American farmers’ markets: two types of informality

Farmers’ markets in the United States are structured in various ways. Even those once‐or‐twice‐a‐week markets that remain outside of the mass production and distribution system by requiring that all goods sold be produced by the seller take two distinct forms. The varieties of produce sold, the number of choices offered customers, the prices charged, the age and income expectations of the sellers, the rules the sellers obey and the role of the sellers in writing and enforcing those rules are consistent within each type of informal, American farmers’ markets but are quite different between the two types.