About Us 

Hi my name is Mica Williams. And this, The Stand 360 degrees is a dream come to life. Farming runs in my blood. My family owns a 2000 acre farm in Western Jamaica, which has been in the family for eight generations. Growing up I was always aware of the challenges that farmers faced from rising feed prices to deceitful wholesalers. Farming is not just an occupation, its a lifestyle. In order to wake up every morning and face the day you must love what you're doing, you must invest everything you are and everything you have into the ground in hopes that something grows.  You must be brave and persistent. When my family moved to Washington DC, I gained entirely new perspective on farmers and small business. I shifted my focus from the production side of the farm to the selling side. Our family set up a small stand at our local farmers market, and it was suddenly off customers' interactions that our business was surviving. As I looked around the market, I realized our story was far from unique. We were surrounded by tons of other stands housing hopes and dreams. Set up by people who too had the courage to start the own business, the passion to endure the challenges, and the love to sell their product directly to their customers. These people were of a different breed, they had a spark in their eye and a skip in their step. A farmers market houses an entire community of people and ultimately creates its own culture. When I was given a month off at school to pursue my own interests in a seven hour day, I quickly decided that I wanted to travel around my city capturing the stories of these vendors, these innovators, pioneers and explorers. From Northwest to Southeast, I cataloged twenty five different characters and businesses. What I found transformed the way I think about health, culture, development and economies. I decided to continue and expand on my little experiment. Over the next year, my gap year, I will traveling around the globe  from Asia to Australia visiting their farmers markets and investigating the people behind the stand.
Welcome to my journey. Watch your step, please, as you board. 
 

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