- Fresher Fruits and Veggies: This should be the most obvious, but if not, here's why. Most of the food you buy at the store has traveled countless miles to get to you and sat in half a dozen warehouses along the way. At the Farmers' Market most fruits and vegetables were harvested in the last 24-48 hours. That's fresh!
- Greater Variety: Farmers enjoy growing unique produce. They grow things that grocery stores would be afraid to take a chance on. Only at a farmers market can you get unique items like salad turnips, artisan tomatoes, several different types of lettuce and a full selection of microgreens and shoots.
- Fewer Chemicals: Sure the produce you buy at the grocery store might be labeled "organic", but factory farming in the US whether certified organic or not changed what organic used to mean. As Michael Pollan said in an interview with Organic Gardener, "They're organic by the letter, not organic in spirit…..if most organic consumers went to those places, they would feel they are getting ripped off." At the farmers market, you have the ability to ask your farmer what exactly was sprayed onto the food you are about to eat.
- Smaller Carbon Footprint: The foods we buy at the grocery store have traveled great distances to get to you. With so many tropical fruits and out of season vegetables available year round one has to wonder how far that pineapple or crown of broccoli travelled. When we eat locally, we can rest assured that the food we are buying has traveled a very short distance.
- Support Local Families: When we shop at a farmers' market we are supporting local families. It's getting more and more difficult for small farmers to make it in today's economy. Corporate farms make it very difficult for small farms to make a living by driving down the price of fruits and vegetables. When you shop at a farmers' market your money goes directly to the farmer, not the multitude of middlemen along the way.
Top 5 Reasons to Shop at a Farmers' Market
January 16, 2026