Giovanni Manfroni At a minimum, we believe that successful markets are managed.
- Possess and publicize rules committed to direct marketing, transparency of food origin, and competition;
- Occur on a recurring basis;
- Are inclusive and open to participation by farmers and shoppers.
When these core competencies are professionally cultivated, farmers markets are not only better able to weather economic, political and climatic instability, but they are able to achieve additional benefits, including to:
Preserve biodiversity and traditional family farming;
Provide a voice for cultural diversity and preservation;
Mitigate the risks for farmers to transform their businesses and provide futures for youth in agriculture; and for consumers to increase their purchase of local foods, especially among vulnerable and marginal consumers who seek food security;
Empower women to prosper with greater economic agency;
Provide marginalized communities with greater agency to improve their livelihoods;
Grow the next generation of good eaters to recognize and embrace fresh, healthy and local foods.
As important as it may be for a market to flourish like a flower in one town or another, we are committed for these canopies of commerce to propagate like flowers in a field, all over the world. For this reason, we are committed to cultivating a world community of farmers markets devoted to measure success; share best practices and innovation; defend endangered markets and their participants; and promote the idea that farmers markets can be gateways to wider and deeper opportunities to build social trust at moments where it is lacking. To these ends, we understand the World Farmers Market Coalition not as a narrow trade association, but as a pivotal voice for farmers markets and for communities who facilitate farmers markets, work in farmers markets, and benefit from farmers markets.
