news updates

Over the next few weeks, under the guidance of senior research staff, trans-act’s fellow will design and pilot marketumbrella.org’s newest analytical tool, the Food Environment Evaluation Device (FEED). FEED will complement the work of SEED and NEED by adding the third tier, human health, to the study of the impact of farmers’ markets on the triple bottom line: financial capital, social capital, and human capital.

May 24th, 2010
This week at the Tuesday Uptown Square Crescent City Farmer’s Market, the transact team from marketumbrella.org began collecting data for the summer 2010 run of NEED, one of our evaluation devices designed to assess the impact of farmer’s markets on their surrounding communities.

We Are New Orleans: Not only is our Crescent City Farmers Market an emblematic flagship for regional cooperation, but in their 2009 study Travel & Leisure voted New Orleans as third best farmers market city in America.  Not bad for a city recovering from catastrophe!

On Saturday, August 1, 2009, at the corner of Magazine and Girod Streets, freshly harvested green beans will change hands for cash, as they have on so many Saturday mornings since the Crescent City Farmers Market opened in 1995. On this particular Saturday, the organizers of the farmers market, marketumbrella.org, will also share news of how green beans impact greenbacks, with the release of their 2009 Economic Impact Study.

Neighborhood Exchange Evaluation Device measures farmers markets' impact on social capital. Part of the presumed appeal of farmers markets is that they deliver a triple bottom line: one that benefits farmers, consumers, and the larger community.