10 Reasons to Support Farmers’ Markets

1.Know where your food comes from
Meeting and talking to farmers, horticulturalists and food artisans is a great opportunity to learn more about how and where food is produced.
2.Taste real flavours
The fruit and the vegetables you buy at the farmers’ market will be harvested just before market day and will be the freshest and tastiest available.
3. Enjoy the season
The food you buy at the farmers’ market is fresh, the flavours will be at their best and you can properly celebrate the season.
4. Support small scale local food production
Small scale growers are vital for providing local food resilience (especially when weather impacts on large industrial growers) and by selling direct, the grower and customer get a better deal.
5. Variety
Farmers’ markets provide more variety than supermarkets – you can experience the colourful heritage varieties that past generations enjoyed before industrial, monoculture practices.
6. Nourish yourself
Most food at farmers’ markets is minimally processed, using fewer chemicals, sustainable techniques and picked just before the market so they retain nutrients.
7. Connect with your community
A farmers’ market is a community hub, a place to meet friends and gather, bring the family, enjoy the day and local buskers while shopping for the best food around.
8. Learn cooking tips, recipes and meal ideas.
Farmers and food producers passionate about the food they produce and can provide tips on how to store and cook it.
9. Shorten the food chain
Farmers’ markets don’t have Long food chains that cause extra transport emissions and requiring lengthy storage.
10. Promote humane treatment of animals.
Most farmers’ markets support free range and organic practices that are more humane for the animals.

National Farmers’ Markets Week is an annual celebration that highlights the vital role farmers' markets play in the nation’s food system. We celebrate this year with the theme ‘Feeding the Community’. Authentic farmers’ markets are different from any other kind of market or shop in that the person selling the food is the person who’s grown, caught or made it, so there’s a direct link
between farmer and consumer.

The Farmers’ Market movement is about supporting the local food economy, giving consumers access to regional food and building and strengthening local communities.

Farmers’ Markets can be found across New Zealand from the Bay of Islands to Invercargill, in rural and urban locations providing the freshest, most local food to their communities. Every purchase supports a small local business rather than the supermarket duopoly.

There are approximately 25 FMNZ farmers' markets around New Zealand which make up 1000+ small food businesses, with an estimated 50,000+ customers supporting them every week of the year.

Prices can be cheaper than the supermarkets and many staples can be purchased – seasonal vegetables and fruit, meat, fish, eggs, dairy produce and bread. With the prices of food escalating in the supermarkets, shopping at a farmers’ market is a viable option and National Farmers’ Markets Week is one way of promoting the markets to the wider public that are not yet market shoppers.