The air was chilly in Baltimore’s scenic Inner Harbor on November 7th through the 9th, but the atmosphere at the first ever Farmers Market Summit was warm with excitement. The event was the result of a collaboration between the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA/AMS) and the Farmers Market Consortium, a public/private partnership including a variety of federal and nonprofit groups dedicated to supporting farmers markets.

The purposes of the Summit were to:

• Identify farmers market needs
• Prioritize future research and technical assistance initiatives in support of farmers markets
• Provide guidance to policymakers on priorities for the use of resources for farmers markets.

The 76 Summit participants, coming from 31 states and the District of Columbia, included representatives from farmers markets associations, individual markets, nonprofit partners, and state and federal agencies involved with agricultural, economic development, and health issues.

In his opening remarks, USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Associate Administrator Kenneth Clayton expressed his hope that the Summit deliberations would help to identify and set priorities for developing national policy for farmers markets. The Summit discussions were led by a professional facilitator and a team of assistants, and were organized into four major sessions designed to identify issues and opportunities, priorities, strategies, and opportunities for collaboration.

The first session used the ‘World Café’ group process, in which all participants identified the universe of possibilities regarding the issues and opportunities facing farmers markets. Through three 20 minute rounds of small group brainstorming, the facilitators reported several recurring themes. These included a uniform means of collecting data on the economic, nutritional, and ecological impacts of markets; more training opportunities for both managers and growers; consumer education; more farmer-vendors; successfully managing Electronic Benefits Transfer; and helping farmers critically evaluate their costs and returns. Some of the opportunities identified in this session included: establishing national farmers market policy; supporting professional development for farmers, managers and sponsors; positioning farmers markets to respond to the growing interest in local food, community health issues, and community economic development.

Based on these needs and opportunities, new sets of small groups reported on top priorities, which were then combined into the following (in no particular order):

• Define and Promote Farmers Markets through a national promotional campaign.
• Grow Farmers, with a focus on immigrant, minority, women, youth and new farmers; establish a “farmers market university”; and identify constraints on the availability of land.
• Support Professional Development consisting of a wide range of capacity building opportunities, networks and/or professional associations for market managers, sponsors, farmer-vendors.
• Define Farmers Markets as the Centers of Communities based on local involvement and values.
• Clarify and Revise Regulations at federal, state and local levels and in several domains (health, safety, zoning, etc.) oriented toward the needs, conditions and opportunities for direct sales at farmers markets.
• Increase Low Income Access by addressing EBT, WIC, FMNPs, and a wide range of concerns related to transportation and the availability of produce.
• Speak with One Voice on behalf of farmers markets nationwide while building upon local and state programs.
• Expand and Improve Research Efforts to document and share what works and what doesn’t work, as well as the economic, nutritional, and ecological benefits of farmers markets.
• Identify Funding and Resources from diverse stakeholders as a means to develop capacity and leverage additional funding for market start-up and technical assistance.
• Support Business Planning & Sustainability to assure that farmers markets and individual farmers operate with sound business plans that can accurately account for expenses and income.
• Promote Healthy Communities by helping farmers markets serve an integral part in a wide spectrum of health and nutrition initiatives.
• Serve as the Building Block of Local Food Communities using relationships with retailers, food co-ops and buying clubs such that farmers markets successfully promote the availability and accessibility of food grown locally and/or regionally.

The final round of small group discussions was organized such that members of each of the groups represented at the Summit could get together to identify specific actions that could be taken and the opportunities for collaboration with other groups. Time did not permit a reporting-out of the ideas generated by the different groups.

Jim Bingen, Professor of Community, Food and Agriculture at Michigan State University and Farmers Market Coalition board member said that the event should be recognized as a watershed event in the US farmers market movement. “The energy throughout the Summit was palpable. There was a very clear call for a national group to begin carrying the banner for farmers markets. Given the uniform concern for so many issues, the challenges will be setting priorities and concrete actions that address these priorities at the appropriate federal, state and local levels.”

According to the organizers, the Summit far exceeded USDA’s expectations and now it will be critical to assure the translation of the Summit’s ideas into supportive priorities, policies and programs. Stay tuned to www.farmersmarketcoalition.org to view the Farmers Market Summit proceedings as they become available.

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