Business
Local markets
Local markets facilitate the exchange of goods and services within a community. When they occupy a physical space, they are very different from the homogeneous, 'cookie-cutter' structures of the corporate global economy: they not only boost local economies, they create vital gathering spaces that reflect and support community character and cohesion.
Local markets Actions
Support local farms through your food purchases.
Support local farms through your food purchases.
Thanks to direct and hidden subsidies, skewed regulations, unfair tax policy, and billions of advertising dollars, the global food system is heavily tilted in favor of the largest producers. Until those systemic forces are shifted, the only way that small, local producers can survive is if we recognize the multiple benefits their farms provide – to the community, the local economy, and the environment – and support them by buying what they work so hard to produce.
Take action
- Share risk and reward with a local farmer by joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) scheme. You'll get a weekly box of produce, as well as a connection to the farm where your food is grown. Find a CSA with these directories from Community Supported Agriculture (UK), CSA Network Aus NZ (Australia and New Zealand), Local Harvest (US), and Urgenci (worldwide).
- Connect with local growers at a farmers market. Find one near you by contacting your city government or local food access organization, or with the directories Local Harvest and EatWell Guide (US), Farmers Markets NZ (New Zealand), and Australian Farmers' Market Association (Australia).
- Find a local farm with these directories from Farming UK and Local Harvest (USA).
- Food coops tend to offer far more local food than big supermarkets. Find one nearby with these directories from Sustain (UK), Local Harvest (US), the Cooperative Grocer Network (US), National Co-op Grocers directory (US), and Blue Mountains Food Coop (Australia).
- Encourage your local government to create a program linking restaurants to local farmers. It can be based on the very successful Farm to Plate program established by the state of Vermont, in the US, in 2009.
- Challenge yourself to replace a few of your grocery store staples with local food this week, and a few more next week, until most of your food is locally grown or produced.
Get inspired
- The Covid-19 pandemic revealed the strength and resilience of local food systems, even as global supply chains broke down. One result is that demand for CSA shares skyrocketed. Full Belly Farm in the US state of California, for example, saw a doubling of its CSA box numbers, and other CSA farms had waiting lists with hundreds of names. Read more in this story from NPR.
- Rohit Parak writes about Navadarshanam, an alternative living community in South India that provides chemical-free, seasonal produce to residents of Bangalore on a CSA model.
Set up a farmers market.
Set up a farmers market.
Farmers markets that sell local and sustainably-produced food play a key role in maintaining and rebuilding healthy, diverse and resilient local food systems. These markets allow producers to receive a dignified income, provide high-quality food at a reasonable price, create local spaces for sharing and celebration, and bridge gaps between urban and rural dwellers, while benefiting the wider local economy.
Take action
- Set up a market with these guides: the Food Security Network of Newfoundland and Labrador's Farmers’ Market Best Practices Toolkit (Canada), the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension's Farmers Market Toolkit: A guide to starting and improving your market (US), and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's Guide to setting up farmers markets in Mexico.
- Learn best practices for managing a market with the Washington State Farmers Market Association's Market Management Toolkit.
- Understand the legalities of farmers markets with the Vermont Law School's Farmers Market Legal Toolkit (US).
- Measure the impact of your farmers market with the British Columbia Association of Farmers Markets' Farmers’ Market Impact Toolkit and User’s Guide to Impact Toolkit.
- Navigate the process of accessing and selling at farmers markets with ATTRA-Sustainable Agriculture's resource page on Farmers Markets.
Get inspired
- The Stoke Newington Farmers' Market in London, UK, is a year-round weekly farmers market selling food purely from local small-scale sustainable producers. The market was started in 2003 and is run by Community Growers – a local NGO that also runs a local box scheme.
- Feria Verde in San José, Costa Rica comprises two markets that provide organic food to over 3000 customers on a weekly basis year-round. The market provides the main income for many farming families and has its own organic participatory certification scheme. The Feria Verde has been instrumental in broadening the understanding of, and support for, organic food and farming in Costa Rica. It is also a vibrant community space that brings people together from across the political spectrum.
Join or start a bulk buying club.
Join or start a bulk buying club.
Reduce packaging waste and emissions from shipping by joining or starting a bulk buying club: a group of people who periodically purchase food and other supplies wholesale from farms, food producers, and other suppliers. To have the greatest positive impact, choose local producers whenever possible. Otherwise, try to build direct relationships with trusted organic and fair-trade suppliers.
Take action
- Start a buying club with Start a Buying Club's detailed guide.
- Find bulk buying suppliers and other food coop resources from Sustain's Food Coops Map (UK).
- Use the Fair World Project's guide The New International Guide to Fair Trade Labels to distinguish authentic, transformative fair trade labels that support small-scale, ecological producers from "fair-washed" corporate co-opted labels.
Get inspired
- Melliodora near Melbourne, Australia, has been operating a home-based food coop once a week for 20 years, offering dry goods and a Community Supported Agriculture box from the founder's garage.
- The 350,000+ members of the Seikatsu Club in Japan order bulk supplies in groups of 8-10 households arranged into autonomous local branches. Their collective demand has established more than 600 local cooperative suppliers and catalyzed a movement for local, chemical-free food throughout the country.
Start a public market.
Start a public market.
Public markets are year-round, permanent spaces where local businesses can rent stalls or tables. By building public markets, we can create affordable places for entrepreneurs to sell goods, test concepts, and connect with customers, and add to the economic and cultural vibrancy of town centers.
Take action
- Build a new public market or expand a seasonal farmers market into a permanent, year-round market with Aaron Zaretsky's guide Developing a Public Market.
- The Project for Public Spaces (PPS) describes The Ten Qualities of a Successful Public Market, with tips on choosing the right location, the right mix of vendors, the right promotional strategy, and more.
- PPS has also produced a handbook for vendors interested in selling at an existing public market, How to Start Your Business at a Public Market (available in both English and Spanish).
Get inspired
- Great Public Markets, a list by the Project for Public Spaces, shares examples of thriving public markets from Benin to Brazil to Belgium.
- The Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, Australia is home to more than 600 small businesses across 17 acres of market space.
Start or join a local food hub.
Start or join a local food hub.
Food hubs are initiatives that connect farmers with customers by aggregating, processing, distributing and marketing locally-grown foods. They can play a key role in boosting local food systems.
Take action
- Check out the Food Systems Leadership Network’s resource library on Food Hubs, with survey findings, lessons from existing food hubs, how to finance them, and more.
- The US Department of Agriculture's Regional Food Hub Resource Guide and Running a Food Hub: Assessing Financial Viability offer valuable tips for anyone considering setting up a food hub.
- ATTRA-Sustainable Agriculture (US) offers case studies, tip sheets and other publications about food hubs. In both English and Spanish.
Get inspired
- The Redd on Salmon Street in Oregon, US has warehouse space used by almost 200 local food businesses, along with event space and a shared commercial kitchen.
- The Melbourne Food Hub in Australia operates a distributed food hub, connecting networks of farmers, buyers, and urban agriculture projects throughout the region.
- The Local Food Hub in Virginia, US connects small farmers with individual and institutional buyers, and also runs farmer training and food access programs.
- Check out the inspiring story of LINC Foods, a worker and farmer owned food hub based in Spokane, Washington, in the US: Northwest co-op builds for a local food future beyond Big Ag.
Start a food cooperative.
Start a food cooperative.
Unlike a conventional supermarket or privately-owned grocery, a consumer food cooperative is owned by those who shop there. Food cooperatives exist first and foremost to benefit the community and provide for genuine needs, not to generate profits for absentee investors or a wealthy owner class. Research shows that in comparison with conventional supermarkets, food cooperatives are better at supporting local farms and producers, spend much more of their revenue on local wages and benefits, and are more resilient.
Take action
- Get started with the guide How to Start a Food Co-op from the Cooperative Grocers' Information Network.
- The Food Co-ops Toolkit from SustainWeb UK offers guidance on creating a full-service grocery store.
- The How to Start a Food Coop manual from Democracy Collaborative is another excellent resource.
- Start a food coop based in your school, university, or workplace. SustainWeb UK offers guidelines specific to starting a food coop in a school, at work, at a university or college.
- Find a food co-op near you in the UK, US, and Australia & New Zealand.
- Start a small and successful agroecological consumer cooperative with the help of this workshop recording by SCOOP - The Sustainable Cooperative in Jersey.
Get inspired
- OrganicLea is a worker-owned food cooperative in the UK with a 12-acre growing site, a community café, a market stall and a vegetable box scheme, and runs courses in growing food and cooking.
- Rizoma Cooperative in Lisbon, Portugal is a multi-sector cooperative community grocery store that is working to help solve social and economic problems beyond just food consumption, aiming to eventually address agriculture, culture, services, and even housing.
- The Real Food Store is a community-owned grocery store in Exeter, UK, committed to forging strong relationships with sustainable local farmers and food enterprises, and to creating a robust local supply chain that reduces the distance between farm and table.
- Our Table is a regional co-op in Oregon, US, helping to create a resilient and interdependent local food culture. Read more in this YES! Magazine article, Local Food With a Big Twist: Super-Cooperative Takes Aim at the Corporate Food System.
- SCOOP - The Sustainable Cooperative on the island of Jersey is a consumer-led coop that includes a farm shop, an innovative production kitchen and an inclusive cultural and educational program.
- Cooperativa Tierra y Libertad is a network of family farms and small cooperatives working with carefully selected customers across Europe, based on the principles of mutual respect, solidarity and sustainability.
Voices from the field
- Listen to Growing a Farmers Market from the Ground Up, a Local Futures podcast interview with Francisco Grau, to learn how a small group of passionate people set up a successful farmers’ market with a big impact in San José, Costa Rica.
- The Local Futures' podcast More than Just Vegetables covers the inspiring story of the Copenhagen Food Coop, a member-owned alternative to mainstream grocery stores that allows people to not only have regular access to fresh local food, but also to make decisions about what foods the coop purchases and how the coop is run.
Policy
- Check out this HealthBridge report on international examples of Policies that Support Local Fresh Food Markets, affecting such issues as market location, funding, design, and management.
- Building Healthy Foundations For Farmers Markets: Recommendations for Cities and Counties by the Community Food Security Coalition focuses on policies in the US, but many of these apply to other countries as well.
Resources
- Ten Reasons to Support Farmers Markets by CUESA offers a quick overview of the many benefits of farmers markets.
- Farmers Market Coalition is a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening farmers markets across the USA.
- Funding for Farmers Markets, a guidebook from Bristol Food Producers (UK), offers tips on how to get funding to set up and run a farmers’ market, applicable beyond the UK.
- Food Co-ops + Collectives: 3 Models of Community Food Systems (Australia) centers on three examples: a large nonprofit coop grocery store, a small coop auspiced by a local community center, and a weekly vegetable box and dry goods pickup hosted in a member’s garage.
- Grocery Story: The Promise of Food Co-ops in the Age of Grocery Giants, by Jon Steinman "makes a compelling case for the transformation of the grocery store aisles as the emerging frontier in the local and good food movements."
- Sustainable Food Hubs: A route to just food from sustainable food systems, by Bella Driessen of the Food Research Collaboration, shows the fundamental role food hubs could play in transitioning to a just, agroecological food system.
- In From Farm to Table, author Rowan Jacobsen argues that food hubs can enable the sustainable food movement to "make it much easier for local producers and consumers to find each other", and "restore the regional infrastructure that withered with the rise of the national distributors, who have little interest in working with local operations."
- In this report, Bella Driessen explains why Sustainable Food Hubs "provide the communication, storage, and transport infrastructure necessary to facilitate short supply chains to connect more, smaller farms."