Talk:Farmers' market/Archives/2017

Worldwide view
Are there any farmers' markets in South America? Lbertolotti (talk) 12:57, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

The regional emphasis section could use sections of South American and Asia. As shown by the pictures there are farmers markets there and likely have been for longer than the west. This section seems to have a western-biased POV. Laejstudent2 (talk) 03:33, 12 February 2017 (UTC)

Benefits section
The benefits section does not seem to have a Neutral Point of View; it extensively catalogues claimed benefits (mostly without citations or without strong citations), but there must be associated costs or downsides, or else the markets would become the dominant form of distribution. I added accordingly. Vectro (talk) 20:07, 23 July 2016 (UTC)

I agree the benefits section seems to claim benefits without citation. For example, it says "It has been claimed that farmers' markets can offer farmers increased profit over selling to wholesalers..." without citing who claimed this or what studies have shown these benefits. However, it does mention some negative aspects of farmers markets with the fraud and foodborne illness. Laejstudent2 (talk) 03:31, 12 February 2017 (UTC)

Canada and United States
I added information on government-sponsored subsidy programs for farmers' markets. I did not have time to add information on how they are working though. This reference (I used in the text) has some info on that: Donovan et al. (2016). "Best Practices & Challenges for Farmers Market Incentive Programs: A Guide for Policymakers & Practitioners". The Graduate Journal of Food Studies. 1 (1). url = https://gradfoodstudies.org/2016/06/30/best-practices-challenges-for-farmers-market-incentive-programs-a-guide-for-policymakers-practitioners/ (I did not find a location for this journal) Hopefully, future edits by someone will include success/failure of these programs.Skingski (talk) 16:50, 13 July 2017 (UTC)(talk)

Health risks section
I have removed the health risks section that read:
 * Research by University of Minnesota economist Marc F. Bellemare and University of Michigan economist Ngoc Nguyen has shown that farmers markets increase the number of outbreaks and cases of food-borne illness, norovirus, and campylobacter.

The article text says that the economics study shows that farmers' markets increase the foodborne illnesses. The only sources on the section are primary sources from the authors of the study and do not make that claim. The study looks at the correlation between the increase over time of Farmers' Markets to the increase of Foodborne illnesses in the same state. They say there is a statistical correlation between the two but do not say the food from farmers' markets is the actual cause of the increase in foodborne illnesses.

In section 4.3 Limitations they explain how the report should not be used. The first item listed says:
 * First, even if one grants that (some of) the results reported in this paper might be causal, it would be a mistake to interpret those results as saying that the foods purchased at farmers markets are somehow more likely to make consumers ill than the foods purchased at grocery stores because of our results.

This says the report shouldn't be used in they way it was being used in the article. Secondary sources that discuss this and use their analysis to add anything into the article. ~ GB fan 15:53, 14 October 2017 (UTC)