Clean Fairfax loves farmers markets because they combine the practical with the enjoyable. They represent one of the few health-promoting, waste-reducing actions that everyone can feel good about, without reservation, qualification, or sacrifice.

Visiting a local farmers market is about more than picking up fresh tomatoes or a loaf of artisan bread. It’s an opportunity to support local farmers, reduce waste, strengthen the local economy, and connect with your community, while enjoying some of the freshest food available. What’s not to love?

All of which is to say, when you shop at the farmers market, you care for your community in numerous ways that support environmental stewardship, the local economy, and your own health – which is why Clean Fairfax is all about farmers markets.  

We are fortunate to have so many markets to choose from. In Fairfax County, 10 of the 15 markets are operated by the Fairfax County Park Authority. The County’s 10 farmers markets are the largest farmers market system in Virginia. In 2025, they were also the first in the Commonwealth to eliminate plastic shopping bags, making it easier for folks to transition to reusable bags instead of single-use plastic. 

Several markets in the region also operate year-round or nearly so; they are not just seasonal events anymore. Check out our Ultimate Northern Virginia Farmers Market List for a complete listing of markets and hours in Fairfax County and beyond.

Remember to “turnip with your tote” at a farmers market in Fairfax County! 

As we celebrate National Farmers Market Week (August 2–8), we’re highlighting some of the ways that shopping at a farmers market is a sustainable choice for you all year round, while supporting your community, and the environment. 

Caroline Hockenberry, Farmers Market Coordinator, says, “‘Buy Local’ isn’t just a catchy phrase; it means your dollars go to a family not a corporate shareholder, your food was in the ground yesterday not on a truck for days, no QR codes just ask the farmer the best way to cook a vegetable, and you have the choice of 10 types of cherry tomatoes, not just two or three!”

Small Choices Make a Big Difference

Making the most “sustainable” choice often feels overwhelming – we know. Shopping at farmers markets, happily, is one decision you don’t have to agonize over. You can take meaningful environmental action by:

• Bringing your reusable shopping bags.
• Buying fruits and vegetables without layers of plastic packaging.
• Talking directly with the people who grew your food, as well as enjoying a community atmosphere with your neighbors.
• Composting your kitchen scraps at any FCPA farmers market instead of sending them to a landfill.
• Donating fresh produce to a neighbor in need through the Nourish Your Neighbor program.
• Finding excellent value for your money, especially if you are using SNAP/WIC benefits at participating markets, where you can enjoy double the value when buying eligible products.

None of these actions are complicated on their own. Put together, they create a shopping experience that’s built around supporting a healthy community, economy, and environment.

Less Plastic, Less Packaging

At Clean Fairfax, our mission is to encourage environmental stewardship and urban sustainability. That is one reason why we love the fact that our County farmers markets have committed to reducing plastic and promoting less wasteful alternatives.

Many grocery store fruits and vegetables come wrapped in plastic bags, trays, clamshell containers, or shrink wrap. You can’t avoid it, and you have to buy things in the quantity packaged, whether you need it or not. At a farmers market, a lot of that packaging isn’t needed or used. Produce is often sold loose, allowing shoppers to bring their own reusable produce and grocery bags and buy only what they need.

The Fairfax County Farmers Markets are leading by example with their elimination of single-use plastic shopping bags. It keeps tens of thousands of such bags from becoming waste that must be managed. That is what we call front end waste management.

Food Scraps Don’t Belong in the Trash – Compost Them for Free 

Every Fairfax County Farmers Market offers free food scrap composting near the market manager’s tent. Residents can drop off accepted kitchen scraps, including fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grounds, eggshells, and meal leftovers.

That is a big deal because around a third of everything we throw away is compostable(!). Whether it is needlessly burned in an incinerator or gets hauled to a landfill, organic waste lumped in with other trash meets a bad end. Composting keeps those materials out of the waste stream while returning valuable nutrients to the soil, thus becoming a resource instead of a pollutant.

It’s an easy habit that reduces household waste and helps close the loop between food, soil, and future harvests rather than adding to our waste problems.

Supporting Local Farmers Supports Everyone

When you shop at a farmers market, your dollars stay in the community. According to the USDA, farmers market vendors keep more than 90 cents of every dollar spent with them because they sell directly to customers rather than through multiple distributors and retailers. That means more of your purchase supports local farms, small businesses, and the regional economy.

Buying directly from farmers also offers an opportunity to communicate. Do you want to know how your lettuce and tomatoes were grown and handled? Are you curious about the best way to cook an unfamiliar vegetable? Or interested in learning what will be in season next month? The people growing your food are right there to answer your questions.

That connection helps build trust in our local food system while giving shoppers a better understanding of where their food comes from. And all FCPA farmers markets are “producer only,” meaning that “farmers and producers may only sell what they raise on their farms or make from scratch,” per the County website. Every time you use your dollars to buy food from a farmers market in Fairfax County, you are supporting neighbors, encouraging nearby agricultural land to stay agricultural, and voting for a simpler food chain where food safety is much more transparent and easy to trace.

Fresh Food for More Families

The accessibility and affordability of healthy food are another important feature of farmers markets.  Participating Fairfax County Farmers Markets accept SNAP benefits and offer the Virginia Fresh Match program, allowing eligible shoppers to double the value of their SNAP dollars when purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables. For example, $20 in SNAP benefits can become $40 to spend on eligible produce.

The markets also host Nourish Your Neighbor on the last market day of each month. Shoppers can purchase fresh fruits and vegetables and donate them before leaving the market. Those donations are delivered to nearby food pantries, helping provide healthy food to families throughout the community.

See Clean Fairfax at the Annandale Farmers Market

This summer, Clean Fairfax is proud to partner with the Fairfax County Farmers Markets by bringing hands-on sustainability demonstrations to the Annandale Farmers Market every other week.

Our goal is simple: help people discover practical ways to reduce waste and make healthy choices in everyday life.

Here is a taste of some of the topics we’re covering:

• Making soup stock with vegetable scraps
• Easy single use to reusable swaps
• How to propagate vegetables from your scraps
• How to concoct herbed vinegar with farmers market finds

Whether you’re a longtime market shopper or visiting for the first time, we’d love to meet you.

Clean Fairfax has a bi-weekly presence at the Annandale Farmers Market during the 2026 season.
Come see us every other Thursday! 

“Farmer and Farmers Markets are such an important part of the sustainable landscape here in Northern Virginia and vendors stepped up to feed us all during various supply chain disruptions and food safety issues, as well as the closures and impacts felt during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you didn’t make Farmers Markets part of your weekly shop then, now is a great time to start,” says Jen Cole, Executive Director of Clean Fairfax.

Community Connection and IRL Interactions

Real sustainability often requires policy changes to systems and structural norms. Although individuals are often told that it’s their responsibility to clean up after polluting corporations, the cards are stacked against us. It does not always feel easy to turn the tide of plastic pollution, and yet we want to make a meaningful difference in our own lives.

Shopping at a farmers market is one of the ways to do it.

You can reduce plastic packaging. Compost your kitchen scraps. Support local farmers and small businesses. Learn more about where your food comes from. Help fresh produce reach neighbors experiencing food insecurity. And spend a morning connecting with your community instead of rushing through another grocery trip.

That’s a lot of positive impact from one stop! Try it and see how it goes. The point is not to be perfect or to prove that you are singlehandedly saving the planet; it’s simply to use your power for good.

If you haven’t visited a Fairfax County Farmers Market this season, National Farmers Market Week is the perfect excuse to start. Grab your reusable bags, bring your compostables, and see what makes these markets such an important part of a healthier, more sustainable Fairfax County.

We hope to see you there.