After standing in line for forty minutes at a supermarket, Americans finally get to pay for the food and leave. Unfortunately, the food is anything but fresh or healthy and has traveled very far to get to the final destination. Farmers Markets (FMs) are an old tradition that has barely survived this long due to the rise of the industrial farms and supermarkets. They provide the easiest way to get very fresh and healthy food, but prices can be very high at times. Even though food from a Farmers Market is more expensive, it provides an easy way to get fresh and healthy produce while helping the farmer and the community it represents. Farmers Markets should be promoted because they provide fresh and healthy food and support the farmer directly …show more content…
According to Time, “The latest research finds that the amounts of farmers’ market vouchers don’t contribute to a meaningful increase in fruit and vegetable intake, and that prices for produce were lower at grocery stores than at the markets.” this shows that it is significantly cheaper to purchase your produce at a grocery store rather than a FM. Also, these markets are only open for a few months a year due to winter, so they can be unreliable at times. According to FMC, “Some markets are only open in the spring, summer, and early autumn.” Since they are only open a few months a year and can unreliable at times. Although farmers markets are expensive and unreliable at times, they are still a better alternative to supermarkets and grocery stores. According to Joel Salatin on page 185 of The Omnivore's Dilemma, “Whenever I hear people say clean food is expensive, I tell them it's actually the cheapest food you can buy." Joel Salatin believes that in the long run, it will cost you less because the food is healthier and will save you money in doctor visits. Although FMs may be expensive and unreliable at times, it is a good price to pay for the food you are getting and will save you money in some
Hobby farms are on the rise, thanks to the growing popularity of terms such as “organic”, “free-range” and “sustainable farming”, to name a few. People are getting more health-conscious by the day, and are becoming more selective when it comes to buying fresh vegetables, meat and poultry.
Farmers’ market produce could fall in one of two marketing channel structures the first one being direct channel. This is so because the Farmers market can sell their produce
Besides the environmental factors, another point would be that small farms benefit greatly when consumers buy locally grown foods. Small, locally owned farms
The customers that buy from local sustainable farms know how their food is grown and harvested. At the Polyface farm Joel does not have walls on his slaughter house, this way people can come and see how their next meal is killed in a humane way. The people “don’t need USDA to ensure that the meat they’re buying has been humanely and cleanly processed,”(208) because they can watch with their own eyes how the meat is slaughtered. Industrial industries protest that selling produce locally can not get food to everyone around the US. Shipping produce across the country effects the foods taste. Also when customers go to the far, to pick out their own food they get the produce fresh and local. Local farmers on sustainable farms will make a bigger profit out of their produce because they do not have to put all their money into buying chemicals and fertilizers, this is good for the produce and farmers.
Improving the access and availability of high quality fruit and vegetable at retail stores in underserved communities. Underserved communities are communities who have inadequate access and availability of high quality fruit and vegetable. This can be achieved through attracting new food stores to underserved communities through financial incentives, improving public transportation to supermarkets or influencing business owners to provide transportation for customers. In addition encouraging owners of business to update the facilities at existing stores to enable them to increase the supply of shelf space dedicated to high quality and affordable fruit and vegetable at existing
America’s vast food supply has increased. Foods that were once hard to come by can be found in almost all the grocery stores across the nation. In the article “What’s Eating America”, by Michael Pollan, who is a professor of journalism, explains how the bounty of food came about. He writes about the creation of synthetic fertilizer and how it was used to fertilize crops and essentially make all the foods today. He writes about the harmful effects that are occurring as a result of the chemically made fertilizer. In another article called written by Katherine Spriggs, a student from Stanford University, she writes about the benefits of buying local versus becoming dependent on the import of food. She feels that buying from local farms
Local farmers markets give back to the community from the income that is made from selling produce which helps boost the community’s economy. “ Eating local means more for the local economy. “ ( Source A ) Purchasing local foods from the community are a spectacular way to provide for a community’s economy. “ According to a study by the New Economics Foundation in London a dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. “ ( Source A ) Local food markets are better for the economy because the income would go to the community unlike a big chain supermarket where the income made in that establishment would go to a corporate office, none of the income would be put towards the
The career I would like to pursue would be farming. Farming is not an easy thing to do there are multiple risks you must take. To be a good farmer you must have knowledge of advanced technology and keep up to date with the latest and greatest technology in order to progress and must also have business skills as well as hands on experience on a farm. Farmers salary will never be the same year to year, the market will determine when and how much you get for your product, if there is a surplus of corn form the previous year then the market price will be very low, making your income also low. The median annual income of most farmers and ranchers was about $61,000 in 2010, according to the U.S. bureau of Labor Statistics. The top ten percent of
In places where there exist no supermarkets available within a reasonable distance, there exists a decrease in the amount of food access. In the locations that do provide access to food, such as local grocers, prices will be higher, food will not be as fresh, and the healthiness of the foods will decrease (Pascale, Jaime, & Fernando, 2017, pp. 1842-1843). However, opening supermarkets forces local grocers to close because they cannot compete with the supermarkets, and only the people who have transportation available will be able to shop at the supermarkets. When a supermarket is not available, the problem may not be that there exists no available food, but that the available food is unhealthy and expensive. The smaller-scale local grocers may not have the ability or financial support to stock healthy items, instead stocking cheaper, less healthy foods (Wright et al., 2016, p. 172).
To conclude, our current way of agricultural life is not sustainable. The article “What’s for supper” has made me realize that if I hope for a better future for generations to come I should support a locally sourced lifestyle. This article is an eye opener to me and proved to me the importance of supporting locally grown produce. Locally grown produce supports the environment as well as jobs for people in the community. The current system takes a toll on every species on the planet. Humans are overproducing on a massive scale and are wasting close to half of our supplies and
Astyk and Newton, in their essay: The Rich Get Richer, the Poor Go Hungry, explains that “around the world, industrial agriculture has consolidated land ownership into the hands of smaller and smaller populations” destroying local self-sufficiency (518). Individuals are no longer able to grow own fresh, healthy foods to feed their family. They now depend on industrially grown crops and processed foods loaded with chemicals for food. Additionally, because of the farm policy, farmers that continue to cultivate healthy produce like fruits and vegetables get little or no government support, thus the higher prices of fresh produce seen today at our grocery stores.
My entire life I have been on the farm with my dad and grandpa. When I was too little to drive the tractors I would sit and just ride around with them. Now that I am old enough to drive them, I have a lot of experience, and as a farmer working with your family and friends you hire you can take some days off if needed without getting in trouble.
Feeding everyone in the nation is a very hard process, but our farmers get it done. Our food comes farms where farmers make sure it’s okay to eat and ripe and healthy. Local farmers tend to have great quality food. They make sure the people in their town are satisfied.
Markets are prevalent all over the world. They may vary on what they have to offer and how they are set up, but what is similar amongst them is the experience, the sheer amount of diversity, and sense of community that one gets from walking through a market. The experience of a market goes far beyond the food itself. All of your senses are bombarded as you cruise along. The smell, the people, the never-ending discovery of what a place like this has to offer. As Tzipi Livni, one of the most powerful women in Israel once said, "I prefer jeans to a suit, sneakers to high heels, markets to malls”. She explains in few words that simplicity is key in life and markets are no exceptions.
By increasing the number of farmers markets in cities and towns, it is believable that many people will be encouraged to eat healthier. There are many benefits from having local farmers markets, such as; affordable pricing, and knowledge on what healthy foods there are for us. Not only do farmers markets sell great nutritious healthy products, they also have low costs on many of their products. These low costs are due to the fact that everything coming out of farmers markets are usually locally grown and they are coming directly from farmers. There is no need to raise prices on food like regular markets do because of transportation. By them having access to cheap healthy foods there is no way they can pass off the offer and trade