The Farmers Market is Moving Online (theverge.com) 9
The pandemic has brought rampant growth for local food distribution platforms. From a report: For the past two decades at Crystal Organic Farm in Newborn, Georgia, a typical Saturday morning involved Nicolas Donck and, later, his partner in farming and in life, Jeni Jarrard, getting up at 4AM, loading up the truck with tables and tent and coolers and bins of eggs, peppers, okra, melons, herbs, flowers, or whatever was good that week, driving the hour to Atlanta, and spending a day in whatever weather -- including sweltering heat, pouring rain, or bitter cold -- before hauling the hour back, happy from feeding their community the food they spent all week growing, but also exhausted, and just a few hundred bucks richer for it. Then the pandemic came, and it hit farms hard. Supply chains, customer bases, and in some cases labor were upended. Small and medium-sized independent farms that relied on restaurant wholesale lost huge percentages of their business overnight. Some local CSAs folded. Some farming operations went belly up.
Others, however, found a new path online. Farmer-specific e-commerce apps and services -- among them, GrazeCart, Farmdrop, Farmigo, and GrownBy -- have cropped up in recent years, offering the direct-to-consumer sales, customizable CSAs, preorders and delivery that farmers markets haven't. When the pandemic began, this tech offered a new world of possibility. Donck and Jarrard were among the farmers who took the leap. When food distribution chains collapsed and people turned to local food, the pair made the snap decision to eliminate their old-school CSA program, lean into their relationships with two tech-based distribution platforms with which they'd already worked, and transition the rest of their business to sales and distribution platform Barn2Door. Now, late-pandemic farming looks like skipping the market, staying in bed for hours longer on Saturday, and enjoying a cup of coffee together -- all while quadrupling business by selling online. Does this ever-expanding landscape of food distribution tech make the job easy? Not in all ways, says Donck. "There's always room for improvement. For example, everybody wants cucumbers, but we don't have any right now," he says, lamenting the loss of a week's crop to a swarm of squash bugs. "[Our customers] will have to go somewhere else for those." But he and Jarrard agree, they don't intend to go back to the way things were before.
Others, however, found a new path online. Farmer-specific e-commerce apps and services -- among them, GrazeCart, Farmdrop, Farmigo, and GrownBy -- have cropped up in recent years, offering the direct-to-consumer sales, customizable CSAs, preorders and delivery that farmers markets haven't. When the pandemic began, this tech offered a new world of possibility. Donck and Jarrard were among the farmers who took the leap. When food distribution chains collapsed and people turned to local food, the pair made the snap decision to eliminate their old-school CSA program, lean into their relationships with two tech-based distribution platforms with which they'd already worked, and transition the rest of their business to sales and distribution platform Barn2Door. Now, late-pandemic farming looks like skipping the market, staying in bed for hours longer on Saturday, and enjoying a cup of coffee together -- all while quadrupling business by selling online. Does this ever-expanding landscape of food distribution tech make the job easy? Not in all ways, says Donck. "There's always room for improvement. For example, everybody wants cucumbers, but we don't have any right now," he says, lamenting the loss of a week's crop to a swarm of squash bugs. "[Our customers] will have to go somewhere else for those." But he and Jarrard agree, they don't intend to go back to the way things were before.
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Farmers markets also helped drive off customers (Score:3, Informative)
In 2020 of course, famers markets were pretty much just gone outright, and it started just as farmers market season was opening - that must have been a massive blow.
But then when farmers markets did return in 2021, They greatly limited customers, at least at first... ours required timed entry tickets with no many allowed in at once. They since lifted those restrictions, but that probably chased a number of farmers away from the market (or killed them outright).
That pretty much squashed my desire to go to farmers markets much at all (I used to go every week when they were on), now I just go once a month or less... instead I joined a CSA for vegetables, and a CSA for meats where I have pickups every other week or every month.
The CSA pickups are a good combo for the farmers since they can be done at a market, then they can pick up some additional sales as well but have a reason to be hauling so much out to the market as there are a lot of people going for sure to pick up stuff.
Look for CSA's around you if you can, it's a great idea to support local farming and if things go bad it's really helpful to have a good relationship with a local food producer.
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Where the hell do you guys live where farmers markets went out of business?
The farmers markets are still there, just some of the farmers are not.
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Where the hell do you guys live where farmers markets went out of business?
The farmers markets are still there, just some of the farmers are not.
They didn't run out of customers. They ran out of water.
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They didn't run out of customers. They ran out of water.
Not in Colorado, the eastern side is overflowing with water - every resecaur pretty much at max capacity. The drought is limited to the western half of the U.S [unl.edu]., and if you look at a map the eastern half of the U.S. is a pretty large place.
In fact it's basically mostly California, Oregon and Washington states, so you can chalk the drought up to karma.
Missing the whole point of the farmer's market (Score:2)
Whereas in the megamarts you get B grade fruits/veggies, limited selection, and chicks wearing clothes they should not be wearing.
Awww shit, I just broke a code of conduct somewhere and this will show up in a job search. Good thing I'm retired and don't care anymore.
Has its advantages (Score:2)
The farm near me did a lot better during the pandemic because people could do their shopping for fruits and veggies outside. A crowded grocery store looks a lot less appealing.
Of course they also sell to local stores so it's not their sole source of income, but they managed to expand quite a bit in the past year