The Farmers Market Lie: Bad for Farmers, Out of Reach for Many
Farmers markets are sold as a win-win: farmers earn more, customers get fresh local food, and communities keep money close to home. The reality is far less romantic.
1. The economics don’t work for most farmers
Booth fees, memberships, insurance, and permits cut into profits before a single sale is made. Add in fuel, vehicle wear, and the hours spent packing, setting up, and tearing down, and the math falls apart. Unsold produce comes back damaged or with a shorter shelf life, erasing even more value.
Markets also pit farmers against each other. Multiple vendors selling the same crops creates a race to the bottom on prices. Shoppers treat markets as an occasional outing, not a weekly grocery run, so sales are unpredictable.
Every market day is also a day away from the farm. That is time not spent planting, harvesting, fulfilling CSA orders, or processing online sales that bring in steady income.
Here is what that really means. If a farmer makes $400 in sales at a market, about $40 goes to the booth fee, $25 to fuel and vehicle wear, $105 to labor for the day, $20 toward insurance and permits, and $30 in lost value from spoilage. That leaves roughly $180 in actual profit.
With our model, those same $400 in sales happen without booth fees, travel costs, or a full day away from the farm. Labor is built into our daily work, spoilage is almost nothing, and the only direct cost might be around $15 for card fees and packaging. That leaves $385 in profit from the same sales.
The difference is not small. It is the difference between barely making it and actually making a living.
2. Farmers markets are built for the privileged
Even if prices are fair for the farmer’s labor, they are still higher than grocery store prices. That puts regular market shopping out of reach for many lower-income households.
Location matters. Markets are often in affluent neighborhoods or tourist-heavy areas, not where fresh food is scarce. With short hours, usually mid-morning to early afternoon on weekends, they cater to people with leisure time, not those working multiple jobs or caregiving.
Some markets take SNAP, but the process is clunky: token exchanges, limited vendors, and no online ordering. The “support local” slogan rings hollow when much of the community is excluded from participating at all.
3. Why we are different
We built our farm’s sales model to remove those barriers. We take SNAP directly at checkout. We have card readers. We offer online ordering 24/7 so customers can pay how they want and pick up when it works for them. Our farm stand is open regular hours, not just a four-hour window once a week.
We are not here to sell you a lifestyle accessory. We are here to feed you. And that means making local food accessible in ways that actually work, for us and for you.