Mainly volume. The margins are best at a farmers market, but there are significantly fewer purchases and pretty high up-front labor costs. Selling in bulk to a

Mainly volume. The margins are best at a farmers market, but there are significantly fewer purchases and pretty high up-front labor costs. Selling in bulk to a distributor allows a farmer to move many more goods with less labor (though at far lower margins) There are also problems with paying for getting seed in the ground. A lot of farmers are incentivized to sell contracts for their goods for cheap as a way to finance planting.