There are a lot and they are growing--where do you live, person whose name I already forget who said farmer's markets are mostly suburban and rural? I went a lot last year to the one in Rochester New York, where there was a very healthy showing of non-upper-middle-class folk, I'd say even a majority. Maybe the West Coast is ahead on this issue, and Union Square in NYC is not exactly inner city, but Cleveland's WEst Side Market-- help me out here, city-dwellers. Does anyone know if any of the produce at all the little stands in urban Asian neighborhoods is locally grown? And a can of sloppy joe mix is not cheaper than a big bundle of collard greens or a sack of ugly-but-good potatoes at one of these. And "more tasty" is a matter of culture, a complicated mess of history and practice including the slowly-being-revived art of cooking with real honest ingredients.
