Direct Market Vegetable Farmers Income
What is Direct Market Vegetable Farmers Income? A New Report from the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture Explores this Question
What is direct market vegetable farmers income? Can they be part of the middle class? Do they need to hold off-farm jobs?
The Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) studied 39 farms over three years to find out. Their new report is the most comprehensive review of direct-market vegetable farm finances to date.
Vegetable farms that sell their produce through farmers markets, CSA programs, on-farm stores, and other direct-market channels are the foundation of local food movements everywhere. Yet there is surprisingly little information available to help answer a basic question: Can farmers make a middle-class income selling vegetables through direct-market outlets?
PASA launched an ongoing study in 2017 to help fill this critical gap in information. Their new report, Financial Benchmarks for Direct-Market Vegetable Farms, offers the most comprehensive review of direct-market vegetable farm businesses to date, sharing detailed financial benchmarks from 39 farms collected over three years.
The findings were consistent with structural challenges that negatively impact small- and medium-scale farms in a highly consolidated agriculture industry. In other words: They were sobering.
PASA hopes these insights will both help direct-market farmers hone their business models and contribute to meaningful food system change.
Read a summary of the findings on the PASA Blog
Want to read the full report? Download it here.
Also check out this upcoming PASA WEBINAR about the Direct Market Vegetable Farmers Income Report
Join PASA on October 5 for an overview of their new report, Financial Benchmarks for Direct-Market Vegetable Farms. They will discuss their findings, explore three pathways toward higher incomes, and explain how direct-market farmers can participate in the ongoing study.
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