Farmers’ markets generate business, and business creates jobs. A 2011 Economic Research Service report found that fruit and vegetable farms selling into local and regional markets employ 13 full-time workers per $1 million in revenue earned. By comparison, fruit and vegetable farms that do not sell locally employ only 3 full-time workers per $1 million in revenue.

Farmers’ markets also bring business to neighboring stores and communities. Spending money at farmers’ markets keeps your money in circulation within the local community, preserving and creating local jobs. A 2010 study of the Easton Farmers Market in Pennsylvania, for example, found that 70% of farmers market customers also shop at downtown businesses, spending up to an additional $26,000 each week. 

This is very different from many major grocery stores, where a large percentage of sales leave the community, and possibly even the state or the region. A Virginia Cooperative Extension report showed that if households in Southern Virginia spent 15 percent of their weekly food budget on locally grown food products, $90 million in new farm income would be created for the region.