A successful farmers market: identifying adaptable measures for diverse markets

Jennifer L. Ringwood

Farmers markets (FM) in Washington State are incredibly diverse in how, where, and why they operate. The merits by which a FM should be judged depend heavily on the goals of participants--vendors, shoppers, market sponsors, and the community. A low-income, rural market founded to improve access to healthy, affordable food may function differently from an urban market with food, artisans, and entertainment. Markets evolve according to founding motivation, community context, and available resource. Thus, FMs may look very different from one another and "succeed" by meeting different goals. Multiple measures of success, adaptable to diverse markets, are needed to serve as performance indicators for individual market self-assessment and FM research. I examine the current FM literature to identify concepts, measures, and determinants of "successful" FMs. Using original survey data from Washington FM managers, I model total vendor participation, a frequently used measure of success, and farm vendor participation, a more specific measure, to identify FM characteristics associated with participation. I find total vendor participation is positively associated with market bylaws, multiple market days per week, site amenities, multiple paid market staff, and shopper participation, and negatively associated with a farm, food, or jointly-motivated market mission. Further, farm vendor participation is positively associated with specific rules prioritizing local farmers and prohibiting re-selling, season length, and market timing. I explore two new measures of FM success--farm vendor retention and market economic sustainability--which are invariant to scale and potentially appropriate for FMs with general or farmer-specific goals. Vendor retention is one indicator of a FM's success in establishing a consistent market outlet, but proves difficult to model on an aggregate level for Washington FMs. Market sustainability measures address the present capacity and long-term stability of a FM organization. Specifically, I consider financial self-reliance, staffing structure and compensation, and market site long term availability. Preliminary exploration suggests such measures should be used in combinations appropriate for specific markets. Further study of these sustainability measures, especially at an aggregate level, is critical to addressing challenges and supporting the long-term goals of Washington FMs.

A successful farmers market: identifying adaptable measures for diverse markets

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