Too Many Farmers Markets -- Can They Be Sustained?

It seems like farmers markets have been popping up all over the place, which has become quite a double-edged sword. In the San Diego area alone, there are currently forty-nine markets in which you can participate throughout an entire week. The people who attend this see it as amazing, since it allows them the option to visit it and pick up their produce. However, the people organizing them have yet to understand the ramifications of their actions.

The problem is that there are becoming too many. When I was growing up, the farmers market had two purposes for the customers. The first is that it was a way to bond with your local growers; you met the people growing your food, you learned about the processes, and you understood how the agricultural economy functioned. The second was that it was something special. Families made it a point to visit the farmers market; it only came once a week, and they knew that. If you missed it, you had to wait until the following week. You couldn't just run to the next farmers market because it was an hour or two away. They only had one or two every week per county, which made it something fun and productive to do.

Having seen the potential dollar signs from being a market manager, they've been popping up everywhere. No longer are they primarily farmers or people with produce, but now they contain expensive souvenirs, crafts, and clothing. They've become the attractions for tourists, rather than the bonding place for growers and consumers. People barely question what they're buying, unless they think it costs too much. "I can buy this in the grocery store for $1.50. Why should I pay $2 for it?" They rarely stop to consider they're supporting a local buyer and paying a small fee - if that is indeed what it should be considered - to have access to that person.

Something has got to give; it's not possible to sustain so many markets at once. On a Saturday in San Diego, people can attend a market in Carlsbad, Del Mar, Pacific Beach, Vista, Poway, Scripps Ranch, Ramona, City Heights, and Little Italy. Some of these overlap regions, such as Vista and Carlsbad, where there are a handful of the same vendors. If I live between the two, I can pick between them and choose based on my schedule. While this is convenient as a consumer, this isn't viable for the vendors.

Another problem falls primarily for the growers. Growers are always competing. Always. Unlike everyone else, there is competition. Some are certified organic, which raises the price of their produce; others are conventional farmers, which keeps theirs cheaper. The people who sell fish, prepared foods, crafts, or clothing don't have to worry about this. Are you selling kettle corn? Well, no one else is; you have the monopoly on it for five hours. Selling seashell necklaces? Same thing. No one else is, so you're going to be the only person anyone is going to talk to about purchasing one. Selling zucchini? Sorry, but there are up to four other people selling something identical.

In reality, that happens at all farmers markets; there are always people selling the same thing. The difference is that they tend to do better when people only have access to markets once or twice a week instead of twenty times a week; if someone sold out of something earlier in the day, then someone else is likely to have it elsewhere. There's not going to be an extreme difference in product, but it changes the support system. It essentially forces people to get to know all of the available local farmers, rather than just pick and choose.

That isn't to say the idea of the farmers market is bad. Like everything else, it's lost and needs to be regained. The hard times have hit everyone, so they're all looking for some way to make any money in order to survive. As a result, a lot of places are going to come crashing down. The more markets there are, the slower they will become. Even having started with 500 people in one day, it will dwindle to 20 when more and more markets are made available. They need to become regional, making them special once more. They need to support the farmers again, as they did once upon a time.

Falling in line with supporting the grower, there needs to be a percentage fee for everyone. So many of the markets I have worked in have had a flat $20 fee for anyone under $200. That would be great, except that hurts me more than it hurts you. If I can only make $50, you've just left me with $30; I just made enough to pay for the tank of gas that it took me to get there. I can't buy much of anything to keep my farm going with that profit. And where does the money go? Some of the managers have to pay the people who ask for their help to manage the markets; others just pocket the money straight away after paying a minimal fee for the use of an area.

The whole system is just broken. No one is looking at the venture of farmers markets with the two mindsets they should be: reality and business. They're not seeing how the markets are just eating at each other, and they're not seeing how it's hurting their grower-vendors. It's just going to continue to grow until some collapse under a lack of customers, because there are too many markets catering in the same area.