Eleventh International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

Due to their highly public nature, farmers markets have been framed as “keystone institutions” for building robust local food systems. However, little scholarly attention has been paid to how farmers markets utilize standards and regulations to define and position themselves in relation to the broader values of local and alternative food. This oversight is significant because standards and regulations are not merely neutral technical devices; rather, they entail moral, ethical, and political dimensions. By delimiting the parameters for acceptable items, people, and production practices, they also serve to codify marketplace inclusions and exclusions. By and large, farmers markets in the United States set their own regulations for what is and is not considered appropriate for sale at a given market. This includes dictating not only the geographic providence and modes of production that are acceptable, but also more nebulous attributes such as quality and authenticity. Drawing upon a novel dataset of farmers market regulatory documents, this paper highlights the ways that farmers markets standards and regulations are used as a mechanism for codifying marketplace values and systematizing authenticity.