Please Don't Squeeze the Tomatoes!

Vancouver's farmers markets are growing. Is the city making enough space for them?
Have you ever wandered through a market in peak tomato season? That sunshine smell hitting your nostrils, drawing your attention to the inglorious folded and bulbous fruits carefully arranged in trays and rows of boxes overflowing with bite-sized red, purple and yellow snacks. Have you ever caught a farmer's eye when you couldn't resist squeezing one? Behind that tomato on your dinner table is a complex infrastructural dynamic: a farm, workers, a truck, a market stall, a permit, a public space, a neighbourhood — all part of a direct system that gets food from a field outside of the city into the hands of the people who live and work here. And increasingly, the system itself is being squeezed!
Vancouver Farmers Markets has been operating farmers markets in the city of Vancouver for more than 30 years. Today, our nine neighbourhood markets welcome thousands of visitors each year (675,000 in 2025) and create direct selling opportunities for hundreds of local farms and small businesses. In 2025, there were 264 vendors; 66 were new entrants, 147 were women-owned, 51 were youth-run, and 115 were BIPOC businesses.
The increased visits, long vendor wait-list and record sales clearly indicate that farmers markets are in high demand. And yet Trout Lake, Riley Park, West End and Kitsilano farmers markets operate in spaces that are increasingly restricted and under-resourced. Markets are being displaced.
One of the actions in our 2022-26 strategic plan is "securing functional solutions for markets facing displacement by construction" (in 2023, we removed the word "construction"). Market spaces are subject to the same development, construction, resource and co-ordination pressures facing most of Vancouver's social and economic infrastructure. But markets are not on the planning and development agenda — they're special events. If Vancouver wants markets to continue to be part of its social, economic and climate-resilient landscape, the city will need to be intentional about making space for them before they're squeezed out.
Call it a warning, but the opportunity is ripe!
Let's talk about Glorious Organics. A Michelin-revered co-operative farm out of Aldergrove, Glorious Organics and Friesen Farm form the collective Organic Farm Connection, which has been a permanent fixture at the Trout Lake, Kitsilano and Riley Park markets for decades. Their certified organic produce is a staple at farmers markets and restaurants. Faced with growing piles of produce and increased customers crammed into their 20-by-27-foot stall space — particularly in the last five years — Mark Cormier and Ann Friesen have been applying for more space. But the markets don't have any to give.
Cropthorne Farm has encountered this lack of space too, and for Lydia Ryall, who started her certified organic family farm on Westham Island in 2009, there's a tension between making space for her tents, her truck and her customers. Year-round, the Cropthorne stall is one of the most popular, diverse and abundant at the West End, Kitsilano and Riley Park markets, making over 50 types of mixed certified organic vegetables available to Vancouver residents. Multiple days a week, the Cropthorne team displays piles of produce and manages a lineup of customers, but bringing all those vegetables to Vancouver neighbourhoods also means driving, unloading, moving and parking the truck — a labour and space trade-off that might not be necessary if Vancouver had more functional market space.
The need for market space is similar for urban food startups.
When Ben Healy — a 28-year-old Irish immigrant and a trained cook — joined Vancouver Farmers Markets in 2025, he brought something deeply personal to the market: traditional Irish brown bread inspired by the food culture of his home, customized with local grain available here in B.C. Today, Healy's Irish Brown Bread sells across several Vancouver Farmers Markets lo...