Australian Fair Food Forum

Farmers' Markets tours - trialing a new mode of connection between eater and producer

Announcements EVENT
#1

Melbourne Farmers’ Markets is piloting a series of tours at the Gasworks Farmers’ Market as an opportunity to expose visitors to Melbourne to the breadth and depth of agriculture in the region. The tours have been set up after MFM was approached by Airbnb to host a ‘social impact experience’, where all proceeds go straight to the registered NFP (as opposed to Airbnb taking a cut as they otherwise do).

We’re keen to get rapid feedback on the tours and be able to tailor them to suit a visitors’ particular interest, whether it’s a particular food, getting to know ‘real farmers’, producers of niche products, etc. We’ve had a food waste researcher from Singapore book in to attend to understand farmers perspectives on food waste, for example, and think there’s potential for other people in the food system movement to have a facilitated introduction to producers also.

If you know of any visitors, foodies, or ‘I don’t know how to shop at a farmers’ market’ people who might be interested in this we’d love if you could share the event with them!

https://www.airbnb.com.au/experiences/177773

Sophia

2 Likes
#2

This looks awesome!!

1 Like
#3

Fantastic. I had already tried to pitch something like this to AirBnB but in my region (Central Vic), Seymour. They’re not ready to launch into my area yet. I would be keen to see how we could pop people on a train up to Tallarook perhaps when our market is on and see if we can extend the experience. We could arrange a bus trip to a local farm close-by. Very interested to learn more about how this channel works. We find as AirBnB hosts we get such amazing guests looking for that true and genuine experience and when the farmers market is on as well their stay is outstanding.

1 Like
#4

Cynthia, I think your approach of people getting themselves to Seymour and being greeted at the station for a personal tour of the market could work. It would need to clearly explain the self-organised transport, or you could organise a mini-bus if you had enough bookings… It’s fantastic that you’ve already got hosting experience in the accommodation side of Airbnb and can tie the Tallarook FM in with their stay!! I’m keen to see how your idea evolves over time!
Soph