Marketplace measurement: farmers, farmers markets and ecosystem services
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy
ISSN: 0144-333X
Article publication date: 28 March 2022
Issue publication date: 19 July 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Farmers markets act as a nexus between farmers, community members and social values, and can foster significant community and environmental benefits. However, some of these benefits, including agricultural sustainability, are rarely measured or publicized, restricting the full potential of markets and their associated actors to generate public benefits. This study aims to consider how markets, planners and policymakers might address this gap to promote a healthy environment and climate change mitigation.
Design/methodology/approach
In this article, the authors discuss their efforts to advance the above opportunity by developing, in collaboration with 20 farms across the USA, a citizen science data collection tool that measures and translates farm “ecosystem services” into accessible, public-facing formats to support informed farmer and consumer decision-making.
Findings
The authors present takeaways from exploratory interviews with three farmer-collaborators, which illustrate how tools like ours can help farmers in myriad ways: setting benchmarks to measure on-farm improvement over time, legitimizing their work through scientific grounding, communicating environmental impacts to public audiences, increasing sales to fund sustainability efforts, gaining competitive edge and others.
Practical implications
More broadly, the article exemplifies how marketplaces can strengthen symbiotic linkages between individuals, community allies and social goals through data measurement and communication, and reflects on how planners and policymakers might support these connections to advance public purposes.
Originality/value
This research responds uniquely to a critical need identified by practitioners and academics to expand understanding and awareness of the ecosystem services farms provide.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the many producers who contributed their time and expertise in developing the Ecosystem Services tool and provided permission to share their findings related to them. The authors are thankful to the market managers and additional experts who provided invaluable time, data and feedback throughout the tool's development. The authors also appreciate the instrumental assistance of current and former University of Wisconsin–Madison students and staff Anna Feldman, Rachel Fu, Garrett Smith, Maggie Tomashek, Leah Rosenblum and Brian Wiedenfeld in developing, testing and communicating about the tool. Finally, the authors thank Edna Ledesma and Rudy Molinek for their helpful comments on this article.
Conflict of interest: The second author co-created the Farm 2 Facts platform, and the first author is employed by the Kaufman Lab. The authors declare no commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Citation
DeMets, C. and Morales, A. (2022), "Marketplace measurement: farmers, farmers markets and ecosystem services", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 42 No. 7/8, pp. 760-773. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-11-2021-0271
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited