. 1993. Studied trust: Building new forms of cooperation in a volatile economy. In Swedberg, R. (ed). Explorations in Economic Sociology. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, N.Y. pp. 104–144.Google Scholar
17.Shafer, R.D. 1989. Hearings before the Committee on Small Business. 106th Congress, 2nd session, No. 100–74. U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, D.C. pp. 98–108.Google Scholar
18.Standard and Poors. 1994. Industry Surveys. New York, N.Y.Google Scholar
19.Sullebarger, B.A. 1983. New York State farmers' markets, key to urban and rural preservation. New York State Council of the Arts, Albany.Google Scholar
20.U.S. Dept. of Commerce. 1967. County Business Patterns 1965. Bureau of the Census. U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
21.U.S. Dept. of Commerce. 1993. County Business Patterns 1991. Bureau of the Census. U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
22.U.S. Dept. of Commerce. 1994. 1992 Census of Agriculture. Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
23.Walsh, W.I. 1986. The Rise and Decline of the Great Atlantic Tea Company. L. Stuart, Secaucus, New Jersey.Google Scholar
24.Walton, S. 1992. Sam Walton, Made in America: My Story. Doubleday, New York, N.Y.Google Scholar
25.West, G.A. 1927. Report on a survey of the Rochester Public Market and marketing problems in the City of Rochester, N.Y. Rochester, N.Y.Google Scholar