Farmers’ market survey aims to better understand importance of local food

The 2020 National Farmers’ Market Manager Survey launches in March in cooperation with the Agricultural Marketing Service.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service will mail the survey to approximately 15,000 farmers’ market managers through April.

The survey will help the farmers’ market industry, policymakers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture better understand customer demand of local foods from a market manager’s perspective.

The data gathered from the survey will be used to consider potential expansion opportunities, to target access to nutritional foods and to market nutritional education. The data will also measure access to local and organic foods and find opportunities where USDA can strengthen community involvement.

AMS will conduct the outreach to the market managers through their contacts in the Farmers’ Market Coalition.

To participate, a farmers’ market must have been in operation in 2019. AMS gathered a preliminary list of all the market managers in the USDA Farmers’ Market Directory and conducted additional outreach to gather additional names and verify the markets.