Using Anthropology to Assess Engagements between Farmers Markets, Communities and Students

The farmer\u27s market movement is a popular local alternative to food globalization. While farmer\u27s markets link fresh food to urban and rural communities, the success of these links requires thoughtful assessment across various groups of stakeholders. Anthropology provides a useful tool kit for studying and assessing these links, through student projects, ethnography, Rapid Market Assessment, and service learning. This paper describes the range of illustrations of engagement, based on 5 years of projects, between students and communities at farmer\u27s markets in West Michigan. A field school approach illustrates academic/community collaboration and the role of anthropology as a tool for assessing such efforts. Those who attend this session will take away lessons on integrating strategies of assessment to improve both food provisioning across communities, and student learning/training as well