by Robbi Mixon, AFPC Executive Director
In 2017, along with a group of other market managers and supporters, and with the help of a USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program Grant, I helped to restart the Alaska Farmers Market Association (AFMA), aimed at supporting a vibrant and sustainable market community across the state. We’ve worked hard to create resources, like our interactive directory and toolkits, to support the growth and resilience of farmers markets. As of spring 2023, we now have 64 markets operating in Alaska - up from just 13 in 2005.
Interest in local food and local distribution networks is growing, here in Alaska and beyond. In July of 2021, Farmers Market Associations from around the world (including ours!) were asked to support the formation of the World Farmers Market Coalition, with the immense support of Rome, Italy-based Campagna Amica and with UN Deputy General Amina Mohammed.
This past May, I was honored to travel to Rome, in my role as ED of AFMA, along with over 100 other market associations and supporters from around the world, for the first-ever general assembly, hosted by Europe’s largest farmers market network, Fondazione Campagne Amica, and Coldiretti, an Italian farmers association. We participated in a number of events, panels, special guests from governments around the world, and a “World Biodiversity Day” market. I met managers from around the world and shared stories of joy, grief, frustration, successes, and failures, and found an international community of support and celebration. But most importantly, I found friends to help continue to push forward visions of self-determined food systems, controlled and defined by communities, and supportive of people producing food. I’m very excited to see what comes from the World Farmers Market Coalition in the future.
The WFMC states: "The UN has set “Zero Hunger” as one of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. We believe that farmers markets are a means to achieving that goal. We are inspired by our new friends from across the globe and by such hospitality from our hosts in Italy. In the words of our Secretary General Carmelo Troccoli: “We have no leaders, we are all leaders.” With this, we move forward in supporting and building farmers markets around the world.”
