Reasons to Support Your Local Farmers’ Market
Colourful stalls brimming with fresh produce, neighbours chatting over baskets of vegetables, and the tempting aroma of baked goods – you don’t get this in supermarkets.
Farmers’ markets are more than just places to buy food. They offer a direct link between people and the source of their food, and every pound spent there ripples through the community and beyond. Supporting your local farmers’ market brings real benefits to you, your town, and the environment.
Farmers need a government license to sell at markets (also buy liability insurance). Know food hygiene rules and read up on food safety for people and pets.
If selling flowers and plants, learn about pet-safe gardens, to educate customers. Never face indoor foliage to gardens, to help stop bird strikes.
Just bin allium scraps (onion, garlic, scallions, chives, leeks) along with rhubarb and citrus scraps, as the acids may harm compost creatures.
Shorter Supply Chains and Peak Freshness
When you buy fruit and veg from a supermarket, it might have travelled hundreds of miles and spent days in storage. At a farmers’ market, produce often goes from the ground to the stall in under a day. Short journeys keep nutrients locked in and flavours bold, just as nature intended. You taste the difference—and your health feels it, too.
As an example, if you buy ‘local carrots’ from a major supermarket, they may well have been grown locally. But most don’t then go straight to supermarket shelves. They often travel hundreds of miles to a central distribution house, sit there in a big fridge, then travel hundreds of miles back again, and are then sold as ‘local carrots!’
Seasonal Eating and Variety
Shopping locally means eating what’s grown nearby and in season. Local farmers bring what’s harvested that week, so there’s always something new to try.
Your meals reflect the changing seasons, providing natural variety and a steady stream of nutrients. Eating seasonally also helps reconnect you with the natural food cycle. It’s also less boring!
Direct Impact on Small-Scale Farmers
Every purchase at a farmers’ market puts money straight into the hands of small-scale growers. Without middlemen, farmers can earn fair prices for their hard work. This support keeps local farms running and encourages the next generation to stay on the land.
A recent report by Sustain found that the average farmer growing 1kg of carrots gets little more than 1p in profit, despite them costing 19p or so to grow, and the carrots selling for around 69p a bag. That means supermarkets are making more profit than the farmers.
Keeping Money in the Community
Supermarkets may well bring in ‘jobs’ and ask you to put tokens in community charity boxes. But it’s far more efficient to support local communities, by shopping at independent shops and services that are run by locally-owned places.
This not only brings better-paid and more stable jobs, but keeps money within communities. For instance, a farmers’ market likely is rented by the council or a social enterprise. Either means the rent is going towards making your town a nicer place, rather than the profits from selling food helping shareholders far away.
Local farmer traders probably eat their lunch locally, and whoever runs the farmers’ market will order the sign from a local signwriter, then have a pub beverage at the end of the day. Just spending £5 a day locally in a town, can generate millions of local town income.
Reduced Food Miles and Lower Emissions
As stated above, most supermarket food (even if grown locally) is then ferried miles to central distribution houses. This uses lorries (more road traffic) and fridges use oil.
Farmers’ markets often have a quick trip from farm to stall, and there are no lights or fridges, just fresh loose food that you can stock up on, then put in your reusable grocery bag, to take home and cook!
Most farmers’ market food is also organic. This means less pesticides (good for your health and the planet), but also less oil (most chemicals are based around fossil fuels).
Lower Packaging Waste
Taking your own reusable bags is positively welcomed at farmers’ markets. Most produce is sold loose, just like greengrocers used to do. So if you live or cook alone (and only want say one carrot or organic apple), it’s absolutely fine. You don’t have to buy the whole bag.
And less plastic in communities helps to reduce litter, and reduces pollution in our countryside, rivers and seas.
And as most supermarket packaging adds around a third to the cost of food, not having packaging means your produce is usually a lot cheaper too.
Meeting the People Who Grow Your Food
A worrying survey among young schoolchildren, found that many had no idea where their food came from. Some had no idea that potatoes grew underground, and even thought cheese grew on trees!
Taking children to farmers’ markets, lets them meet the very people who grew the food. They can ask questions on how tomatoes grow, which produce is seasonal, and parents and adults can even swap tips, with the farmers who actually harvested the carrots from the soil.
These simple exchanges build trust, and turn shopping for food into a shared experience. A farmer can tell you why various apple varieties taste difference, and why pollination matters.
It’s a real-world classroom. Can you imagine asking a server at a high-end deli, which organic produce is best loved by bees? A farmer would likely know!
Two Examples of Thriving Farmers’ Markets
Ithaca Farmers Market (in New York State) is good inspiration on how to run a successful market, held over weekends where shoppers fill baskets with fresh produce and handcrafted wines. The book offers tips on growing seasons and preserving heirloom varieties.
Surbiton Farmers’ Market (Surrey) has raised over £60,000 for local shelters, hospices and carer networks by match-funding money raised and offering a free stall for charity volunteers. Thanks to them, a local cancer ward has been refurbished, blind people have gone on day trips, carers enjoyed an ice-skating trip and a homeless shelter received books.
