Assessing the Conditions Informing Direct-to-Consumer Access for Hispanic Immigrant Farmers in the Southeast

As noted in a prior report, the onset of COVID-19 coincided closely with start of this project's data collection, which was subsequently suspended because the human subjects-based methods required face-to-face interaction. Given work among immigrant populations with whom trust had to first be built, and the fact that many participants lacked appropriate technologies to engage in remote research, proceeding as originally planned was not feasible. Moreover, the project had to undergo a research site change from Florida to Middle Tennessee. Shortly after COVID began, the organization in Florida originally linking the researcher to targeted farmers determined that they were no longer able to provide the previously agreed-upon assistance. The dissolution of the relationship meant the loss of ties to critical (but otherwise largely "invisible") research participants where entrance into these communities is difficult without internal contacts. Especially amidst the pandemic, it was not possible to generate these connections without outside assistance.

As such, in mid-2021, a project scope change was submitted for a research site change to Middle Tennessee, an area with a small, but growing number of Hispanic immigrant farmers. It was hoped that because the graduate student researcher had connections to agricultural professionals in the area, she would be able to obtain farmer referrals. However, due in part to agricultural professionals’ busy schedules, some agricultural professionals’ concern at providing direct contacts to immigrant farmers, and some immigrant farmer hesitance, this has unfortunately not proven to be a successful direction as previously anticipated.

As a result, the graduate student researcher turned her primary focus and efforts to generating data to support the direct-to-consumer market inventory, hoping this would be a more fruitful means of generating farmer contact. There are more than 70 such direct-to-consumer market spaces across the Middle Tennessee region, a majority of which are listed with basic data only on state-run agricultural websites (location, day/time, and contact). Nearly all these markets also have some public-facing online presence (typically Facebook or Instagram, or less commonly a website) as a means of spreading the word about their activities. What is notable, however, is that these online resources seem primarily focused on being public-facing means of attracting customers, highlighting eye-catching pictures and farmer/vendor stories. As such, the information relevant to potential farmers or vendors to inform a choice on whether to participate is often minimal and hard to find. This reinforced the need for a comprehensive, farmer-oriented inventory to assist farmers in making decisions on which markets might suit their needs and support their commercial activity best. Consequently, the graduate student researcher visited and completed detailed observations at 46 of these 70+ area farmers and flea markets that include agricultural producers and other vendors, collecting information on market site infrastructure; observed customer demographics and average number of customers present; number and observed demographics of vendors; booth decorations and aesthetics; and the agricultural produce, prepared foods, and/or crafts present at each booth. These markets comprised a representative cross-section of regional markets according to market size, consumer demographic, location, and population density.

The data collected at a vast majority of these 46 markets at which observations occurred illuminated the racially and ethnically homogenous nature of these spaces. While this is not entirely surprising given the racial and ethnic demographic makeup of the Middle Tennessee area, it reinforced, in part, the extremely segregated nature of agriculture in Middle Tennessee despite its growing diversity. This lack of diversity extended not only to immigrant communities that have a relatively shorter historical presence in the area, but also to minority Black communities whose presence is centuries-long. During all of the market visits, the graduate researcher only encountered two Hispanic immigrants selling agricultural products at traditional extension- or community-run markets, both of whom had White spouses with whom they farmed. Only two other immigrant farming families, both of Vietnamese backgrounds, were also observed, both at the same market. In the metropolitan city of Nashville itself, it was slightly more common to see immigrant prepared food and craft vendors booths—including some persons of Hispanic heritage and others from across the globe—and these individuals often highlighted their immigrant background or the specialty foods or crafts from their native communities that they sold. However, these represented still a relatively small segment of the total number of vendors. Even in suburban and rural communities with a significant Hispanic population, where the graduate researcher expected to see farmers and vendors more closely representing the area’s population, no such diversity of farmers was observed.

In contrast to the lack of diversity at typically extension- and community-run farmers markets, the graduate researcher has started to encounter local spaces that are dominated by persons of Hispanic heritage. These include a few local weekend flea markets whose vendors are predominantly of Latin American origin. In each of these is typically one produce vendor, most of whose produce is imported; however, there are also some smaller nursery vendors selling plants. In Nashville itself, there is also a church-run farmers market directed to a congregation that is three-quarters Hispanic. This farmers market is comprised by community vendors, including some local farmers, although the farmers currently represented were not of Hispanic origin. Some school-aged mostly Hispanic children, however, were selling produce and plant starts from a local community agriculture program in which they took part. Lastly, the other most frequently observed space dominated by persons of Hispanic heritage are online marketplace sites such as Facebook marketplace. Likely because of the low time investment and lack of space, overhead, and regulation required, it is common to see prepared foods, whole and butchered chickens, and exotic produce, as well as a wide variety of (sometimes exotic) house plants, seasonal crops, herbs (such as papalo or epazote), plants, and occasionally gardening supplies for sale by local Hispanic growers and vendors. As a result, it appears a large portion of micro- to small-scale commercial agricultural activity by Hispanic immigrants is occurring via social media on primarily Spanish-language flea market sites, eliminating the need for a physical booth or space outside one’s home. This has the added value of reaching a far wider audience than those who might attend a physical farmers or flea market, while allowing the farmer or vendor and the customer to do so in their own time. Given that the work schedules of many immigrants conflict with the weekday daytime markets and even some weekend markets, this provides a far more convenient means of connecting farmers and vendors with customers, and these increasingly common social media marketplaces should be considered valuable direct-to-consumer spaces.

The characteristics of the state- and community-run markets also appeared to have a concrete impact on their success and popularity. Unsurprisingly, the weekend markets were far more popular and better attended overall, both by customers and vendors. Geographically, these tended to be located in larger towns, cities, or suburban areas, whereas the weekday morning or afternoon markets tended to occur in more rural areas. Weekday afternoon-occurring markets were often far more poorly attended, sometimes with as few as three farmers or vendors, many of whom were older and retired, engaging in market-scale gardening or small-scale farming or selling baked goods as a hobby. In most of these markets, aside from the nearly ubiquitous presence of baked goods, one would find summer fruits and vegetables traditional to the mid-South, such as fresh sweet corn, green beans, a variety of tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, okra, collard greens, yellow summer squash, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries, or produce like pumpkins, cabbages and apples as the fall approached. Occasionally, one could also find fresh eggs and farmers providing various cuts of chicken, beef, lamb, or pork. Thus, the variety at these markets reflected that which had been traditionally grown or raised in the area, leaving an unexploited opportunity for niche produce or products, although day, time, location, market size and popularity certainly limit the value of this unexploited gap. Also worth noting was that, in several cases on weekdays and even in a few rural weekend markets, there were no vendors, organizers, or customers present during stated market times, limiting the efficacy of these markets as reliable direct-to-consumer spaces altogether. It is information like this that is valuable to farmers considering these local markets that is not available without direct observation, underscoring again the value of a comprehensive inventory and website outreach tool.

On the other hand, the relatively more bustling weekend or weeknight markets in larger towns, cities, and suburban areas revealed altogether different characteristics that set them apart as not only spaces for commerce but entertainment. Many had live music; children’s activities such as coloring and painting, three-legged races, and petting zoos with farm animals; and a variety of food and drink trucks, some even selling craft beers and cocktails. Many of these markets tended to focus on crafts, decorative items, jewelry, candles and body products, a variety of baked goods (many vegan or gluten-free), breads, prepared foods, and even franchised booths selling pastas. Notable also was an increased presence of animal products, including fresh eggs and refrigerated cuts of beef, chicken, pork, and lamb. Likewise, farmers at this market also offered the range of “traditional” warm-season summer fruits and vegetables, as well as prepared foods such as jams, pickled vegetables, and baked goods, common at the smaller, rural markets. However, they also included a wider range of cool season and specialty crops such as a wide array of lettuces and greens, kale, cauliflower and broccoli, peas and beans, along with heirloom tomatoes and other notable specialty varieties. An important departure from the booths at the smaller, rural markets—which usually consisted of a table, simple signage, and the products for sale—was that many of the vendors’ booths at these popular markets were highly decorated. These decorative elements included professionally printed signage, often with a website address and Facebook and Instagram pages; heirloom quilts as tablecloths; galvanized washtubs and decorative wooden or painted crates to display products; and chalkboards to advertise products and pricing. Many of these farms, too, were not named by the farming family but rather creative names such as the “Pig and Leaf,” “A Bushel and a Peck Homestead,” or “The Farm and Fiddle.” All these elements combined to capitalize on a rural aesthetic that seemed quite effective in drawing in customers, compared to the foot traffic at relatively simpler booths at these markets. It is worth also noting that the same trend for a higher degree of decoration was also present at many of the craft booths at these same markets, indicating an overall trend in this direction.

This observation is important for three reasons. First, it extends observations made by social scientists in the last decade that farmers markets are spaces largely occupied by White consumers and farmers, often rendering invisible minorities that have always played a significant role in agriculture. Here, too, the increasing diversity of Middle Tennessee farmers attested by USDA Census statistics is not being reflected in public direct-to-consumer market spaces. Rather, the rural aesthetic upon which booths at these markets capitalize draws upon ideas of a traditionally bucolic, pastoral (largely White) America, a vision that is commodified greatly in Nashville’s country music and tourism industry but is being increasingly lost with the region’s rapid population growth and development. Second, it highlights that farmers in these direct-to-consumer spaces have a much higher bar to surmount than simply that of selling high quality produce or meats. Rather, the marketing aspects of direct-to-consumer sales—contingent the market and location—may involve significant additional work, from amassing decorative items that help create a rural aesthetic, to maintaining a social media and website presence, on top of the day-to-day tasks of farming. While the rewards may be high in terms of name recognition and generating a loyal customer following, for small farmers considering certain busier markets, these implicit additional requirements may demand too much initial effort to compete with extant vendors. Third, returning to the focus of this research—the increasing number of Hispanic immigrants entering agriculture—extant scholarly and applied literature has already established that the bar for immigrants entering farming is already extremely high. They must establish reliable access to land, equipment, capital, and information, as well as the markets to which to sell their products, accomplishing all of this in a language that is often not their first. Considering the additional bar that establishing a thematic decorative aesthetic at markets adds, in addition to marketing via dedicated and often elaborate social media and website pages, it is no surprise that transitory sites like Facebook marketplaces have become much more common commercial spaces, especially for very small-scale growers.