Hi Chris, As the author of the NOFA study that Barry cites, I feel compelled to chime in here. From reading comments around the web, and reading your own introduction to the topic, I am somewhat discouraged that people are using Estabrook's commentary on the issue as the jumping off point without actually reading the complete study. I would encourage everyone to do so, as I am overall much more cautious in my conclusions, and touch upon many of the points that are raised here. Indeed, part of my frustration is to read comments that express a degree of incredulousness when in fact many of the points raised are directly addressed in the study. Yet, I am more than pleased by the discussion that the study has generated, particularly here, and am more than happy to answer any questions that anyone may have. Additionally, our study took many painstaking steps to ensure that the comparison was as close to apples-to-apples as possible, falling short however in actually making an apples-to-apples comparison : ). For instance, all items compared had to be exactly the same varieties and had to be priced per pound in order to be considered an observable data point. Furthermore, despite vendors claiming organic practices, only those who had verifiable certification were considered organic, with all other producers being treated as conventional. We actually intentionally avoided comparing meat prices because many vendors in Vermont raise grass-fed beef, which often does not have a direct analog at grocery stores. Will meat prices be higher at farmers' markets, particularly in Vermont, most likely, but what you are buying is not identical to what you are buying at the grocery store and unless it is, the comparison is not helpful nor ultimately worth making. The difficulties that these issues pose to getting an exact comparison are thoroughly discussed in the study. The point is, many people are comparing prices of items that aren't necessarilly the same, and yes, this leads to the myth that prices at farmers' markets are higher. When one looks at items that are the clearly the same, the myth begins to loose its pull, and as many have highlighted, the differences between the venues also becomes clear. In other words, the product mix at farmers' markets is many times very differnent than what it is at grocery stores, but for the mix of items that are shared between the two, prices are actually competitive. Furthermore, we aggregated the prices of every instance of an item, such that if there were two options at the grocery store, for example, both offerings of the item were recorded. We were not looking to observe the lowest price instance of an item at the farmers' markets or grocery store, but rather determine what the prices were for items on average; That is, if a customer were to enter either venue and choose a particular item at random, what would the price of that item likely be--and I should add that prices for items on sale were included in this calculation. I could go on, but I raise these points because your informal attempt to gauge price differences is precisely what we wanted to avoid when addressing this issue, and is an effective way for propagating misnomers. Anecdotal evidence, as evidenced here, is highly variable and imprecise when trying to assess the question at fine resolution. As many comments here reveal, prices by region and market vary. The way that we addressed this in Vermont was to collect at markets across the state that varied in the number of vendors present and the population characteristics of the surrounding area--and I should add that we broke down the price variation for each item in each respective region that we collected from. Vermont is unique in many respects, particularly in the amount of organic offerings that you can find at farmers' markets. The conclusions one can draw from our study may not have what economists might call a direct benefit transfer to other areas. However, our results overall were similar in nature to an extensive study done by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Iowa, so there is reason to believe that our results are not an egregious outlier. More work needs to be done, but research progress on the issue is gaining steam. I pleased to say that an economics student at the University of Chicago will be doing an analysis on some of our data to characterize how pricing decisions are made at markets and possibly determine if these pricing decisions are economically optimal. I also cover the issue of willingness to pay in the later sections of the study, an issue that was at some point indirectly raised. I hope this helps to clarify things at the very least, between my own dispositions and those of Mr. Estabrook, and would welcome further questions or thoughts. best, Jake Claro
