Here’s why it matters and why we hope you take it and help us in spreading the word. And if you want to skip this article and go learn more/take the survey, here’s the link.

If you’ve been around the farmers markets world for a while, you may know that every five-ish years, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has commissioned a national survey to gather information about farmers markets. You can learn about the most recent past effort here. USDA AMS has contracted to different entities over time to conduct and analyze this survey; this year’s survey is being led by Michigan State University Extension (MSUE), who has a long history of working in local and regional food systems. For the first time in recent history, the survey team has including formal input directly from the farmers market sector. Amanda Edmonds and Dar Wozniak, both with deep history in farmers markets and with a specialization in market evaluation, are the Farmers Market Sector Advisors to the MSUE research team. They are informed by a twelve person Advisory Group that includes leaders of state-level market organizations as well as flagship markets and key partners from across the US. The input from Dar & Amanda, and the Advisory Group, has been heard and included in many ways in this project. FMC thinks that this survey, if it can garner high enough response rates from markets across the US states and territories, will become the national benchmark for understanding topics such as management structure, staffing, funding, and vendors.

And, unlike the last iteration of this survey, the data will be available to the public at the state level if response rates are high enough. This is huge, and will allow state farmers market networks, departments of agriculture, cooperative extension, market advocacy organizations, and others to have data they can use in their work fundraising and advocating for farmers markets. Let us be specific about “if response rates are high enough” — each state has a specific numeric threshold it must reach for data to be releasable– and as the survey is in the field (now through the end of March) you can track on the survey website whether your state has met this threshold. In other words, some states may end up with releasable state-level data and others may not.

If you take the survey, you may find similarities to some questions in the standardized data collection tools on this site. That’s not an accident! While the National Farmers Market Survey is not an FMC project, we encouraged the MSUE team to, when possible, move towards collecting metrics in ways consistent with how they are collected at the market and state level. Imagine you being able to compare your market level data with state or national data.

When you check out the survey website you’ll find a page of downloadable materials to help spread the word– emailable blurbs, social media posts, postcards and flyers, powerpoint slides, and more. Please, share about the survey on any listservs that might include market operators or market managers. You’ll also find FAQs, info about the team, and more on the website.

If you operate a market, please take the survey today! The survey should take approximately 20–25 minutes to complete. While it was designed so that operating records are not required, having access to your 2025 operational records may make it easier to answer some questions. This survey is relatively brief so that it can garner a high response rate. Farmers market managers across all 50 states and U.S. territories are encouraged to participate. While some market operators will have received a direct link from MSUE (as they have been chosen to be part of a representative survey sample), all other markets can submit their own response via the open link on the webpage. While most of the information requested on the survey is publicly available, your privacy is still important– only the MSUE research team (not Dar & Amanda, not the Advisory Group, and not USDA staff) will have access to the raw responses.