Interesting figures:
Row to Hoe
Mar 22, 2010 12:00 PM, By MATTHEW ENIS
“Supermarkets could make the case that they are better partners than competitors for farmers’ markets By: By MATTHEW ENIS
When it comes to bare-knuckle food-retail competition, farmers’ markets may not be the first format that springs to mind. In fact, most of SN’s coverage of farmers’ markets in recent years has been focused on symbiotic partnerships between supermarkets and local farmers. As many retailers have found, setting up a weekly or monthly farmers’ market in a store parking lot will generally boost in-store traffic, and may help boost customer loyalty.
Still, the local food movement continues to grow, and produce departments, in particular, can ill afford to ignore the emergence of a format that is now enjoying more and more mainstream attention. The number of farmers’ markets in the U.S. almost doubled during the past decade. The U.S. Department of Agriculture accounted for 2,863 farmers’ markets operating in the U.S. in 2000, and 5,274 by October 2009. And, there are currently about 3,400 Community Supported Agriculture programs operating around the country as well, according to Errol Bragg, marketing service division director for the USDA.”