Demand for Local Food Is Growing, But Farmers Markets Aren’t

Kristin Appenbrink
Kristin Appenbrink
Kristin is the co-founder of Part Time Vegan and Silent Book Club. As a former editor at Real Simple, she is compulsively organized and loves solving people's problems. She has a weakness for desserts, especially ice cream.
published Mar 17, 2015
pinterest
comments
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
Post Image
(Image credit: Jayme Henderson)

Even though consumers are still clamoring for locally produced food, NPR has declared that we’ve hit the peak of farmers markets.

Why? Turns out there are better ways for farmers to get their food to your tables.

Quartz looked at two of the more popular ways for farmers to connect with consumers: farm-to-school programs and digital marketplaces like Farmigo.

While farmers markets and CSAs put a lot of the onus on the farmers to sell and market their goods, farm-to-school programs enable them to have a guaranteed consumer for their produce. Not to mention the fact that it’s good for the students.

Apps like Farmigo, on the other hand, make it easy on consumers to shop local producers all in one go and then pick up their groceries at a specific site like they would a CSA. It makes it easier on farmers because they aren’t having to truck in more goods than they will sell or spend time working a market stall.

→ Read more: Beyond Farmers Markets: The Future of Local Food in America from Quartz