"Our customers care about local produce and artisan food products, so this program makes sense," said Sarah Kenney, regional marketing manager for Whole Foods. "It's a great 'first date' [for customers and Whole Foods] to get acquainted with local farmers and producers."
All this when the number of farmers markets in the United States has already risen more than 250 percent in the last decade, from 1,755 in 1994 to more than 4,385 in 2006.
The Farmers Market Coalition reports that some 30,000 farmers are now selling their products directly to more than 3 million consumers a year at such markets.
The numbers keep climbing.
The Food Trust, the local nonprofit agency whose mission is to ensure access to affordable, nutritious food, is sponsoring eight of the new markets this year, bringing its program's total to 26 farmers markets.
"We are opening the city's first Sunday farmers market at the Headhouse Square Shambles," said David Adler, the trust's director. "It will be a large Union Square-style market with 25 to 40 vendors carrying everything from fresh greens to quail."
The trust has also expanded electronic food-stamp access at the markets, Adler said, which means eligible families can use their benefits at their farm markets, making healthful (often organic) fresh foods accessible at affordable prices, with produce often harvested and sold the same day.
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On a more personal level, farmers markets are often the most effective and profitable venue for selling crops for small growers like Ron Weaver in Ephrata, who started selling at Clark Park's Thursday market in 1991 and will be there when it opens for the 2007 season the first week in June.
