Buy your garbage veggies from Mal-Wart then and don't support your local CSA or local economy and don't complain when all you have left is a Mal-Wart job in a Mal-Wart economy town

Funfact about germany:

the gov gives money to supermarkets when they buy organic products as an incentive to stock up on less conventional products.

not to the people producing it. to the supermarket.

against which we then have to compete

Big box supermarkets routinely pressure producers into accepting extremely low prices so that they can sell them for cheap in their stores. It's either you accept the price or they don't sell your produce at all. Farmer's markets let producers sell their stuff at a price that allows them to live from their work

There are "farmer's markets" and then there are farmer's markets. Riding your cargo bike to the once-a-week market in the urban hipster neighborhood's park to pay $5 for a tomato is not the same thing as driving out to the actual state-run farmer's market and spending $5 for a bushel.

Compare:

https://cfmatl.org/

https://atlanta-state-farmers-market.com/

Every year, I buy a farm share. My farmer gets his money for the year up front; he doesn't have to borrow from the bank and he doesn't have to worry about losing the farm if it's a bad harvest. He gets to focus on growing stuff.

In exchange, every week during the growing season, I get 3/4's of a bushel of just-picked vegetables. Some are rare heirloom varieties you generally don't see; some are items you don't see much of at all; and everything is fresh and lasts much longer than store-bought would've.

The middlemen exploiting the farmers and putting them in debt. Farmers exploiting immigrant labor to try to make ends meet.

It's not really hard to work out if your head isn't up your butt.

I'd rather pay higher prices to my local farmer that gives me quality food than a faceless corporation that gives me shitty products that travelled 10,000 kilometers and paid every single worker along that route as little as possible.

If you're selling to the stores, you generally pack your produce and truck it to a central depot where they manage the shipping to the stores. If you're selling it at a market, you have to pack your truck, rent the booth, unpack the truck for display, sit there all day(or hire someone to sit there all day), then pack everything up and drive home. It's way more work and time to do a market.

I live in an agricultural area and food from farmers markets is usually cheaper than at the store. But we have tons of farmers markets around here so maybe thats a factor.

I swear this is propaganda. I have 3 farmers' markets within biking distance of me (that I've visited regularly, there are another 2 on inconvenient days for me), in a capital city. All are cheaper than the grocery store. Yet when I tell people I do my weekly shop at the farmer's markets, they always say something to this effect. The popular opinion simply does not match the reality. There are some stalls which are more expensive, but they are usually targeting a much higher quality, and are normally prepared products (pasta, sauces, etc.) rather than raw produce.

Fun fact, CalFresh (the California EBT/food stamp program) will give you $60 for free per month if you spend it on fruit and veg, and a lot of farmer’s markets participate in the program

You know, some of them were just reselling grocery store stuff as their own.

Really? Sounds like a terrible farmer's market, I've usually found much fresher food generally below grocery store prices, rarely higher. With the exception of chicken and eggs, but there's reasons for that

Small markets are notorious for gouging the fuck out of the sellers. Want a booth at a farmers market or a makers market? Well you should expect to spend between $50-200 for the luxury to sell your own goods.

Don't forget that most of these aren't audited and you'll be selling handmade goods next to someone else who is selling garbage from alibaba. Or you'll be selling homegrown produce next to someone selling boxes of produce he bought from someone else.

Most of these markets are simply not profitable to farmers or makers. The buyers are few and they end up buying the cheaper shit after balking at the prices of anything made with care.

About 50% of the human race is middlemen and they don't take kindly to being eliminated.

I guess I just live somewhere with real farms? There are 3 weekly farmers markets near me. All of them are something like 1/2 to 2/3 of the cost, and at least triple the quality of the grocery store.

Economy of scale is a real thing.

It's because there they can sell them what they actually cost to produce instead of being forced to sell at a loss by the food industry.

Post needs accessibility.

This comment section: people who've never cracked open an economics textbook or seriously thought about this.

Intermediaries can bring down distribution costs. It's pretty easy to see how.

Consider N farmers & M markets: that results in NM trips to distribute all their goods to every market. Add a single intermediary: this reduces to N + M trips to distribute goods. This reduces overhead costs. The farmer can sell in bulk to the intermediary. The intermediary can ship in bulk goods of all farmers to the markets. Less fuel & time is wasted transporting everything.

Partners can specialize in their respective tasks. Farmers don't need to rent booths, put their goods on display, wait there all day, or handle all the customers at each market.

... isn't the market a middle man? They charge for the booths.

cause farmers markets are fake.

Its nothing but assholes buying shit wholesale from the same distributors that your supermarket gets their shit from (at much higher prices due to not having the super markets favor of volume), then pretending to be some salt of the earth farmer man/woman trying to get you to buy fruit and veg they "hand grew and loved".

Nonsense my local farmers is 1/3 price of supermarket and last for 2 weeks in fridge ie is fresh.