The Farmers Market Metrics Project: Reflections on Regional Food System Assessment in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metro

Maintaining funding for local and regional food system initiatives requires reliable data to demon­strate their impacts. Data that are specific to farm­ers markets in a localized context are not readily available. The Farmers Market Metrics Project is a three-way partnership between farmers markets, local government, and a university to elevate the capacity of the markets in the Minneapolis–St. Paul Metro region through regionally collected metrics to quantify their presence in the regional food system. In this research brief, we introduce the FM360 data collection method being developed by the project, which is scalable across geographic areas. Scalability is critical to making the data collection process adaptable and effective in cases involving multiple data sources and when flexibility is needed in defining the food system parameters to satisfy partners and prospective funders.