Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
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Europe, while citrus from nearby Mediterranean countries is dumped (La
Trobe andAcott 2000). But, of course, the full costs of transportation are not
included in the price. If true environmental costs were figured in, production
and consumption would occur in closer proximity. Using food miles as the
basis of our argument, we can see potential benefits with organic produc-
tion. Notably organic farmers should seek to distribute their crops locally
and regionally through direct marketing. In this way, organic agriculture
has the potential to take out the “middleman.” This keeps consumer prices
down and provides more profit for the farmers who grow the food.
D
irect Marketing
[76],
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Farmers' markets are one way to market organic crops locally. These are a
traditional means of bringing together community members and linking
local farmers to nearby consumers. Farmers' markets now range from in-
formal, once-a-week gatherings of ten farmers selling out of the back of
their pickup trucks to highly organized regional markets with a county fair
atmosphere of crafts, music, and food (which may be locally grown). Some
markets do not have a rule that a vendor must produce the crops they sell, so
ask at your market. There is now a resurgence across the United States in the
number and size of farmers' markets (Brown 2002). According to the USDA,
the number of farmers'markets in the United States has increased 79 percent
between 1994 and 2002.The2002 USDA National Farmers Market Directory
shows there are over 3,100 farmers' markets in operation, and undoubtedly
some smaller markets missed the tally (USDA-AMS 2002). Clearly farmers'
markets constitute an important direct marketing tool for many farmers,
whether as the sole outlet or as just one component in their total marketing
activities.
Research on farmers' markets has investigated characteristics of the ven-
dors (Lyson et al. 1995). In the state of New York, these researchers selected
nine markets and obtained information from 115 vendors who were identi-
fied as either full-time growers, part-time growers, or craftspeople. Across
all groups the two most important reasons for selling at a farmers' market
were not economic. The vendors simply enjoyed it and liked talking with
customers. Next came the economic reasons, of course: the vendors need the
income.While nearly all the full-time growers lived in rural areas, fewer than
half of the craftspeople did. Full-time growers noted that only 35 percent
of their gross sales are from the market, with the remainder mostly from
other direct market methods (30 percent) and wholesaling (19 percent).
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