When searching for the definition of a market, I found two meanings that I found to be quite interesting. I found a two parted definition that encapsulates a certain kind of market.

The first definition that I found was this:



I found this definition interesting because it highlights the idea of a market to be defined by the people who attend it. This idea of the bringing together of people who either sell or obtain through means of "private purchase and sale". 

Now, I don't want to pretend like every farmer's market or local food center sells and produces 100% organic and local products and produce. In fact, in a study done by Zhifeng Gao, Marilyn Swisher, and Xin Zhao in HortScience's August 2012 issue, on three farmer's markets in Florida showed that farmer's market attendees have a much higher assumption of local and organic products being sold by vendors than what the farmer's market managers say that the markets really have. At the Gainesville market, farmer's market mangers believed anywhere from 81% to 100% of their products or produce that were organic or grown by the farmers or vendors themselves. At the Keystone Heights farmer's market, the managers believed anywhere from 61% to 80% of the products or produce were. And at the Tampa farmer's market, only 21% to 40% were believed to be organic or locally grown or produced (Zhao, 1104).

However, the purpose of this study was for two reasons; what products and produce were actually organic or locally grown or produced, and what percentage of farmer's markets would continue going to that market if they new what the actual statistics were. The results were judged by longer harvest time than what respondents expected, products not being local products, products not being organic products, and products not grown by the vendor. It was found that 75.8% of shoppers would continue shopping at their farmer's markets when they found out that the food had a longer harvest time than expected, 53.2% for products not being local products, 66.1% for products not being organic products, and 62.1% for products not being grown by the vendor (Zhao, 1105). 

The reason as to why these respondents agreed to continue shopping at the farmer's markets when finding out that their expectations were either minor or substantial misconceptions, based of the market they attended, was because of the atmosphere at the market itself. They see farmer's markets "as a place for socializing" (Zhao, 1106). 

So what does this mean?