Vote with Your Fork: The Performance of Environmental Voice at the Farmers’ Market

Communicating social support during crises at the farmers’ market: A social exchange approach to understanding customer‐farmer communal relationships

“…Farmers must provide customers benefits in return for loyal support, which is consistent with SET (Cropanzano & Mitchell, ; Emerson, ; Roloff, ). Farmers provide access to a food supply that consumers perceive as high quality (Brown, ; Feagan & Morris, ), environmentally friendly (Alkon, ; Garner, ), and healthy (Alonso & O'Neill, ; Brown, ; Myae & Goddard, ). Farmers also provide customized service to loyal customers.…”

“…Farmers’ markets are growing rapidly in the United States (USDA, ), as well as in Canada, the U.K., and New Zealand (Feagan & Morris, ; Guthrie, Guthrie, & Lawson, ). The local food movement and farmers’ markets are a growing niche market in which scholars can and have examined consumer values such as: community and embeddedness (Feagan & Morris, ; Lyson, Gillespie, & Hilchey, ; Robinson & Hartenfeld, ), sustainability and environmentalism (Alkon, ; Garner, ), localism (Hinrichs, ; McEachern, Warnaby, Carrigan, & Szmigin, ), health and product quality (Brown, ; Myae & Goddard, ; Weber, Heinze, & DeSoucey, ), politics (Brenton, ; Pezzullo, ; Pezzullo, ) and especially increased social interaction and interdependence with vendors (Garner, ; Hunt, ; Sommer, Herrick, & Sommer, ; Trobe, ).…”

Sustainability marketing at the farmers’ market: An ethnographic analysis of ambiguous communication

“…Sustainability is a linchpin of many farmers’ markets, and some argue that sustainability is a reason why direct, alternative markets have grown recently in the United States (US), Canada, New Zealand, and the UK (Betz & Farmer, ; Brown, ; Carey, Bell, Duff, Sheridan, & Shields, ; Guthrie, Guthrie, & Lawson, ; Lawson, Guthrie, Cameron, & Fischer, ; Smithers, Lamarche, & Joseph, ; USDA, , ). Customers attend markets for many reasons: to get fresh food (Alonso & O'Neill, ; Brown, ; McNeill & Hale, ; Trobe, ), to encourage sustainable farming practices (Alkon, ; Garner, ), to support local farms economically (Brown & Miller, ; Lyson, Gillespie, & Hilchey, ), to build community ties (Feagan & Morris, ), have a more personal exchange (Garner, ; Robinson & Hartenfeld, ), and express their morality or ethics (Garner, ; McEachern, Warnaby, Carrigan, & Szmigin, ).…”

“…As mentioned above, consumers often equate farmers’ market food consumption with sustainability initiatives (Alkon, ; Alonso & O'Neill, ; Garner, ; Hunt, ). However, not all farms are equal in terms of applying environmental friendly practices, and consumers are not necessarily well educated on these issues.…”

“…As mentioned above, consumers often equate farmers' market food consumption with sustainability initiatives (Alkon, 2008a(Alkon, , 2008bAlonso & O'Neill, 2011;Garner, 2014;Hunt, 2007).…”