The farm stop model aims to “make it more mainstream” for Americans to buy directly from food producers, Mr. Brinkerhoff said. Americans want to eat local food, but they also want it to be convenient.
Since the 1990s, the prevalence of farmers’ markets has more than tripled, according to the U.S.D.A. But direct-to-consumer sales via farmers’ markets have plateaued, which researchers have linked to logistical complications like unreliable supply, seasonality and delivery timing. (Plus, they’re usually open just one or two days a week.) At the same time, spending at farm stores — which include both farm stands and farm stops — has doubled.
“Supermarkets are great if you are a big farmer that produces a lot of homogeneous and aesthetically perfect food,” said Susanne Freidberg, a professor at Dartmouth who studies the social, political and ecological life of food supply chains. “For the smaller, medium-sized farms, the supermarkets are often not an option.”
Washtenaw County, where Argus Farm Stop is, went from having about 1,000 farms in 1999 to 1,255 by 2022, bucking the trend of small farms closing both in Michigan and in the United States. The county is home to 15 farmers’ markets and two farm stops; 18 percent of Washtenaw County farms, which are mostly small, family operations, sell directly to consumers, substantially higher than the 7 percent national average.
Michigan wants to “support these kind of connective tissue pieces of the food system,” said Tim Boring, a director at the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. In January, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced funding to support farm stops and food hubs, the first grant of its kind. Investing in local food infrastructure doesn’t just give local farms better access to consumers, it helps the downtown areas of cities and towns.
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