Farmers’ Markets Are Crisis Lifelines to U.S. Growers and Shoppers
The coronavirus pandemic forces small farmers to rely on the internet and consumers to make up for lost restaurant sales.
A customer buys apples at a farmers’ market in San Francisco on March 25.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergCalifornia farmers are well versed in extreme conditions. In recent years, they’ve been forced to navigate everything from droughts to wildfires. But Covid-19 is something very different.
This month, Governor Gavin Newsom ordered first the Bay Area, and then the entire state of California to “shelter in place.” But he agreed with both the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and county health officials that farmers’ markets, which small growers rely on to supplement their restaurant sales, were an “essential business.” And it seems consumers agreed.