Farmers Market Is a Big Producer in Clayton County
Published Nov 03, 2008
A variety of growers sell goods at the Atlanta State Farmers Market.
Farmers markets tend to engender thoughts of pickup trucks parked along the roadside, growers leisurely comparing their yields and everyone packed up before primetime TV gets rolling.
This simplistic expectation is a far cry from the Atlanta State Farmers Market, where trucks and crates shuffle through at all hours of the night, thousands of people report to work every day and you might actually get lost if you aren’t careful.
This is not your father’s farmers market.
Spread across 150 acres, this machine of a market boasts annual sales of roughly $500 million. Not surprisingly, the market is one of the primary economic drivers in Forest Park, the Clayton County city in which it is located.
“I know when you have a facility doing a half-a-billion dollars worth of business a year, it has a lot of jobs and a lot of income and, hopefully, a good bit of profit,” says Tommy Irvin, Georgia agriculture commissioner. “All of that speaks really well of Clayton County.”
With 576 open stalls, 96 enclosed stalls and more than 850,000 square feet of warehouse space, the market, which calls itself “the world’s largest roadside stand,” is constantly in motion, preparing, packaging and distributing food from the market across the country.
“It is a viable part of food distribution in the South,” Irvin says. “You go out to that market about 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning, and it’s like a beehive working.”
Ethnic fare, spices and a variety of food products, including a full-service restaurant, make regulars out of local customers. Christmas trees are also big business – an average of 250,000 make their way from the market to living rooms across Georgia each year.
“Some people think that a farmers market is traditionally strictly produce, like tomatoes and cucumbers, but we have a little bit of everything around here,” says Craig Nielsen, manager of the market. “People don’t realize very often how much product really comes through the market beyond just produce.”
In addition to filling bellies and generating paychecks, the 49-year-old market also serves as a focal point of the community, creating a strong sense of neighborhood.
“There are a lot of people who have been here for many, many years,” Nielsen says. “There are not too many places around that I can think of right off hand where you will get such a diverse cross-section of the community that comes out.”
Irvin pointed out that the market is a source of pride for the community, even winning a Chamber of Commerce beautification award.
“It’s always been a hallmark,” Irvin says. “The farmers have their clients and their customers, and the market brings them together.”
Story by Michaela Jackson
Photo by Ian Curcio
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