The Producers Market Vision

While farmers markets have become a beloved destination for many people in the United States, sales from these marketplaces represent a small percentage of total purchasing in the country. 

Similarly, the Consumer Supported Agriculture (CSA) model, in which consumers pre-invest in shares of farms and receive a box of outputs from the farm each week based on what is harvested in that season, captures only a small slice of the market.

These models of connecting local farmers and producers with consumers are undeniably important, and growing in popularity, but they still only represent a total of 3% of consumer purchases. 

Perhaps the most intriguing thing about farmers markets is how they enable consumers to know who grew their food and ask questions about how it was produced. Consumers have a sense of trust and goodwill knowing that their purchases are supporting small local farmers, producers, and artisans.  

Consumers need ease of purchasing, however, and the schedule of the farmers market makes it more of an event than a regular activity. Furthermore, the farmers market only exhibits local products, but most of us are global consumers. We drink coffee, eat chocolate and bananas, enjoy the convenience of frozen products, and sometimes want to buy packaged goods. We’ve grown accustomed to getting whatever we want, as if we were all the emperor of Rome. We can buy foods from all over the world—all competitively priced for us. 

Well, what if we took the most compelling aspects of the farmers market and built them into a global, digital format? What if we organized the direct conversations with producers into profiles that were easy for people to access and engage with?

This is the ultimate vision of the Producers Market platform: to bring to life a global digital farmers market. 

We aim to become a vital source where people can learn about farmers and producers and engage with the products they purchase through StoryBird. 

Knowing the producers who grow our food shouldn’t be a luxury of the farmers market. Producers’ stories and data should be required information, just like a nutritional label. 

So let’s turn it into a global phenomenon.

Building connections to the source of production will bring greater meaning, purpose and educational opportunities to producers and consumers around the world.

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