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

View the project final report

Commodities

Practices

• Education and Training: participatory research
• Sustainable Communities: local and regional food systems, quality of life, sustainability measures, markets

Although sales within direct market outlets have been tightening, farmers markets and CSAs remain an important outlet for small farmers to sell their produce and products, while reinforcing the importance of local agricultural connections between consumers and producers. In the Southeastern U.S., many farmers markets exist, yet research data reinforced prior anecdotal observations that very few Hispanic immigrant farmers sell their product at these traditional, extension- or community-run, direct-to-consumer outlets in the Middle Tennessee area. While direct-to-consumer outlets present their own challenges, they offer valuable opportunities for these farmers to develop their enterprises and build local consumer connections. The question remains, then: What are some of the factors that seem to account for these absences? To begin to assess this question, this project sought to generate data on the composition and nature of area direct-to-consumer sites, using this data to address any informational barriers immigrant farmers may be experiencing in accessing these sites.

The primary focus of this project has been to gather data through a mixed-methods approach (including surveys and semi-structured interviews) to provide insights on area direct-to-consumer markets. Once initial data collection began, both through investigating online resources about each market and from early participant observation at markets, it became clear that easily accessible information on these markets was extremely consumer-focused and a comprehensive resource about these markets did not exist for area farmers. Each market had different stated and implicit requirements; served different customer demographics; and given market day, time, size, location, focus, and popularity, offered vastly different opportunities for farmers. As a result, the proposed idea to create a comprehensive resource on area farmers markets proposed in the initial grant application was confirmed and became a primary focus.

Specifically, this project carried out a comprehensive inventory of the 70+ extension- and community-run markets across Middle Tennessee by drawing upon publicly website available information on each market, then engaging in detailed participant observation and informal conversations at 46 of those markets. Additional data collection to supplement the above, including surveys and semi-structured interviews with market managers and immigrant farmers, is ongoing.

As a result of those activities, the researchers have concluded:

• Traditional extension- and community-run direct-to-consumer markets reflect an almost homogenous picture of local agriculture, dominated by White producers, vendors, and customers in this region, despite growing diversity both in residential and farmer demographics.
• The date and time of many rural extension- and community-run markets appear to limit their efficacy. Those taking place on weekday mornings and afternoons had far more limited vendor and customer participation than weekend markets, some not occurring at all on stated days. This lack of reliability is a challenge for farmers.
• The far more bustling weekend and weeknight markets occurring in larger cities and suburban areas posed different challenges. Particularly in up-and-coming cities and towns, produce and meat vendors adopted a rural aesthetic as a marketing tool to display their products and used professional signage touting active social media and website pages. New farmers may find managing these marketing aspects challenging in addition to the daily demands of running a farm.
• Targeted Hispanic immigrant farmers remain difficult to identify (and thus seemingly “invisible”). Rather than at extension- and community-run markets, Hispanic vendors more commonly congregate at Hispanic-dominated flea markets, as well as in online social media marketplaces. Online marketplaces, particularly, offer a flexible means of connecting to potential consumers outside of stated market times and locations.
• Considering the extremely high bar immigrant farmers face in establishing farms at the outset, including land, equipment, language barriers, information, capital, and markets, the increasingly competitive marketing seen at many extension- and community-run farmers markets imposes additional limitations on immigrant farmers, making online marketplaces low-stakes and attractive entry spaces into direct-to-consumer sales.

Despite the limitations that these area farmers markets pose, a comprehensive guide for limited-resource farmers—the primary target demographic of which here are Hispanic immigrants—to make informed decisions about the markets they may want to enter remains absent. As such, the graduate student researcher focused efforts on creating a widely accessible bilingual website detailing comprehensive information on all direct-to-consumer market sites encountered, including how to join them. This information will be disseminated through a variety of channels to reach target and other farmers, including directly to farmers, to extension agents and other local agricultural professionals, and via online marketplace sites where many Hispanic vendors are present. It is hoped this product will support an enhanced quality of life for farmers and improved sustainability of the region's foodshed. Because of ongoing difficulties in meeting target Hispanic farmers, the ability to measure outcomes directly through farmer responses at workshops or informational forums is not yet possible. However, because the graduate student researcher will remain in Middle Tennessee long-term, she plans to measure outcomes in the future after more farmer connections are made. Likewise, as new relevant results are generated, handouts or pamphlets may be generated, in addition to forthcoming conference presentations and published papers.

• Drawing on a community-based participatory research model and based on extant connections with local extension agents, create a farmer advisory group made up of 6 to 8 Hispanic immigrant farmers. The COVID-19 pandemic-necessitated field site change to Middle Tennessee, and the diffuse and mostly invisible nature of burgeoning immigrant agriculturalists across this region have made identifying a cohort of Hispanic farmers to inform objectives as the project evolved impossible. It was learned that this might be possible in this site with a far longer project timeline and as a retrospective review of the project after all other research activities are completed.
• Carry out a comprehensive inventory of farmers markets and CSAs across the middle Tennessee area.
• Investigate where Hispanic immigrant farmers in middle Tennessee sell their crops and/or products, any difficulties they may face in accessing markets or other barriers, the possibilities for niche production, and what area farmers are growing or raising.
• Using the data collected to address the above goals, analyze, present, and disseminate research.
• Contribute to generalizable knowledge, theory and practice on barriers to direct-to-consumer market access for farmers in local markets as well as a model for studying direct-to-consumer access elsewhere in the United States.
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