Very Successful Summer

I didn’t keep up with all the goings on on this page, but it’s been a busy and successful summer for locally grown markets all over the country.

What began as a small alternative market six years ago in Athens, Georgia has spread to other communities in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Missouri, Texas, New Hampshire, Vermont, Oregon, Washington, and California.

My own market exploded this year. The video on this site was filmed two years ago, and I was hopeful that the nearly 50 orders that week as a sign of things to come. Well, we’re now up to almost 800 customers, 40 growers, and enough orders each week to keep five people busy for four hours a week. Instead of merely being an alternative market, it’s now the main farmers market in the area.

The other markets are seeing similar growth. Partly it’s because of the ease of use of this locallygrown.net system, but mainly it’s because people are waking up to the true costs of food harvested on industrial farms and shipped halfway around the world. Attendance and sales at markets around the country are growing like never before, and this online market system just happens to be in the right place at the right time.

I’ve been busy all year adding incremental improvements to the system. Every time customers, growers, and market managers have found things that could be optimized, customized, and simplified, I have done what I can to make it so. In the eight months since I opened the doors, 28,000 items have been purchased earning growers $153,000. It’s not a lot (yet) compared to the industrial farms, but it has helped established small family farms keep going and encouraged many more to begin growing food for their community.

And that is why I put all the effort into this system.