LFS 350 PROJECT PROPOSAL
NORTH SHORE ARTISAN FARMERS’ MARKETS
Presented to:
Wilson Mendes, LFS 350 section 001
Tara, General Manager, Artisan Farmers’ Markets Society
Submitted October 8th, 2017 by: Andrew Nguyen, Ayra Casuga, Jenny Lu, Niki Najafi, and Rita Steele
*Word count: 998
Introduction
Purchasing food from neighbourhood farmers’ markets has become an increasingly popular trend as more and more information about the social and economic benefits of supporting small farmers is becoming widely available. Increased popularity of farmers’ markets helps to stimulate local economies and divert dollars away from carbon-emitting transportation associated with importing foreign foods. Since 2002, the Artisan Farmers’ Markets Society has been on a mission to celebrate and support BC farmers and small local businesses in community-connected markets. Presently, there are three operating locations: Burnaby, Lonsdale Quay, and Ambleside Farmers’ Markets. These markets provide a selling opportunity for over 150 vendors every week from May through October.
The following proposal is the product of a collaboration between the Lonsdale Quay and Ambleside Farmers’ Markets, and a six-person team of UBC Land and Food Systems students. The project team’s goal is to assist these markets in increasing vendor participation by providing quantitative data identifying why vendors choose to sell or not sell at both markets. This data will be used to develop concrete solutions towards advancing this goal.
Significance
During the 2016 year, the Artisan Farmers’ Markets Society found itself in a $17,000.00 deficit. The new general manager has begun an operational evaluation of all three of its farmers’ markets to account for the loss. If the organization wishes to continue operations, it will need to cover this deficit and make necessary changes to remain profitable in the future. Gathering and sharing vendor preference data will directly contribute to understanding on how to improve vendor participation and indirectly contribute solutions towards increased profitability.
To sustain and grow all farmers’ markets in BC, the BC Farmers Market Association created a strategic plan focusing on five key performance areas (KPAs). This project will focus on one KPA, known as “Integrity in the Market Place” where markets are expected to consistently increase overall vendor participation (desLibris, 2012). This KPA strategy includes improving communication between vendors and managers (desLibris, 2012). This project aims to meet this KPA by using interviews and surveys to bridge communication gaps between vendors and the general manager; sharing what drives vendors to sell and not sell at Lonsdale and Ambleside markets.
Objectives
Objective 1. To use interviews and quantitative surveys to identify the key social, environmental, political, and economic factors that are most important to a vendor when deciding to start and stop selling at the North Vancouver and West Vancouver Farmers’ Markets by October 2017.
Objective 2. To use these identified key factors to determine what steps the Artisan Farmers’ Markets Society can take to improve vendor participation and achieve its Integrity in the Market Place KPA by December 2017.
Methods
To identify factors which influence vendors in making these decisions, this research must both communicate in-person with the vendor community and develop efficient and measurable means to collect and analyze the data within a 3-month time frame. This project will gather data – some qualitative, primarily quantitative – from vendors in the Lonsdale Quay and Ambleside Farmers’ Markets. In many cases, vendors choose to sell at multiple markets throughout the lower mainland. This project will be limited to surveying only those vendors who participate or have participated in the Lonsdale Quay and Ambleside Farmers’ Markets specifically, and who have been randomly selected to participate in our interviews and surveys.
To achieve Objective 1, the research team will first need to determine a list of alternative social, environmental, political, and economic factors that may influence vendors when choosing whether to start or stop selling at the North or West Vancouver markets. These factors will determine many of the questions to be presented in survey form. These alternative factors will be chosen based off a review of previous surveys conducted at the markets, previously published literature relating to vendor participation at farmers markets, and qualitative data gained from in-person interviews from both the general manager and the market vendors. The team will split into two groups – one visiting Lonsdale Quay, and the other, Ambleside – in early October to gather initial qualitative data. The data collected from the interviews will then be combined with data from previous surveys and published reports and reviewed by the market’s general manager before being transferred to quantitative surveys.
The quantitative survey process will begin in mid-October and continue throughout mid-November. The team will provide vendors with a line-scale survey (Figure 1) that will rank each factor according to importance. The team will provide this survey to current vendors at the market and vendors from previous years in-person and via phone or email. In-person survey participants will be randomly selected based on whether they are present at the location on the day of surveying; phone and email participants will be randomly selected from the Artisan Farmers’ Markets vendor contact database.
After surveys have been completed by vendors, a one-way ANOVA on Microsoft Excel will be used to statistically differentiate and rank the main reasons why vendors stop selling (see Tables 1 and 2). To achieve Objective 2, the categorized data will then be used to develop concrete solutions to improve vendor participation at both markets.
There may be concern that vendors might feel pressured by the general manager to complete the survey. To address this, the team will ensure that vendors understand that this survey is both anonymous and optional and data will be used only with their permission – the general manager will also be asked not to speak to vendors about completing the survey. A consent form allowing us to use collected data for our analysis and share survey data internally and externally will be given to survey participants.
Outcomes:
The project team will record and classify the factors that influence vendor participation, use this analysis to develop next steps for the organization, and present these to the general manager in a report on December 3rd 2017. Additionally, the project team will create a visual infographic displaying key decision-influencing factors for vendors and present this to the Artisan Farmers’ Markets Society on November 29th.
References:
desLibris - Documents, Canadian Electronic Library (Firm), & British Columbia Association of Farmers' Markets. (2012). British columbia farmers' markets sector strategic plan 2011-2016BC Association of Farmers' Markets.