Tuna
A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary ranging from the bullet tuna up to the Atlantic bluefin tuna; the bluefin averages 2 m, is believed to live up to 50 years. Tuna and mackerel sharks are the only species of fish that can maintain a body temperature higher than that of the surrounding water. An active and agile predator, the tuna has a sleek, streamlined body, is among the fastest-swimming pelagic fish – the yellowfin tuna, for example, is capable of speeds of up to 75 km/h. Found in warm seas, it is extensively fished commercially, is popular as a game fish; as a result of overfishing, stocks of some tuna species, such as the southern bluefin tuna, are close to extinction. The term "tuna" derives from Thunnus, the Middle Latin form of the Ancient Greek: θύννος, translit. Lit.'tunny-fish' –, in turn derived from θύνω, "rush, dart along". However, the immediate source for the word tuna in English is American Spanish < Spanish atún < Andalusian Arabic at-tūn, assimilated from al-tūn التون:'tuna fish' < Greco-Latin thunnus mentioned above.
The Thunnini tribe is a monophyletic clade comprising 15 species in five genera: family Scombridae tribe Thunnini: the tunas genus Allothunnus: slender tunas genus Auxis: frigate tunas genus Euthynnus: little tunas genus Katsuwonus: skipjack tunas genus Thunnus: albacores, true tunas subgenus Thunnus: bluefin group subgenus Thunnus: yellowfin groupThe cladogram is a tool for visualizing and comparing the evolutionary relationships between taxa, is read left-to-right as if on a timeline. The following cladogram illustrates the relationship between the tunas and other tribes of the family Scombridae. For example, the cladogram illustrates that the skipjack tunas are more related to the true tunas than are the slender tunas, that the next nearest relatives of the tunas are the bonitos of the Sardini tribe; the "true" tunas are those. Until it was thought that there were seven Thunnus species, that Atlantic bluefin tuna and Pacific bluefin tuna were subspecies of a single species. In 1999, Collette established that based on both molecular and morphological considerations, they are in fact distinct species.
The genus Thunnus is further classified into two subgenera: Thunnus, Thunnus. The Thunnini tribe includes seven additional species of tuna across four genera, they are: The tuna is a sleek and streamlined fish, adapted for speed. It has two spaced dorsal fins on its back. Seven to ten yellow finlets run from the dorsal fins to the tail, lunate – curved like a crescent moon – and tapered to pointy tips; the caudal peduncle, to which the tail is attached, is quite thin, with three stabilizing horizontal keels on each side. The tuna's dorsal side is a metallic dark blue, while the ventral side, or underside, is silvery or whitish, for camouflage. Thunnus are but sparsely distributed throughout the oceans of the world in tropical and temperate waters at latitudes ranging between about 45° north and south of the equator. All tunas are able to maintain the temperature of certain parts of their body above the temperature of ambient seawater. For example, bluefin can maintain a core body temperature of 25–33 °C, in water as cold as 6 °C.
However, unlike "typical" endothermic creatures such as mammals and birds, tuna do not maintain temperature within a narrow range. Tunas achieve endothermy by conserving the heat generated through normal metabolism. In all tunas, the heart operates at ambient temperature, as it receives cooled blood, coronary circulation is directly from the gills; the rete mirabile, the intertwining of veins and arteries in the body's periphery, allows nearly all of the metabolic heat from venous blood to be "re-claimed" and transferred to the arterial blood via a counter-current exchange system, thus mitigating the effects of surface cooling. This allows the tuna to elevate the temperatures of the highly-aerobic tissues of the skeletal muscles and brain, which supports faster swimming speeds and reduced energy expenditure, which enables them to survive in cooler waters over a wider range of ocean environments than those of other fish. Unlike most fish, which have white flesh, the muscle tissue of tuna ranges from pink to dark red.
The red myotomal muscles derive their color from myoglobin, an oxygen-binding molecule, which tuna express in quantities far higher than most other fish. The oxygen-rich blood further enables energy delivery to their muscles. For powerful swimming animals like dolphins and tuna, cavitation may be detrimental, because it limits their maximum swimming speed. If they have the power to swim faster, dolphins may have to restrict their speed, because collapsing cavitation bubbles on their tail are too painful. Cavitation slows tuna, but for a different reason. Unlike dolphins, these fish do not feel the bubbles, because they have bony fins without nerve endings, they cannot swim faster because the cavitation bubbles create a vapor film around their fins that limits their speed. Lesions have been found on tuna. Tuna is an important commercial fish; the International Seafood Sustaina
Beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle skeletal muscle. Humans have been eating beef since prehistoric times. Beef is a source of high-quality protein and nutrients. Beef skeletal muscle meat can be used as is by cutting into certain parts roasts, short ribs or steak, while other cuts are processed. Trimmings, on the other hand, are mixed with meat from older, leaner cattle, are ground, minced or used in sausages; the blood is used in some varieties called blood sausage. Other parts that are eaten include other muscles and offal, such as the oxtail, tongue, tripe from the reticulum or rumen, the heart, the brain, the kidneys, the tender testicles of the bull; some intestines are cooked and eaten as is, but are more cleaned and used as natural sausage casings. The bones are used for making beef stock. Beef from steers and heifers is similar. Depending on economics, the number of heifers kept for breeding varies; the meat from older bulls, because it is tougher, is used for mince. Cattle raised for beef may be allowed to roam free on grasslands, or may be confined at some stage in pens as part of a large feeding operation called a feedlot, where they are fed a ration of grain, roughage and a vitamin/mineral preblend.
Beef is the third most consumed meat in the world, accounting for about 25% of meat production worldwide, after pork and poultry at 38% and 30% respectively. In absolute numbers, the United States and the People's Republic of China are the world's three largest consumers of beef. According to the data from OECD, the average Uruguayan ate over 42 kg of beef or veal in 2014, representing the highest beef/veal consumption per capita in the world. In comparison, the average American consumed only about 24 kg beef or veal in the same year, while African countries, such as Mozambique and Nigeria, consumed the least beef or veal per capita. In 2015, the world's largest exporters of beef were India and Australia. Beef production is important to the economies of Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina and Nicaragua; the word beef is from the Latin bōs, in contrast to cow, from Middle English cou. After the Norman Conquest, the French-speaking nobles who ruled England used French words to refer to the meats they were served.
Thus, various Anglo-Saxon words were used for the animal by the peasants, but the meat was called boef by the French nobles — who did not deal with the live animal — when it was served to them. This is one example of the common English dichotomy between the words for animals and their meat, found in such English word-pairs as pig/pork, deer/venison, sheep/mutton and chicken/poultry. Beef is cognate with bovine through the Late Latin bovīnus. People have eaten the flesh of bovines from prehistoric times. People domesticated cattle around 8000 BC to provide ready access to beef and leather. Most cattle originated in the Old World, with the exception of bison hybrids, which originated in the Americas. Examples include the Wagyū from Japan, Ankole-Watusi from Egypt, longhorn Zebu from the Indian subcontinent, it is unknown when people started cooking beef. Cattle were used across the Old World as draft animals, for milk, or for human consumption. With the mechanization of farming, some breeds were bred to increase meat yield, resulting in Chianina and Charolais cattle, or to improve the texture of meat, giving rise to the Murray Grey and Wagyū.
Some breeds have been selected for both milk production, such as the Brown Swiss. In the United States, the growth of the beef business was due to expansion in the Southwest. Upon the acquisition of grasslands through the Mexican–American War of 1848, the expulsion of the Plains Indians from this region and the Midwest, the American livestock industry began, starting with the taming of wild longhorn cattle. Chicago and New York City were the first to benefit from these developments in their stockyards and in their meat markets. Beef cattle are raised and fed using a variety of methods, including feedlots, free range, ranching and Intensive animal farming. Beef is first divided into primal cuts, pieces of meat butchering; these are basic sections from which other subdivisions are cut. The term "primal cut" is quite different from "prime cut", used to characterize cuts considered to be of higher quality. Since the animal's legs and neck muscles do the most work, they are the toughest. Different countries and cuisines have different cuts and names, sometimes use the same name for a different cut.
Camel
A camel is an even-toed ungulate in the genus Camelus that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provide food and textiles; as working animals, camels—which are uniquely suited to their desert habitats—are a vital means of transport for passengers and cargo. There are three surviving species of camel; the one-humped dromedary makes up 94% of the world's camel population, the two-humped Bactrian camel makes up the remainder. The Wild Bactrian camel is now critically endangered; the word camel is derived via Latin: camelus and Greek: κάμηλος from Hebrew or Phoenician: gāmāl. Used informally, "camel" refers to any of the seven members of the family Camelidae: the dromedary, the Bactrian, the wild Bactrian, plus the llama, the alpaca, the guanaco, the vicuña; the dromedary known as the Arabian camel, inhabits the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, while the Bactrian inhabits Central Asia, including the historical region of Bactria.
The critically endangered wild Bactrian is found only in remote areas of northwest China and Mongolia. An extinct species of camel in the separate genus Camelops, known as C. hesternus, lived in western North America until humans entered the continent at the end of the Pleistocene. The average life expectancy of a camel is 40 to 50 years. A full-grown adult camel stands 1.85 m at 2.15 m at the hump. Camels can sustain speeds of up to 40 km/h. Bactrian camels dromedaries 300 to 600 kg; the widening toes on a camel's hoof provide supplemental grip for varying soil sediments. The male dromedary camel has an organ called a dulla in its throat, a large, inflatable sac he extrudes from his mouth when in rut to assert dominance and attract females, it resembles a long, pink tongue hanging out of the side of its mouth. Camels mate by having both male and female sitting on the ground, with the male mounting from behind; the male ejaculates three or four times within a single mating session. Camelids are the only ungulates to mate in a sitting position.
Camels do not directly store water in their humps. Concentrating body fat in their humps minimizes the insulating effect fat would have if distributed over the rest of their bodies, helping camels survive in hot climates; when this tissue is metabolized, it yields more than one gram of water for every gram of fat processed. This fat metabolization, while releasing energy, causes water to evaporate from the lungs during respiration: overall, there is a net decrease in water. Camels have a series of physiological adaptations that allow them to withstand long periods of time without any external source of water; the dromedary camel can drink as as once every 10 days under hot conditions, can lose up to 30% of its body mass due to dehydration. Unlike other mammals, camels' red blood cells are oval rather than circular in shape; this facilitates the flow of red blood cells during dehydration and makes them better at withstanding high osmotic variation without rupturing when drinking large amounts of water: a 600 kg camel can drink 200 L of water in three minutes.
Camels are able to withstand changes in body temperature and water consumption that would kill most other animals. Their temperature ranges from 34 °C at dawn and increases to 40 °C by sunset, before they cool off at night again. In general, to compare between camels and the other livestock, camels lose only 1.3 liters of fluid intake every day while the other livestock lose 20 to 40 liters per day. Maintaining the brain temperature within certain limits is critical for animals. Camels sweat when ambient temperatures reach 49 °C. Any sweat that does occur evaporates at the skin level rather than at the surface of their coat. Camels can withstand losing 25% of their body weight to sweating, whereas most other mammals can withstand only about 12–14% dehydration before cardiac failure results from circulatory disturbance; when the camel exhales, water vapor becomes trapped in their nostrils and is reabsorbed into the body as a means to conserve water. Camels eating green herbage can ingest sufficient moisture in milder conditions to maintain their bodies' hydrated state without the need for drinking.
The camels' thick coats insulate them from the intense heat radiated from desert sand. During the summer the coat becomes lighter in color, reflecting light as well as helping avoid sunburn; the camel's long legs help by keeping its body farther from the ground, which can heat up to 70 °C. Dromedaries have a pad of thick tissue over the sternum called the pedestal; when the animal lies down in a sternal recumbent position, the pedestal raises the body from the hot surface and allows cooling air to pass under the body. Camels' mouths have a thick leathery lining. Long eyelashes and ear hairs, together with nostrils, form a barrier against sand. If sand gets lodged in their eyes, they can dislodge it using their transparent t
Lamb and mutton
Lamb and mutton are the meat of domestic sheep at different ages. In general a sheep in its first year is called a lamb, its meat is called lamb; the meat of a juvenile sheep older than one year is hogget. The meat of an adult sheep is a term only used for the meat, not the living animals. In the Indian subcontinent the term mutton is used to refer to goat meat. Lamb is the most expensive of the three types, in recent decades sheep meat is only retailed as "lamb", sometimes stretching the accepted distinctions given above; the stronger-tasting mutton is now hard to find in many areas, despite the efforts of the Mutton Renaissance Campaign in the UK. In Australia, the term prime lamb is used to refer to lambs raised for meat. Other languages, for example French, Spanish and Arabic, make similar, or more detailed, distinctions among sheep meats by age and sometimes by sex and diet, though these languages do not always use different words to refer to the animal and its meat — for example, lechazo in Spanish refers to meat from milk-fed lambs.
The definitions for lamb and mutton vary between countries. Younger lambs are more tender. Mutton is meat from a sheep over two years old, has less tender flesh. In general, the darker the colour, the older the animal. Baby lamb meat will be pale pink. Lamb — a young sheep under 12 months of age which does not have any permanent incisor teeth in wear. Hogget — A term for a sheep of either sex having no more than two permanent incisors in wear, or its meat. Still common in farming usage, it is now rare as a retail term for the meat. Much of the "lamb" sold in the UK is "hogget" to an Antipodean farmer. Mutton — the meat of a female or castrated male sheep having more than two permanent incisors in wear; the terms "mutton" and "hogget" are uncommon in the United States. Federal statutes and regulations dealing with food labeling in the United States permit all sheep products to be marketed as "lamb." Sheep products less than 12-14 months old can be labeled "prime lamb" or "choice lamb" and all other sheep meat can be labeled as "lamb."
The term "mutton" is applied to goat meat in most of these countries, the goat population has been rising. For example, mutton-curry is always made from goat meat, it is estimated that over one-third of the goat population is slaughtered every year and sold as mutton. The husbanded sheep population in India and the Indian subcontinent has been in decline for over 40 years and has survived at marginal levels in mountainous regions, based on wild-sheep breeds, for wool production. Milk-fed lamb — meat from an unweaned lamb 4–6 weeks old and weighing 5.5–8 kg. The flavour and texture of milk-fed lamb when grilled or roasted is thought to be finer than that of older lamb, fetches higher prices; the areas in northern Spain where this can be found include Asturias, Castile and León, La Rioja. Milk-fed lambs are prized for Easter in Greece, when they are roasted on a spit. Young lamb — a milk-fed lamb between six and eight weeks old Spring lamb — a milk-fed lamb three to five months old, born in late winter or early spring and sold before 1 July.
Sucker lambs — a term used in Australia — includes young milk-fed lambs, as well as older lambs up to about seven months of age which are still dependent on their mothers for milk. Carcases from these lambs weigh between 14 and 30 kg. Older weaned lambs which have not yet matured to become mutton are known as old-season lambs. Yearling lamb — a young sheep between 12 and 24 months old, so another term for a hogget. Saltbush mutton – a term used in Australia for the meat of mature Merinos which have been allowed to graze on atriplex plants Salt marsh lamb is the meat of sheep which graze on salt marsh in coastal estuaries that are washed by the tides and support a range of salt-tolerant grasses and herbs, such as samphire, sparta grass and sea lavender. Depending on where the salt marsh is located, the nature of the plants may be subtly different. Salt marsh lamb has long been appreciated in France and is growing in popularity in the United Kingdom. Places, where salt marsh lamb are reared in the UK, include Harlech and the Gower Peninsula in Wales, the Somerset Levels, Morecambe Bay and the Solway Firth.
Saltgrass lamb – a term used to describe a type of lamb exclusive to Flinders Island. The pastures on the island have a high salt content, leading to a flavor and texture similar to saltmarsh lamb; the meat of a lamb is taken from the animal between one month and one year old, with a carcase weight of between 5.5 and 30 kg. This meat is more tender than that from older sheep and appears more on tables in some Western countries. Hogget and mutton have a stronger flavour than lamb because they contain a higher concentration of species-characteristic fatty acids and are preferred by some. Mutton and hogget tend to be tougher than lamb and are therefore better suited to casserole-style cooking, as in Lancashire hotpot, for example. Lamb is sorted into three kinds of m
Domestic turkey
The domestic turkey is a large fowl, one of the two species in the genus Meleagris and the same as the wild turkey. Although turkey domestication was thought to have occurred in central Mesoamerica at least 2,000 years ago, recent research suggests a possible second domestication event in the Southwestern United States between 200 BC and AD 500. However, all of the main domestic turkey varieties today descend from the turkey raised in central Mexico, subsequently imported into Europe by the Spanish in the 16th century. Domestic turkey is a popular form of poultry, it is raised throughout temperate parts of the world because industrialized farming has made it cheap for the amount of meat it produces. Female domestic turkeys are referred to as hens, the chicks may be called poults or turkeylings. In the United States, the males are referred to as toms, while in the United Kingdom and Ireland, males are stags; the great majority of domestic turkeys are bred to have white feathers because their pin feathers are less visible when the carcass is dressed, although brown or bronze-feathered varieties are raised.
The fleshy protuberance atop the beak is the snood, the one attached to the underside of the beak is known as a wattle. The English language name for this species results from an early misidentification of the bird with an unrelated species, imported to Europe through the country of Turkey; the Latin species name gallopāvō means "chicken peacock". The modern domestic turkey is descended from one of six subspecies of wild turkey: Meleagris gallopavo, found in the area bounded by the present Mexican states of Jalisco and Veracruz Ancient Mesoamericans domesticated this subspecies, using its meat and eggs as major sources of protein and employing its feathers extensively for decorative purposes; the Aztecs associated the turkey with their trickster god Tezcatlipoca because of its perceived humorous behavior. Domestic turkeys were taken to Europe by the Spanish. Many distinct breeds were developed in Europe. In the early 20th century, many advances were made in the breeding of turkeys, resulting in breeds such as the Beltsville Small White.
The 16th-century English navigator William Strickland is credited with introducing the turkey into England. His family coat of arms — showing a turkey cock as the family crest — is among the earliest known European depictions of a turkey. English farmer Thomas Tusser notes the turkey being among farmer's fare at Christmas in 1573; the domestic turkey was sent from England to Jamestown, Virginia in 1608. A document written in 1584 lists supplies to be furnished to future colonies in the New World. Prior to the late 19th century, turkey was something of a luxury in the UK, with goose or beef a more common Christmas dinner among the working classes. In Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Bob Cratchit had a goose. Turkey production in the UK was centered in East Anglia, using two breeds, the Norfolk Black and the Norfolk Bronze; these would be driven as flocks, after shoeing, down to markets in London from the 17th century onwards - the breeds having arrived in the early 16th century via Spain. Intensive farming of turkeys from the late 1940s cut the price, making it more affordable for the working classes.
With the availability of refrigeration, whole turkeys could be shipped frozen to distant markets. Advances in disease control increased production more. Advances in shipping, changing consumer preferences and the proliferation of commercial poultry plants has made fresh turkey inexpensive as well as available. Recent genome analysis has provided researchers with the opportunity to determine the evolutionary history of domestic turkeys, their relationship to other domestic fowl. Young domestic turkeys fly short distances and roost; these behaviours become less frequent as the birds mature, but adults will climb on objects such as bales of straw. Young birds perform frivolous running which has all the appearance of play. Commercial turkeys show a wide diversity of behaviours including'comfort' behaviours such as wing-flapping, feather ruffling, leg stretching and dust-bathing. Turkeys are social and become distressed when isolated. Many of their behaviours are facilitated i.e. expression of a behaviour by one animal increases the tendency for this behaviour to be performed by others.
Adults can recognise'strangers' and placing any alien turkey into an established group will certainly result in that individual being attacked, sometimes fatally. Turkeys are vocal, and'social tension' within the group can be monitored by the birds’ vocalisations. A high-pitched trill indicates the birds are becoming aggressive which can develop into intense sparring where opponents leap at each other with the large, sharp talons, try to peck or grasp the head of each other. Aggression increases in severity as the birds mature. Maturing males spend a considerable proportion of their time sexually displaying; this is similar to that of the wild turkey and involves fanning the tail feathers, drooping the wings and erecting all body feathers, including the'beard'. The skin of the head and caruncles becomes bright blue and red, the snood elongates, the birds'sneeze' at regular intervals, followed by a rapid vibration of their tail feathers. Throughout, the birds strut about, with the neck arched backward, their breasts thrust forward and emitting their ch
New Zealand
New Zealand is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 2,000 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia and Tonga; because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal and plant life; the country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington. Sometime between 1250 and 1300, Polynesians settled in the islands that were named New Zealand and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands.
In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire and in 1907 it became a dominion. Today, the majority of New Zealand's population of 4.9 million is of European descent. Reflecting this, New Zealand's culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers, with recent broadening arising from increased immigration; the official languages are English, Māori, NZ Sign Language, with English being dominant. A developed country, New Zealand ranks in international comparisons of national performance, such as quality of life, education, protection of civil liberties, economic freedom. New Zealand underwent major economic changes during the 1980s, which transformed it from a protectionist to a liberalised free-trade economy; the service sector dominates the national economy, followed by the industrial sector, agriculture. Nationally, legislative authority is vested in an elected, unicameral Parliament, while executive political power is exercised by the Cabinet, led by the prime minister Jacinda Ardern.
Queen Elizabeth II is the country's monarch and is represented by a governor-general Dame Patsy Reddy. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes; the Realm of New Zealand includes Tokelau. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ASEAN Plus Six, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Pacific Community and the Pacific Islands Forum. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and named it Staten Land "in honour of the States General", he wrote, "it is possible that this land joins to the Staten Land but it is uncertain", referring to a landmass of the same name at the southern tip of South America, discovered by Jacob Le Maire in 1616. In 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand. Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand.
It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the whole country before the arrival of Europeans, with Aotearoa referring to just the North Island. Māori had several traditional names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui for the North Island and Te Waipounamu or Te Waka o Aoraki for the South Island. Early European maps labelled the islands North and South. In 1830, maps began to use North and South to distinguish the two largest islands and by 1907 this was the accepted norm; the New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised, names and alternative names were formalised in 2013. This set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, South Island or Te Waipounamu. For each island, either its English or Māori name can be used. New Zealand was one of the last major landmasses settled by humans. Radiocarbon dating, evidence of deforestation and mitochondrial DNA variability within Māori populations suggest New Zealand was first settled by Eastern Polynesians between 1250 and 1300, concluding a long series of voyages through the southern Pacific islands.
Over the centuries that followed, these settlers developed a distinct culture now known as Māori. The population was divided into iwi and hapū who would sometimes cooperate, sometimes compete and sometimes fight against each other. At some point a group of Māori migrated to Rēkohu, now known as the Chatham Islands, where they developed their distinct Moriori culture; the Moriori population was all but wiped out between 1835 and 1862 because of Taranaki Māori invasion and enslavement in the 1830s, although European diseases contributed. In 1862 only 101 survived, the last known full-blooded Moriori died in 1933; the first Europeans known to have reached New Zeala
Farmers' market
A farmers' market is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or outdoors and consist of booths, tables or stands where farmers sell fruits, meats and sometimes prepared foods and beverages. Farmers' markets reflect the local culture and economy; the size of the market may be just a few stalls or it may be as large as several city blocks. Due to their nature, they tend to be less rigidly regulated than retail produce shops, they are distinguished from public markets, which are housed in permanent structures, open year-round, offer a variety of non-farmer/non-producer vendors, packaged foods and non-food products. The current concept of a farmers' market is similar to past concepts, but different in relation to other forms – as aspects of consumer retailing, continue to shift over time. Similar forms existed before the Industrial age, but formed part of broader markets, where suppliers of food and other goods gathered to retail their wares.
Trading posts began a shift toward retailers. General stores and grocery stores continued that specialization trend in retailing, optimizing the consumer experience, while abstracting it further from production and from production's growing complexities. Modern industrial food production's advantages over prior methods depend on modern, fast transport and limited product variability, but transport costs and delays cannot be eliminated. So where distance strained industrial suppliers' reach, where consumers had strong preference for local variety, farmers' markets remained competitive with other forms of food retail. Starting in the mid-2000s, consumer demand for foods that are fresher and for foods with more variety—has led to growth of farmers' markets as a food-retailing mechanism. Farmers' markets can offer farmers increased profit over selling to wholesalers, food processors, or large grocery firms. By selling directly to consumers, produce needs less transport, less handling, less refrigeration and less time in storage.
By selling in an outdoor market, the cost of land, buildings and air-conditioning is reduced or eliminated. Farmers may retain profit on produce not sold to consumers, by selling the excess to canneries and other food-processing firms. At the market, farmers can retain the full premium for part of their produce, instead of only a processor's wholesale price for the entire lot. However, other economists say "there are few benefits in terms of energy efficiency, quality or cost... fun though they are, are not good economic models."Some farmers prefer the simplicity, immediacy and independence of selling direct to consumers. One method noted by the special interest group Food Empowerment Project promotes community-supported agriculture programs. In this scheme, consumers pay farms seasonally or monthly to receive weekly or biweekly boxes of produce. Alternatively, they may be required to pay for an entire season’s worth of produce in advance of the growing season. In either case, consumers risk losing their money.
Among the benefits touted for communities with farmers' markets: Farmers' markets help maintain important social ties, linking rural and urban populations and close neighbors in mutually rewarding exchange. Market traffic generates traffic for nearby businesses buying at markets encourages attention to the surrounding area and ongoing activities by providing outlets for'local' products, farmers' markets help create distinction and uniqueness, which can increase pride and encourage visitors to return. Reduced transport and refrigeration can benefit communities too: lower transport & refrigeration energy costs lower transport pollution lower transport infrastructure cost less land dedicated to food storageFarmers' markets may contribute to innovative distribution means that strengthen civic engagement by reducing the social distances between urban and rural communities. With fewer intermediaries, the support of independent growers by local community members can enhance local economic opportunities and health & wellness in poor communities.
Some consumers may favor farmers' markets for the perceived: reduced overhead: driving, etc. fresher foods seasonal foods healthier foods a better variety of foods, e.g.: organic foods, pasture-raised meats, free-range eggs and poultry, handmade farmstead cheeses, heirloom produce heritage breeds of meat and many less transport-immune cultivars disfavored by large grocers a place to meet neighbors, etc. A place to enjoy an outdoor walk while getting needed groceriesEvidence seems to show that overall prices at a typical farmers' market are lower than prices at a supermarket because the process of production is more concise. Due in part to the increased interest in healthier foods, a greater desire to preserve local cultivars or livestock and an increased understanding of the importance of maintaining small, sustainable farms on the fringe of urban environments, farmers' markets in the US have grown from 1,755 in 1994 to 4,385 in 2006, to 5,274 in 2009, to 8,144 in 2013. In New York City, there are 107 farmers' markets in operation.
In the Los Angeles area, 88 farmers' markets exist, many of which support Asian fare. In the U. S. all levels of government have provided funding to farmers' markets, for instance, through the federal programs, and. The programs subsidize purchases at farmers' markets by lo
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