I think Farmer’s Markets are great. Not because I shop at them much (I find them too expensive), not for environmental reasons (I don’t buy into the whole ‘food miles’ thing - its a very bad measure of environmental impact), but because its entrepreneurial.
Producers and organisers have seen a gap in the market and have gone for it, often with great success.
There is a large constituency of people who for whatever reason like to shop at farmer’s markets.
When I occasionally shop at one its due to products that supermarkets don’t provide (the apple juice we used to get from the now closed local market was fantastic and the apples were just as good and cheaper than the supermarket).
Others like the aspect of it coming fairly directly from the producers, other buy into the environmental argument and many people probably have their own reasons or combination of reasons.
Whatever the reasons, Farmer’s Markets have (re?) discovered some things which people value and are willing to pay for (in money and time and travel) and hopefully making themselves a profit.
The essential thing is to keep innovating. Supermarkets and other shops have seen some of the things which farmer’s markets have been doing and adopted aspects, farmer’s markets must adapt to these changes. It will probably mean less profit (as occurs with every entrepreneurial effort after others adopt the methods) so new ideas will need to be tried.
