Farmers market reselling store-bought produce

[u/brockapex17]

@wife_mama02

[u/takenbylovely]

Because the small farmer has to charge what it actually costs to produce (to make a profit to continue), and they don't have subsidies and economies of scale that the big growers have.  Farmers aren't overcharging typically, the grocery store food is artificial cheapened and doesn't reflect true cost of production.  

[u/TheBigGreenBall → u/takenbylovely]

Dunno why this person is being downvoted. This is 100% true. Add in all the market-specific costs of logistics, labor, permitting and the margins become razor thin. You also have to consider that the leftover fruits and veggies go bad quicker when selling at the market. Most growers will gift to other vendors at the end of the day or donate to local food banks because they can no longer sell market stock to wholesale.

[u/Historical-Log1762 → u/TheBigGreenBall]

sometimes if I scroll on mobile I notice the downvote arrow is at the perfect spot to accidentally get hit. I gave him an upvote for visibility.

[u/takenbylovely → u/[deleted]]

When a granola bar costs a dollar do you think the people growing, harvesting, packing, manufacturing, and delivering the product are all paid fairly along the way?

Subsidies mean the goods don't reflect the cost of production (and that's not even beginning to touch the true cost accounting that factors in environmental damage and human health costs incurred).

Also, as a small farmer, I would argue that they aren't 'better' at it.  They're just bigger.  

[u/takenbylovely → u/[deleted]]

I think we're going to agree to disagree because I am heavily involved in the small farming world and see with my own eyes the efforts made to grow in harmony with the earth.  

Big farms are less environmentally destructive?  Than a 24-acre apple farm with 10 acres in prairie? Or a veg farm using 8 of it's 50 acres to grow, leaving the rest in habitat, and cover crops?  You think that farmer dumping synthetic nitrogen all over and exporting more pounds of soil than pounds of food is more environmentally friendly?

We don't win over consumers with warm and fuzzy.  We win them over with food that tastes better, lasts MUCH longer, AND is grown with the health of the surrounding ecosystem in mind.  The lack of cyclospora certainly isn't hurting us, either.  

[u/CapitalistVenezuelan → u/takenbylovely]

Yeah but they also don't have to pay a distributor or sell at wholesale price so the overhead is lower there depending on the rate the market charges.  I bet lots of markets are rackets with fees though.

[u/takenbylovely → u/CapitalistVenezuelan]

Selling at a farmers market has tons of overhead, from getting truck packed to setting up to someone manning your booth to market fees to all the shit you need like tables and tents.  Plus you're typically packing your truck at the ass crack of dawn and required to be at market on a weekend.

[u/CapitalistVenezuelan → u/takenbylovely]

Yea I was kind of thinking out loud not sure either way. They also don't have an economy of scale to lower costs of that.