WV Farm Bureau Magazine June 2013 | Page 16

Focus on Agriculture Farmers’ Markets a “Win-Win-Win” Robert Giblin M emorial Day weekend semi-officially marks the beginning of summer, but in many parts of the country, summer seasonal farmers’ markets have been open for one or two months and people are flocking to them. The Agriculture Department reports that there were 7,864 U.S. farmers’ markets in 2012, an increase of 28 percent in just two years and more than 4.5 times the number of markets in 1994. Of those, 1,864 are winter farmers’ markets, which increased 52 percent in just the last year. They have grown so popular that