History Of Farmers Markets
A farmers market is a wholly traditional way of selling agricultural and home manufactured products. In many towns and villages across the globe the primary means of income for the townsfolk is farming, and a weekly markets are a part of normal existence. Often these weekly farmers markets allow people to purchase excess produce that the farmer is not using to feed his own family, it is only in recent times that farmers have been able to exist soley on selling produce. At the end of a harvest of season a festival would usually be held to honour this and the focus would be on the farmers markets as the farmer would ply his wares to the public. Markets were integral to society and a part of everday life for our ancestors.
Farmers markets saw a decline in popularity due to urbanisation and intensive farming. With the advent of the supermarket and hypermarket people grew used to purchasing their produce pre-packaged and lost interest in food in general. The public in general no longer had to worry about seasonality and due to advances in hydroponics and worldwide transport were able to buy food at all times of the year, however it will have been shipped across the globe or grown with the use of chemicals and preservatives, and henceforth no longer visited markets. It is only due to a recent interest in food thanks mainly to both government initiatives and television programs informing people about the damage intensive farming is doing to our way of life and our planet that farmers markets became popular again. People once again took an interest in the seasonality of food and the boom in organic produce has done nothing but help the growth of the farmers markets.
