As the market for local foods continues to expand, the customer base for many rural lifestyle dealers includes direct-to-consumer (DTC) farms. Comparing data from USDA’s 2007 and 2012 (most recent data) Census of Agriculture show DTC farm operations with DTC sales of food increased from 116,733 to 144,530. At the same time, the number of farmers’ markets grew to 8,268 in 2014, up 180% from 2006.
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