What can we learn from the world’s oldest farming market traditions?

The executive director of Farmers’ Markets of Nova Scotia and recent Nuffield Scholar Justin Cantafio, travelled across Mexico, Europe, and Turkey to find the answer.

His biggest takeaway? Local food systems aren’t just about food, they’re about culture, community, and accessibility.

“I purposely sought out regions of the world or countries that have market traditions going back hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of years, because I really wanted to see what that means,” said Cantafio. “Whether it was in urban or rural Mexico, or Malta, or throughout continental Europe into Turkey, the same thing kept happening over and over and over again, and that was how important the embedded nature of local food systems are and how incredibly good farmers markets and public markets are at embedding food and culinary traditions and access to traditional foodways into the everyday life of the populace.”