{"id":21278,"date":"2015-09-26T18:11:35","date_gmt":"2015-09-26T23:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=21278"},"modified":"2015-09-26T18:11:35","modified_gmt":"2015-09-26T23:11:35","slug":"clarksville-downtown-market-best-in-class-for-farmers-market-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2015\/09\/26\/clarksville-downtown-market-best-in-class-for-farmers-market-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"Clarksville Downtown Market best in class for Farmers Market Celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><em><strong>AFT Releases Final Results of Summer Long Effort<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-118326\" title=\"Clarksville Downtown Market\" src=\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Clarksville-Downtown-Market.gif\" alt=\"Clarksville Downtown Market\" width=\"153\" height=\"200\" \/><strong>Clarksville, TN<\/strong> \u2013 This week marked the end of American Farmland Trust\u2019s summer-long Farmers Market Celebration \u2013 an annual effort to rally support for local farms and family farmers by calling on shoppers to identify the best of America\u2019s farmers markets and Clarksville Downtown Farmers Market was rated number one in Tennessee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is so exciting to see our market recognized as #1 in Tennessee across the board,\u201d says Robert Rayburn, Clarksville Downtown Market Manager. \u201cIt is with the support of our vendors, our Clarksville Parks and Recreation staff, and dedicated members of the community that we are able to celebrate this honor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/American-Farmland-Trust-Farmers-Market-Celebration-Best-In-Class-2015.jpg\"  class=\"thickbox no_icon\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-323583\" title=\"American Farmland Trust Farmers Market Celebration Best In Class 2015\" src=\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/American-Farmland-Trust-Farmers-Market-Celebration-Best-In-Class-2015-480x360.jpg\" alt=\"American Farmland Trust Farmers Market Celebration Best In Class 2015\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><\/a><!--more-->This year\u2019s Celebration encouraged market customers, family farmers, community members \u2013 anyone who believed they had the best farmers market in the country \u2013 to endorse their market in four unique areas: Focus on Farmers, Healthy Food for All, Pillar of the Community, and Champion for the Environment.<\/p>\n<h4>Clarksville Downtown Market was ranked 1st statewide, national rankings are:<\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li>People\u2019s Choice: 27<\/li>\n<li>Focus on Farmers: 27<\/li>\n<li>Healthy Food for All: 27<\/li>\n<li>Pillar of the Community: 27<\/li>\n<li>Champion for the Environment: 26<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>\u201cFarmers markets are critical for new and beginning farmers,\u201d says Susan Sink, American Farmland Trust\u2019s Vice President of Development and External Relations. \u201cNext generation farmers selling directly to consumers at farmers markets have nearly a 10 percent greater chance of staying in business than those selling goods through traditional retail. And when family farmers thrive \u2013 our community, economy and families thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile farmers markets have been growing in popularity, keeping family farmers on farmland remains a nationwide challenge,\u201d Sink says. \u201cMany family farmers struggle to stay financially afloat and face daily pressure from development to sell their land. Farmers markets provide a wonderful opportunity for family farmers to sell directly to consumers and keep their farmland in farming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The United States has been losing nearly 1 acre of fertile farmland every minute to development. Farms closest to America\u2019s cities\u2014often the providers of the delicious local food found at farmers markets\u2014are directly in the path of that destruction. American Farmland Trust has helped slow this trend over the last 35 years by permanently protecting over five million acres of fertile farmland and contributing to conservation improvements on millions more.<\/p>\n<p>To visit the full list of top ranked markets nationwide, visit markets.farmland.org today.<\/p>\n<h3>About the Clarksville Parks and Recreation Department<\/h3>\n<p>The mission of the Clarksville Parks and Recreation Department is to provide a variety of positive recreational experiences to enhance life values for individuals, families, and our diverse culture.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more, visit <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cityofclarksville.com\" >www.cityofclarksville.com<\/a>, like us on Facebook, or call 931.645.7476.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AFT Releases Final Results of Summer Long Effort Clarksville, TN \u2013 This week marked the end of American Farmland Trust\u2019s summer-long Farmers Market Celebration \u2013 an annual effort to rally support for local farms and family farmers by calling on shoppers to identify the best of America\u2019s farmers markets and Clarksville Downtown Farmers Market was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[8554,3253,878,881,825,26803,23440,23227,1758],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-5xc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21278"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21279,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21278\/revisions\/21279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}