The Farmers' Market Book examines this national phenomenon through the story of the market in Bloomington, Indiana, and considers the social, ecological, and economic power of farmers' markets generally. Authors Jennifer Meta Robinson and J. A. Hartenfeld describe farmers' markets as a rewarding intersection of rural and urban lives, sustaining and healing both our communities and our relationship to the land. While they may seem nostalgic or idealistic, these markets are both current and forward-looking, cultivating a fresh, diverse space and recognizing the personal differences of community members. These common grounds are intimate and socially complex, representing far more than a place to buy food.
Jennifer Meta Robinson teaches in the Indiana University Department of Communication and Culture. She teaches A Cultural Approach to Interpersonal Communication and courses in communicative and performative approaches to nature, food, and place.
She is the author of The Farmers' Market Book: Growing Food, Cultivating Community, with J. A. Hartenfeld (Indiana UP 2007). She co-edits the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning book series from Indiana University Press.
She is the principal investigator for the Indiana University Collegium on Inquiry in Action, funded by the Teagle Foundation to develop a model interdisciplinary approach to preparing graduate students to be reflective teachers who base their teaching on appropriate learning theory and evidence of student learning. She served as director of Indiana University's Campus Instructional Consulting office and coordinator of the scholarship of teaching and learning initiative 2001-2008, which received a TIAA-CREF Hesburgh Award for faculty development in 2003. She earned her doctorate in English from Indiana University.
She lives on an Indiana flower farm with her husband, Jeff Hartenfeld.
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