New York City Greenmarkets

New York, NY, USA

By Cecilia Depman
greenmarket, snap, ebt, sustainable agriculture

An analysis of sustainable production and consumption

Federal nutrition programs such as SNAP help to fight food insecurity for over 42 million people in the United States, by providing a monthly sum of money on an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card to purchase food. It is estimated that in a weak economy, every SNAP dollar spent expands the economy by $1.70, the effects of which have important implications for local food economies. Thanks in part to increased federal funding for wireless EBT technology expansion at farmers markets in the last decade, SNAP sales at farmers markets in the United States have grown over 35% since 2012, topping $22 million in FY 2017. In New York State, over $3 million dollars in SNAP were redeemed at 228 authorized farmers markets. Roughly one third of these entitlement dollars were spent at New York City Greenmarkets. Greenmarket is a branch of GrowNYC and operates over 50 farmers markets and across the five boroughs and 200 producers from the Northeast region.

The expansion of SNAP/EBT at Greenmarkets helps to increase food access for low income New Yorkers and increase incomes for regional farmers—goals central to the objectives of contemporary food system reform and imperative to both ending food insecurity and mitigating climate implications for agriculture. This project visualizes each of those goals to better understand which producers and growing practices are bolstered by increased spending, and inversely the degree to which EBT customers have access to sustainably produced food. The market map shows market access for EBT consumers in NYC. The producer map shows how those EBT dollars contribute to rural economies in the Northeastern US and how Greenmarket producers in this region are impacting soil quality through their land management practices (crop diversity and percent cultivated land). A spatial understanding of these relationships are of interest to farmers market operators whose understanding of patterns in EBT spending help them support their vendors in pursuit of more sustainable land management practices. It is also of interest to stakeholders in the food justice movement who want to advocate for food system reform through the lens of sustainable production and equitable consumption.