Best Counties for Farmers Market Access

Farmers market access is an experimental standalone quality-of-life signal, not part of the baseline CountyScore composite or the first-wave County Fit Score lenses. Counties that score highest have a high density of markets per resident, strong acceptance of SNAP and EBT benefits, and wide variety in local produce. Our Farmers Market Score is sourced from USDA Agricultural Marketing Service data via MarketsByCounty.com, covering 2,000+ active markets across 515 counties nationwide. Note: counties without active market listings receive a null score rather than a zero — we don't penalize counties where USDA data may be incomplete. Top-scoring counties tend to be in the Pacific Northwest, New England, and Mid-Atlantic regions, where local food culture and agricultural infrastructure are strongest. Rural counties in the Great Plains and Mountain West often score lower not due to food insecurity but due to lower market density per the USDA dataset.