cooperative industry local foods predecessor farm retail association founded 1979 national association of farmers markets founded 1999 founded 2003 2003 merger headquarters newmarket united kingdom key people michael mack managing agent ; sally jackson chairman products communications & promotion credit & debit card deal sector steering farmers market certification farm shop accreditation sector specific research advice networking & training for members revenue not for profit slogan none website farma.org.uk farma is a co operative association of farmers producers and farmers market organisations in the united kingdom . contents 1 overview 2 history 3 objectives 4 market certification 5 see also 6 external links 7 references overview edit farma the national farmers retail and markets association is an organisation that was set up to represent farmers and organisations such as farmers markets and farm shops selling their produce directly to consumers . it operates a certification scheme for uk farmers markets and its rules have been adopted by many markets and are supported by the department for the environment food and rural affairs defra . 1 farma is recognised by cooperatives uk as the federal organisation supporting farmers markets and local foods in the uk . history edit farma came about as a merger in 2003 between the farm retail association operating since 1979 representing farm shops and pick your own farms and the national association of farmers markets operating since 1998 . the merger was announced at the royal show in stonleigh park in july 2004 . objectives edit farma define their mission statement 2 as to support the sustainable development of farmers markets farm shops pyo box schemes and home delivery to sustain and promote high ethical standards for all parts of the industry to define and promote the environmental social and economic values of the industry to promote the value of local produce in communities to encourage high professional standards and improve management and retailing skills to provide a national voice for farmers markets pyo farm shops box schemes and home delivery internet sales to act as a conduit for information to from and within the industry market certification edit farma certifies farmers markets in the uk that operate under its guidelines . markets are independently assessed by a third party and the inspections are carried out on an individual basis . over 200 farmers markets in the uk have been certified by farma 3 its rules are based around five major principles food must be produced within a defined local area the food must be sold by someone involved in producing it primary produce things that are sold without significant preparation must be grown or reared locally secondary produce value added items for example pickles or bread should contain at least one primary product from within the local area with a recommended minimum of 25 % local ingredients . traceability information should be available from the market and the traders about how items were produced markets can support additional rules and define their own local area usually set as a distance or as a county boundary . farma recommend a maximum radius of 30 miles but accept that for large cities a radius of 50 miles is more appropriate . uk farmers markets have to abide by regulation from their local authority and some local authorities have adopted the farma guidelines as a requirement . see also edit farmers markets farm shop local food cooperatives uk external links edit farma corporate website listings of certified farmers markets in the uk run by farma listings of farm shops in the uk run by farma listings of farm shops and farmers markets in wales run by farma cymru a regional division of farma map and listings of certified farmers markets in the uk using farma s database references edit defra website farmers markets and farm shops http www.defra.gov.uk farm trade markets shops index.htm farma website http www.farma.org.uk list of farma certified farmers markets http www.farmersmarkets.net retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title farma & oldid 689609200 categories agricultural organisations based in the united kingdomco operatives in the united kingdom navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages espa ol edit links this page was last modified on 8 november 2015 at 08 24 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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