Aug 6, 2012

Farmers’ markets still growing

USDA recently announced a 9.6 percent increase in National Farmers Market Directory listings. USDA’s directory identifies 7,864 farmers’ markets operating throughout the United States. The information collected in the directory is self-reported data provided voluntarily by market managers.

Last year, the directory listed 7,175 markets.

The top states, in terms of the number of markets reported in the directory, include California (827 markets), New York (647 markets), Massachusetts (313 markets), Michigan (311 markets), Wisconsin (298 markets), Illinois (292 markets), Ohio (264 markets), Pennsylvania (254 markets), Virginia and Iowa (tied with 227 markets) and North Carolina (202 markets). Together, they account for nearly half of the farmers’ markets listed in the 2012 directory.

Geographic regions like the mid-Atlantic, the Northeast and the Southeast saw large increases in their listings, reporting 15.8 percent, 14.4 percent and 13.1 percent more markets, respectively, according to USDA.

The USDA National Farmers Market Directory is available here.