ABSTRACT
A significant proportion of consumers appear increasingly interested in more ethical or sustainable food and are seeking foods that may be variously categorised as healthy, spray-free, organic, non-genetically modified, ecological, with low food miles, ethically produced and/or fair trade, and traceable (e.g. Holloway and Kneafsey 2000; McEachern and Willock 2004; Groves 2005; Padel and Foster 2005; Seyfang 2006, 2008; Kneafsey et al. 2008; Thilmany et al. 2008; Middlemiss 2010; Morgan 2010). These constructs all require the consumer to be aware of the conditions under which food has been produced, who produced it and the trustworthiness of that producer. Although also very significant as tourist and community attractions (Hall and Sharples 2008), farmers’ markets are a logical outcome of consumer interest in sustainable food systems as they represent the ‘local’ and allow the consumer to connect directly with the producer of the food as well as reduce the ‘risks’ that individuals perceive in contemporary food consumption (Holloway and Kneafsey 2000; Hall et al. 2008).
