Rice University
IN-2: Innovation 2

The Houston Farmers Market was the first farmers' market to open in Houston. Dedicated to providing a meeting place where farmers could meet consumers, the market was a landmark and the inspiration for the growth of markets around the Houston area. In 2007, Rice University invited the Houston Farmers Market to move to the parking lot adjacent to the Rice Stadium on Rice’s campus. In August of 2010, after seven years as an independent, nonprofit organization, the Houston Farmers Market became an official Rice University entity and was appropriately renamed the Rice University Farmers Market. Throughout the years the goal of the market has remained the same: to make locally grown food available to as many consumers as possible, thereby providing a growing marketplace for local farmers and producers and a thriving meeting place for the community. Local farmers and small-business entrepreneurs, offering everything from environmentally safe bug repellent to soaps and lotions and organic meals for two, have become a regular fixture and a much-anticipated part of the Rice campus. Almost all of the food sold at the Rice University Farmers Market has been raised/grown sustainably, maintaining all the nutritional benefits without the health and environmental costs of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. Typically between 200 and 500 people visit the market each week. Rice faculty, staff and students are regular patrons, but the market also draws people of all ages from the Texas Medical Center and surrounding neighborhoods. Farmers from the market have become involved in Rice curriculum through participating in a food panel in the ENST 302 / SOCI 304 course each fall, as well as once-a-semester farm-to-fork dinners hosted by the student group Real Food Revolution. In addition, several of the market's farmers have hosted students and staff for site visits. A video of one of these visits can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpnhgeivAWk

While the market has been on campus for more than three years, some of the most successful engagements - such as the farm-to-fork dinners and the frequent purchases of market goods by Rice University chefs - have occurred within the last three years.