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It’s because there they can sell them what they actually cost to produce instead of being forced to sell at a loss by the food industry.
That’s not an incentive for people to shop there. Grocery store prices are already bad enough. No one wants to pay extra money for a more limited selection.
It is an incentive, just not price. People can choose to support a food system that provides a better living, less environmental damage, and other priorities. More people could choose that if they had more disposable income and I don’t fault people for defaulting to price when making purchasing decisions.
I for one prefer paying workers directly instead of supporting leeches
I also much prefer the system that leads the farmer to kill himself. I can save money!
Farmers aren’t selling at a loss to companies in 99% of circumstances.
I very seriously mean this: source?
Im assuming this is America, which has an overwhelming abundance of arable land and food. So is there any real data that backs up what you’re saying? This is always the traditional excuse for farmers markets being overpriced relative to grocery stores, but they were not always from my pov. So: source? What should a tiny thing of strawberries cost?
Economy of scale is a real thing.
It’s just the scale of it. And people there are willing to pay more
I guess I just live somewhere with real farms? There are 3 weekly farmers markets near me. All of them are something like 1/2 to 2/3 of the cost, and at least triple the quality of the grocery store.
Same.
Also my local non-big-corpo supermarket has a whole section for local farmer stuff year round.
I’m literally surrounded by farms and the store is cheaper. Unless it’s upick. When you pick it yourself it’s crazy cheap
Even with upick, it’s more expensive. The cost per pint of blueberries or strawberries we pick on the local farm is way more expensive than the grocery store. I guess they’re charging us for the experience.
Same thing for apples. $25 for a peck. We went to the store after and the same size bag was 99 cents.
You’re getting apples for 10 cents a pound at a grocery store?! Nah there can’t be right
I’m curious, is your farmer’s market like a grocery store or more like a bunch of kiosks in a central location once a week?
It’s a bunch of stands from local farmers and small businesses. They take up two streets in downtown every Saturday morning
That’s unfortunate. That’s more like a flea market being sold as a farmers market. An actual farmers market is just a grocery store with local products.
You know, some of them were just reselling grocery store stuff as their own.
I have a farm market near me. It’s basically a small grocery store. They stock most everything you’d want at least in small quantities. The source as much as they can locally, but a lot of it is still from wholesalers. When something is local and in season, they note it’s local and price it cheap AF, They want to get it out of there before it rots.
If you pay attention to the growing season, you can make out pretty damn well. I bought a crate of Jalapenos there last year for $25. I picked some, added some to salads, made and froze a bunch of poppers and still ended up trashing the last couple inches of the box. Still saved a ton.
I make jams from fruits that are in season. They are dirt cheap and making jam in bulk is way easier. They make for great Christmas gifts.
My towns farmers market has horribly high prices and realistically is mostly crafts and other products. It’s just not worth it, except maybe the Indian food buffet and the meadery!
However a fairly short drive away are actual farms with farm stands that have much better products for a much more reasonable price (when in season). One of them also does pies and while expensive, are so amazing it’s well worth it
i never even considered this. ugh.
I went to the co-op the other day, and they don’t even stock mostly local any more.
Found a booth that was selling vegetables from the US. The market refused to kick them out.
Some vendors and farmers markets are better than others. The quality is typically better, and seasonal and local produce that lasts longer and tastes better.
I’m fortunate to live in a city with multiple farmers markets, I found a great farmers market that restaurants often buy from.
Sometimes it is because you are just not visiting a real farmers market…
and sometimes it’s because farming in the area hasn’t been competitive in decades, and cannot keep up with imports even if they cut out middle men and even if they get subsidised like hell, making you wish the government would just rip the band aid of instead of tying up workers in this industry without a future for another decade, food security my ass, what’s the point of that if we aren’t feeding people at all and instead turning perfectly good vegetables into bio-fuel since energy companies pay more for them then our starving population can?
This is dumb and the amount of people upvoting is a perfect demonstration of why we got a second Trump administration.
Yeah! Funny stuff is dumb!
Listen, maybe I’m jaded, but this just feels like one more lame-ass attempt to cram more propaganda about the “efficiency of big business” down our throats.
The produce at the farmer’s markets in my city costs more than the produce at the grocery store. I still buy it because it comes from farms who don’t use pesticides and it tastes better, but the main point this post is making is often correct.
Your take on the upvotes causing fascism is wild.
Funfact about germany:
the gov gives money to supermarkets when they buy organic products as an incentive to stock up on less conventional products.
not to the people producing it. to the supermarket.
against which we then have to compete
The middlemen exploiting the farmers and putting them in debt. Farmers exploiting immigrant labor to try to make ends meet.
It’s not really hard to work out if your head isn’t up your butt.
There are “farmer’s markets” and then there are farmer’s markets. Riding your cargo bike to the once-a-week market in the urban hipster neighborhood’s park to pay $5 for a tomato is not the same thing as driving out to the actual state-run farmer’s market and spending $5 for a bushel.
Compare:
Sometimes “Farmer’s Markets” sell wholesale and even store bought goods for higher prices.
Sometimes people lie about stuff to make money?? Good god, I hope corporate grocery chains don’t learn about this ancient and secret power! Imagine what they might do!
Seriously, that article kinda buries the point about how few people doing it they were able to find - yeah it was happening, but it’s absolutely not some common behavior you can expect at a farmer’s market.
(Edit:) Other great quotes from that article:
In California, for example, each stand is inspected and vendors are required to display a certificate that outlines the produce they grow. No reselling of wholesale or out-of-state produce is permitted and markets are inspected by the state on a quarterly basis. Vendors who are caught breaking the rules can face suspensions, fines or even jail time.
Ed Williams, the man in charge of inspecting markets in Los Angeles County, says the system is important to prevent fraud and ensure “the consumer is not getting ripped off.”
Seems like the conclusion of the article is “we (canada) need to get our shit together, look even the US has this figured out”
I live in a major metropolitan center and the farmers market downtown happens once a week.
The price can actually be quite good but you have to have reasonable expectations. If you see strawberries and there are snow banks outside well… Do the math. On the flip side if something’s in season you can often get a good deal.
A farmer’s market is not a grocery store so it does require a bit of savvy. If you see apples and it’s June those are probably last year’s apples from cold storage etc.
I don’t particularly like the notion that it’s unreasonable to expect to be able to get healthy food at affordable prices without being required to use a car…
Or the conflation of using a cargo bike with being some impractical urban hipster.
I mean, I am an urban hipster with a cargo bike… or would be, if I were hip. That part of the comment was self-satire. (Also, I did not say anything about it being “impractical!”)
As for your first notion, I don’t like it either. Now, to be fair, in addition to those farmers markets and “farmers markets” we do also have regular grocery stores that I can also get to by bike. But still, my comment was about factual reality and my actual experience of how it works in my area, and whether I like it or not doesn’t change it.
What am I gonna do with a bushel of to tomatoes?
But, seriously, my biggest issue with buying from “real” farmer’s markets is the gas and time I spend getting there and the ease of buying WAY more than I will realistically be able to actually eat before it goes bad. It’s so easy to buy too much (For me anyway, that 's probably just a me problem).
Preservation (canning, etc) is the usual answer, but don’t underestimate the power of making a shitload of food and giving it away to your neighbors.
Wow. This is a true shit take.
What’s wrong with it? It’s somewhat aggressively worded, but it seems like a reasonable thing to be annoyed about.
…because the sheer honesty of it offends your delicate sensitivities?
The farmers around here apparently make artisanal bread, pheasant pasties and Greek olives.
What’s veg?
I live in an agricultural area and food from farmers markets is usually cheaper than at the store. But we have tons of farmers markets around here so maybe thats a factor.
