Start Date
2024 12:00 AM
Abstract
Farmers’ markets have been burdened with the expectation that they be spaces that improve the environment, address nutritional disparities, provide economic opportunity for small farms and businesses, create community, and overcome racial inequality. This is especially true of areas with high poverty and racial diversity. To better understand the commonalities and differences between Wisconsin’s urban and rural farmers’ markets, a statewide survey was sent to farmers’ market managers around the State. Farmers’ markets in Milwaukee County were further separated out from the State’s urban market data to better understand the relationship of the data to the counties’ demographics, segregation, and poverty rate. The primary differences between Milwaukee County markets, other urban markets, and rural markets in Wisconsin include their structure, staff, SNAP redemption, and vendor demographics. Milwaukee County markets were more likely to be stand-alone entities or affiliated with a government agency, have paid managers, accept SNAP benefits, and have more vendor racial diversity. Rural Wisconsin markets were more likely to be associated with a local business or chamber, have volunteer managers, lack SNAP redemption services and have predominantly white vendors.
Keywords
Demographics, market manager, poverty, segregation, SNAP
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Krokowski, K. (2025). "Utilizing Data Collection and Networking to Characterize and Strengthen Farmers’ Markets in Milwaukee, Wisconsin," Urban Food Systems Symposium. https://newprairiepress.org/ufss/2024/proceedings/4/
Utilizing Data Collection and Networking to Characterize and Strengthen Farmers’ Markets in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Farmers’ markets have been burdened with the expectation that they be spaces that improve the environment, address nutritional disparities, provide economic opportunity for small farms and businesses, create community, and overcome racial inequality. This is especially true of areas with high poverty and racial diversity. To better understand the commonalities and differences between Wisconsin’s urban and rural farmers’ markets, a statewide survey was sent to farmers’ market managers around the State. Farmers’ markets in Milwaukee County were further separated out from the State’s urban market data to better understand the relationship of the data to the counties’ demographics, segregation, and poverty rate. The primary differences between Milwaukee County markets, other urban markets, and rural markets in Wisconsin include their structure, staff, SNAP redemption, and vendor demographics. Milwaukee County markets were more likely to be stand-alone entities or affiliated with a government agency, have paid managers, accept SNAP benefits, and have more vendor racial diversity. Rural Wisconsin markets were more likely to be associated with a local business or chamber, have volunteer managers, lack SNAP redemption services and have predominantly white vendors.
