American Farmland Trust’s Inaugural America’s Favorite Farmers Markets
Contest Celebrates Locally Treasured Markets that Connect Farms, Food and Communities

The summer months are best enjoyed when paired with freshly picked regional produce, and one of the best ways to indulge in the season’s best local food is by shopping at a farmers market. “Farmers markets supply the great seasonal foods we love,” says Julia Freedgood, managing director of American Farmland Trust’s Growing Local initiative. “And they help consumers better understand where their food comes from—fostering a closer relationship between farmers and communities.”

Over the summer, American Farmland Trust embarked on a national campaign to celebrate local farmers markets. More than 800 farmers markets registered for our inaugural America’s Favorite Farmers Markets contest—vying not only for the title in large, medium, and small categories, but also for a shipment of special No Farms No Food tote bags to distribute to market customers. Nearly farmers market customers went online to AFT’s website to cast their votes for their favorite farmers markets.

The contest helped us bring national attention to many locally treasured farmers markets, which play a pivotal role in keeping their local farmers in business. By the conclusion of the contest in August during National Farmers Market Week, hundreds of stories in the media called attention to the contest and its participating farmers markets. Market managers and shoppers alike enjoyed the
opportunity to make their voices heard about the benefits that farmers markets provide to their communities. As a market manager from Pennsylvania told us, “Even though we didn’t win, the contest was a great way to get our customers involved and to show them that we are proactively  making a difference by joining the market movement around the country!”

Small Category

Collingswood Farmers Market, Collingswood, New Jersey

Named a “classic” town by its regional planning commission, Collingswood, New Jersey, is a place that builds for the future by restoring the past. Its farmers market has staked out a unique location in Collingswood’s bustling downtown, setting up shop by the raised train track
that carries customers along the Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO) line to nearby Philadelphia. The location has one key benefit: in the event of inclement weather, customers and vendors can move under the shelter of the track.

Now ten years old, the market began as an all-volunteer effort of Proud Neighbors of Collingswood, launched at a time when South Jersey farmers were reluctant to give the community market concept a try. Today, many of the original farmers from the first season are still bringing weekly harvests, and the market has grown into an established part of the community. Many of the market’s 28 vendors are family farmers who operate relatively small, multi-generational farms: farmers like the Jarvis family of Springdale Farms, who operate the last working farm in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

During the market day event to celebrate Collingswood’s win and hand out the No Farms No Food tote bags, New Jersey Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Al Murray introduced us to the farmers, including one who spoke about the economic importance of the market to his operation. The farmer recalled that his father was not sold on direct-toconsumer sales until he learned that the farm’s gross sales for one day at the farmers market had equaled the gross
sales for a truckload of fruit sent to a wholesale market.

Lessons from the success of Collingswood’s much heralded farmers market can be learned by nearby communities, where farmers face similar challenges operating on the urban-edge but have opportunities to gain by selling their products directly to consumers. In nearby Burlington County, New Jersey, for instance, American Farmland Trust experts are helping the county’s farmland preservation program address challenges while building a vibrant local food and farming system.

Here is what one Collingswood Farmers’ Market customer has to say:

“It is a community tradition to be at the market Saturday morning.  Local restaurants have gotten involved with the market, giving demonstrations at the markets, incorporating market produce into their menus.  The success of Collingswood's market has led to nearby communities also sponsoring markets, thus making local food more accessible to consumers and enabling small farms to be successful.

Medium Category

Williamsburg Farmers Market, Williamsburg, Virginia

Held on Merchant’s Square in Williamsburg, Virginia, the Williamsburg Farmers Market retains the air of a modern-day marketplace, bustling with trade amidst the historic buildings
that once played a key role in our country’s Colonial era. From pawpaw fruit to peanuts and seafood, the vendors at the Williamsburg Farmers Market showcase a true variety of local and regional products. (The market is also known as the place to meet for the community’s canine citizens.)

Nearby, a statue of Virginia’s native son and founding father of our country, Thomas Jefferson, looks on. As a noted farmer himself, Jefferson likely would be pleased to see the success of this young farmers market, which is reviving agricultural commerce on the streets where he once may have shopped himself.

At the event celebrating the market’s selection as one of America’s Favorite Farmers Markets, Todd P. Haymore, Commissioner of Virginia's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, joined local leaders and American Farmland Trust in congratulating the community. “The market’s success is the result of years of hard work and a commitment from our board, generous sponsors, staff and loyal customers,” said Marty Wilson, chair of the Williamsburg Farmers Market Board of Directors. “We are proud to be recognized by American Farmland Trust, whose goals are in line with our own: healthy farms, healthy food, and healthy communities.”

Here is what one Williamsburg Farmers Market customer had to say:

“What better location for a market than just minutes from Jamestown ,Va. where first settlers landed and grew their own produce to live! Our farmland in this area, as it did when the settlers first landed, continues to produce many varieties of fresh food which is a requirement of life. This market takes great pride in promoting locally grown/harvested products-vegetables, seafood, baked items, berries, cheeses, peanuts, flowers, etc. . . Saving farmland is our best source to grow and provide nourishing foods for everybody.”

Large Category

Davis Farmers Market, Davis, California

In California, the challenges of protecting farmland are immense, given the
extent of the development pressure in one of the most productive agricultural
regions in the world. Fortunately, the customers of the Davis Farmers Market
in Davis, California, are passionate about their farmers market, supporting
it even when economic times are bad.

“We’ve seen a nice uptick in sales this year,” says market manager Randi MacNear. “It’s almost ironic that the overall economy seems to have driven a return to the kitchen and cooking, eating at home, and buying locally. People are realizing that it makes you feel cheerful to shop at the market, makes you feel physically and mentally better, and it’s good to be outside, talking in the community.”

Over the course of the summer, markets in two communities with
agricultural colleges—U.C. Davis and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York—fought to the last hour of the contest, with Davis finally garnering over
10 percent of the nearly 30,000 votes cast nationwide to capture the “large-sized” market title.

California Secretary of Agriculture A.G. Karamura was one of the featured speakers at the event to recognize the market’s first place contest victory.
The Yolo County Board of Supervisors declared September 12th to be “Davis
Farmers Market Day,” and the California Senate added a proclamation of congratulations. “There was amazing friendship and support at the event,” adds MacNear. “Farmers markets are the face of agriculture. Our community thought it was important to tell the rest of the world just how important we think farmers,
farmland and farmers markets are!”

“The commitment that the people of Davis and Yolo County made to their farmers market is second only to their commitment to farmland preservation,” says American Farmland Trust’s California director Ed Thompson, Jr. They recognize that if there are no local farms, there can be no local food. And they have taken aggressive actions to prevent urban sprawl and keep the best land in agriculture.”

Passionate consumers of local food are important to American Farmland Trust’s work in California, where we are involved in projects that encourage local food production and consumption while protecting farmland: from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Blue Ribbon Commission to partnering with the California Board of Food and Agriculture to create a strategic plan for the future of the industry. “In all of these issues,” says Thompson, “the lovers of food and farmland are a critical voice.”

As one Davis Farmers Market customer put it:

“Davis farmer's market is a weekly ritual that unites students, families, professors, and everyone who lives in this community. Farming is an integral part of Yolo County, and people show up to support their local farmers and to buy the best and freshest produce. The week doesn't feel complete without a Saturday morning stroll down the bustling aisle to chat with the local vendors who know you by name, bump into people you know, and listen to local musicians who create the cheerful ambiance of the market! No matter how far away I live, I always come back for the Farmers Market.”

America’s Favorite Farmers Markets™
Top 20

Small

Medium

Westfield Farmers Market
Westfield, NY

Concord Farmers Market
Concord, CA

Emporia Farmers Market
Emporia, KS

Red Stick Farmers Market
Baton Rouge, LA

Market Square Farmers Market
Knoxville, TN

Saratoga Farmers Market
Saratoga Springs, NY

Poulsbo Farmers Market
Poulsbo, WA

Morgantown Farmers
Morgantown, WV

SKY Regional Farmers Market
Bowling Green, KY

Prosser Farmers Market
Prosser, WA

Goochland Farmers Market
Goochland, VA

Rehoboth Beach Farmers Market
Rehoboth Beach, DE

Large

Bloomington Community Farmers Market
Bloomington, IN

Lancaster Central Farmers Market
Lancaster, PA

Portland Farmers Market
Portland, OR

Ferry Plaza Farmers Market
San Francisco, CA

Dane County Farmers Market
Madison, WI

North Union Farmers Market Shaker Square
Cleveland, OH

Durham Farmers Market
Durham, NC

Chicagos Green City Farmers Market
Chicago, IL

Cache Valley Gardeners Market
Logan, UT

Carrboro Farmers Market
Carrboro, NC

Austin Farmers Market
Austin, Tx

Marin Civic Center Farmers Markets
San Rafael, CA

What you can do:

Vote for your favorite farmers markets.

Make sure that your local market signs up to hear about next year's contest and other future promotional events. Bring our farmers market manager information packet with you to the market this week to help them get enrolled. 

Get friends and others in your community excited about supporting your local farmers market this summer. Use our outreach tools to tell your network to shop at their favorite farmers market and to support their market this summer by voting in the contest.

Donate today to help American Farmland Trust protect local farmland and push for sound legislation supporting local foods, farmers markets and farmland protection across the country.