Citizen Scientist: Farm 2 Facts Supporting Farmers Markets

Abstract

As multifunctional loci of local food economies and public activity, farmers markets impart diverse impacts on their surrounding communities. In response to the emerging scholarship on farmers markets, as well as the desires of market managers to buttress their decision-making with cogent data analysis, the Farm 2 Facts data collection toolkit was created by the University of Wisconsin-Madison to measure the economic, social, and ecological impacts of farmers markets. We document here the history of Farm 2 Facts. Through case studies of F2F members, we describe the ways in which individual markets, market organizations, and local governments use farmers markets as a means of achieving differing goals, as well as how Farm 2 Facts necessarily adapted to measure and support these goals. We argue that Farm 2 Facts is in a tight reciprocal relationship with market managers who become citizen scientists in order to support their managerial role and communicate the benefits of their markets. Given that market policy change is often the impetus for collecting data, empathy for the goals of market managers is inseparable from Farm 2 Facts. We find that a sensitivity to the dynamic needs of markets, an adaptive toolkit, and incorporating ongoing research into the toolkit are essential to supporting farmers market managers in their many duties.

Manager and vendor perceptions of farmers’ markets’ impacts on communities: evidence from Michigan

“…Managers and vendors value communicating the impact their work has, but lack resources, time and a framework for how to share these data in a way that will generate change or improve sustainability outcomes of their markets. The rise in citizen science tools such as the Farmers Market Metrics or Farm2Facts has empowered market organizations to engage in primary data collection and basic data reporting without the need for trained academic specialists (Ledesma et al, 2021), a finding supported by this research. However, further work is needed to support markets in developing customized approaches to interpreting and reporting their data.…”

“…We investigate how vendors and managers perceive the tangible impacts of their markets, as well as how those impacts are tracked. This is particularly important in the context of research seeking to empirically measure how markets affect their local communities (Ledesma et al, 2021) and scholarship describing the importance of markets providing multiple benefits to communities for vendor retention (Montri et al, 2021).…”

Leveraging markets to develop central capabilities: case studies of Cotati, CA, and Brownsville, TX

“…The broader research agenda from which this paper (Ledesma, 2021; Ledesma and Giusti, 2021; Ledesma et al. , 2021) builds on work of Morales and argues that planners should develop an integrated planning approach to support all market types (Morales, 2009, 2011; Morales et al.…”

“…Research shows that, although farmers’ markets serve as community-level interventions that provide healthy food options to food deserts (Brace et al. , 2020; Ledesma et al. , 2021), farmers’ markets are infrequently found where they are most needed (Schupp, 2019).…”

“…Common practices to address the expansion of healthy food options at farmers’ markets include community place-based approaches (Lucan, 2019; Morales, 2009), in additional to program interventions such as acceptance of food assistance program funds (Brace et al. , 2020; Ledesma et al. , 2021).…”