**7. Recommendation for future research**

Farmers' markets are established venues for mobilization of locally produced food products with societal benefits such as supporting community economic development and sustainable food production and distribution systems in addition to promoting food democracy, food citizenship, social and human capital, and facilitating knowledge mobilization between farmers and vendors.

The social interaction aspect of participating in alternative food networks (AFNs) has been cited in the literature as one of the motivating factors for farmers to engage in sell-local activities in the farmers' markets. Similarly, some studies suggest that the social interaction aspect of buying local is a motivating factor for consumers to participate in buy-local activities in farmers' market. COVID-19 pandemic and the need for social-distancing affected brick and mortar businesses in general, and in our context farmers' market. There was a shift in selection of a channel to access locally produced food products for safety reasons, and placing online orders with delivery option at the door was offered to consumers. Future research can explore consumers' preferences on channel selection to participate in buy-local activities post COVID-19 pandemic. To capture one aspect of the potential impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on AFNs, we propose an investigation on whether the social interaction is still an influential factor in consumers decision to buy local, meaning whether consumers will resume their shopping at the farmers' market post-pandemic. This can have business implications in alternative food networks (AFNs) as it is possible that the importance of the social interaction aspect of buying local will be replaced by the convenience of receiving fresh locally produced food products at consumers' doorstep via online ordering process.
