Mt Pleasant Farmer's Market Survey

Today was my first out of three farmer's market visits for this week. In all, surveying crop farmers at the market took over an hour- and that was with the help of my Slow Food YCAC friends Grayson and Thomas. We surveyed the farmers with my own questions about the barriers to local, small- scale farmer success. These questions were based off of a Cornell Survey titled "Barriers to Beginning Farmer Success".
Our results from the survey were very interesting to compare to the statistics recorded in Shute's "Building a Future With Farmers". According to Shute's report, farmers in the South rated the following obstacles to success in order from the biggest to smallest:
1. lack of capital
2. land access
3. health care
4. access to credit
5. business planning and marketing skills
6. profitable markets
7. education and training
In this same report, farmers in the South also rated the following existing programs for assistance from most to least important:
1. apprenticeships
2.local partnerships
3. community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
4. land- linking programs
5. non- profit training and education
6. college and university training and education
The results in our data were slightly different from Shute's data. The farmers that we interviewed saw land access as less of an obstacle to success, meanwhile they saw health care as a bigger obstacle.
Our farmers' ratings for existing programs of assistance also varied slightly. Farmers neglected to place apprenticeships and CSA on top of their lists. In addition, when we asked what could be put into place that could potentially help farmers succeed, most responded that connections to provided aid programs, customers, and employees would be beneficial.
Reviewing the differences between my results and Shute's results, it makes sense that our group of farmers today did not see land access as a big issue. The reason for this is that most of the farmers inherited their land, therefore eliminating land access as an issue. Furthermore, they didn't see apprenticeships as a priority since most of them come from large farmer families, causing them to be less likely to leave their own "community" for farm assistance. This is also due to the lack of apprentice connections in the area.
Local farmers need a way to become more "in tune" to what is provided to them, just as the community needs to become more "in tune" to what barriers are causing farmers to struggle.

The image below is a tube of honey from Blue Pearl Farms. Ms. Ward farms blueberries and makes honey from her bees. Yummy!