Vote for your Favorite Farmers’ Market
“American Farmland Trust holds the annual America’s Favorite Farmers Markets™ contest to raise national awareness about the importance of buying fresh food from local farms and saving the farmland where it’s grown. Market shoppers will vote to support their favorite farmers market starting June 1 at 12:00 PM until midnight on August 31, 2011.” Let’s rock that vote and bring back a victory for South of the James.
Continue reading to solve a grammatical battle that is waging in my mind, that is related to this subject.
Which is correct and why?
- South of the James Farmers Market
- South of the James Farmer’s Market
- South of the James Farmers’ Market
I use #3 but the contest above uses #1. I’m pretty sure #2 is totally incorrect unless only one farmer is participating in the market. So you sticklers for grammar out there, which is correct?
I agree with you that plural possessive #3 is correct. Although, in truth, many of the vendors are not farmers at all, but makers and bakers and craft folk.
Farmers’
#3 is grammatically correct!
#3 implies that the market is owned and operated by a group of farmers, a la Ukrop’s. If that’s the case, #3 is correct. If not, it’s #1.
Naming preferences aside (see 17th Street’s use of the apostrophe), #1 is grammatically correct.
“Do not add an apostrophe to a word ending in -s when it is used primarily in a descriptive sense: citizens band radio, a Cincinnati Reds infielder, a teachers college, a Teamsters request, a writers guide.”
Farmers’ is correct.
#3