or other uses, see Farmer (disambiguation) and Grower (disambiguation).
 A farmer in Nicaragua | |
| Occupation | |
|---|---|
Occupation type | Employment |
Activity sectors | Agriculture |
| Description | |
Fields of employment | Market |
Related jobs | Rancher (U.S.), grazier (Australia), or stockman |
A farmer[1] (also called an agriculturer) is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer might own the farmed land or might work as a laborer on land owned by others, but in advanced economies, a farmer is usually a farm owner, while employees of the farm are known as farm workers or farmhands. However, in the not so distant past, a farmer was a person who promotes or improves the growth of (a plant, crop, etc.) by labor and attention, land or crops or raises animals (as livestock or a wide range of organizations initiate, organize, and manage farmers' markets, including farmers' groups, community groups, local governments, etc.
Some markets are strictly managed, with rules for pricing, quality, and vendor selection. Others are much more relaxed in their operations and vendor criteria. While the usual emphasis is on locally grown food products, some farmers' markets allow co-ops and purveyors or allow farmers to purchase some products to resell.
There have been recent reports of fraud and products mislabeled as organic or locally grown when they are not.[26] In some cases, fraudulent farmers' markets sell regular grocery store vegetables, passing them off as organic or locally grown, which are usually sold to unsuspecting tourists.
Some farmers' markets have wholesale operations, sometimes limited to specific days or hours. One such wholesale farmers' market is the South Carolina State Farmers Market,[27] which is a major supplier of watermelons, cantaloupes, and peaches for produce buyers in the north-eastern US. Farmers' markets also may supply buyers from produce stands, restaurants, and garden stores with fresh fruits and vegetables, plants, seedlings and nursery stock, honey, and other agricultural products. Although this is on the decline, in part due to the growth of chain stores that desire national distribution networks and cheap wholesales prices—prices driven down by the low cost of imported produce. Ideally, farmers' market produce and fruit are normally grown within a geographical region that is deemed local by the market's management. The term "local" is defined by the farmers' market and usually represents products grown within a given radius measured in miles or kilometers.[41] Many farmers' markets state that they are "producer-only" markets and that their vendors grow all products sold. Some farmers' markets do not use the term "producer-only" and may allow resellers of produce, fruit, and other food products.
Some farmers' markets allow vendors to resell vegetables and fruits if they are not available locally due to the time of the year. Vegetables, fruit, meat, and other products resold at farmers' markets are available to vendors through food distributors.[42] This is a common practice and provides consumers with produce and fruit that are unavailable at certain times of the year. In many markets resell items are a permanent part of the vendor's inventory.
There are four subject areas that consumers tend to consider when purchasing food directly from the producer:
- Variety name
- Whether the product is in-season
- Verifiability of the origins of the food
- Whether any products have a PLU (price look-up code) sticker[43]
All vegetables and fruits have unique names that distinguish them from any other, whether they are for commercial use, for home gardening, or heirloom. A number or alphanumeric string usually identifies the newer commercial varieties.[44][45] Vendors’ employees might not always know the variety names of the products they are selling but they will be able to get a list from their emp fish).
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