The Centro Studi Divulga, in collaboration with the World Farmers Market Coalition (WFMC), recently published a report articulating pathways for global farmers markets to cultivate lasting alternatives to the industrialized food system.

The report aims to provide insights for the new WFMC, which recently launched at the U.N. Food Systems Pre-Summit to facilitate the establishment of farmers markets around the world. Looking across independent, civil society-led farmers markets in Australia, Denmark, Ghana, Italy, Japan, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the researchers compare tools to boost direct selling.

To understand how farmers markets can serve as alternative modes of food provisioning, the researchers consider four key dimensions: organization and structure, efficiency, service and marketing, and culture. The report then breaks down these four domains into national-level ideas to strengthen and support farmers markets.

Richard McCarthy, member of the USA Research Group for the WFMC and contributor to the report, outlines a common, emerging trend across the Global North and South: “Independent, civil-society-led farmers markets that promise transparency, predictable and fair rules and regulations, and a break from the past are flourishing,” he tells Food Tank.

The report also finds that farmers markets can help stabilize farm revenues better than conventional distribution channels, such as supermarkets or hypermarkets. Similarly, farmers markets can secure fair income to small farmers through promoting agronomically sound agriculture that preserves biodiversity, respects seasonality, and has a low environmental impact. Farmers markets can also help to regrow local and rural economies, enabling a deeper perspective of community-supported agriculture.

Read the full article about global farmers' markets by Vicky Brown Varela at Food Tank.