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Consumer interactions and influences on farmers' market vendors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2007

Alan R. Hunt
Alan R. Hunt*
Affiliation:
Agricultural Policy Analyst, Northeast-Midwest Institute, 218 D Street SE, Washington, DC 20003, USA.
*
*Corresponding author: ahunt@nemw.org
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Abstract

Consumers interact with each other and vendors on a social level at farmers' markets. Some consumer social interactions, such as enjoying the market, talking with farmers about seasonal products and making a trip to the market a family event, are significant and positive influences on spending at farmers' markets as identified through a survey of 216 shoppers at eight farmers' markets in Maine. Vendors at these markets were also surveyed, with 65 of the 81 vendors being farmers. Through direct farmer/consumer relations, farmers indicated a willingness to reduce chemical inputs to meet customer demands, suggesting that customer interaction has the potential to affect environmental quality. By examining the linkages between producers and consumers at a direct market—often embedded with a sense of local identity—there is the potential to better understand social interactions that can support the economic and environmental sustainability of local agriculture.

Keywords

farmers' marketslocalmarketingopen spacefarm viabilityembeddednesscluster analysis
Type
Research Article
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , March 2007 , pp. 54 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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