Santa Monica Farmer’s Market: An Assessment of Food Waste and Green Packaging Strategies

The Santa Monica Farmers Markets (SMFMs) provide neighborhoods with sustainable agriculture, healthy living, and community engagement. Since not all of the markets have a formal zero waste program we decided to look into potential sustainability issues that could be affecting the markets’ business. Given the types of waste typically generated at food markets, we chose to focus our project on potential food and packaging waste. We developed an analysis of current environmental strategies based on S.W.O.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). Although the SMFMs already have environmentally sustainable practices in place, we found room for improvement. This includes contacting LA Compost to increase their environmental efficiency by keeping their composting local. Unfortunately plastic cannot be completely removed from a market because certain vegetables require plastic to prevent water from leaking and inconveniencing shoppers. Nonetheless, efforts can still be made to limit plastic use to a minimum. Overall, the SMFMs sustainability benefits will not be reflected in their business unless customers are made aware of their actions. Hence, we suggest they incorporate additional educational components regarding their sustainability efforts. By bundling the quality of organic produce with its environmental aspect the SMFMs will benefit from increased price margins.