Help Connecticut Farmers: Buy Local, It’s National Farmer’s Market Week

Recently, news broke that the National spotlight on the American farm and its farmers is going to be squarely focused on Connecticut September 25, 2021.

That's when Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, Margo Price, and an army of supporting artists are rolling into the Xfinity Theater in Hartford for Farm Aid 2021. Willie, John, and Neil formed Farm Aid in 1985 to raise awareness of the loss of American family farms, and to raise funds to keep these families on their land. Farm Aid has raised over $60 million dollars since.

This is the second time that Connecticut and the Xfinity Theater is playing host to Farm Aid and in an interview that I had with Farm Aid's Director of Communications Jennifer Fahey, Jennifer told me that Farm Aid will make significant monetary donations and provide invaluable knowledge and training to many of Connecticut's 21,000 workers at it's 5,500 producers, which adds over $4 Billion dollars annually to the state's economy.

This week is National Farmer's Market Week, August 1- 7, 2021 and Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont has issued a statement urging Connecticut residents to support local farmers and shop their markets for products, especially designated with the Connecticut Grown logo.

According to the statement, this is the 22nd annual National Farmers Market Week and its purpose is to highlight the vital role that farmer's markets play in our nation's food supply. I've seen the vital role that farmers markets have personally in Waterbury, where the city's Brass City Harvest and the Brass City Regional Food Hub has given much needed access to fresh meats, produce, and local agriculture to Waterbury's most vulnerable citizens.

In the statement, Governor Lamont directs us to a list of every certified farmer's markets throughout Connecticut from the Northeast Organic Farmer's Association of Connecticut, you can access that by clicking HERE.