the farmer's market from hell

[GoodTaste]

Does "the farmer's market from hell" mean "the farmer's illegal market"?

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Sam Harris 2h
Perfect.


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Bill Maher Apr 11​

China is a dictatorship that, for decades, enforced a one child per family policy under penalty of forced sterilization. But they can't close down the farmer's market from hell? #CoronaVirus #WetMarkets​

 

[jutfrank]

No, he's referring to wet markets.

 

[Rover_KE]

... and as more than one farmer does business there, it should be the farmers' market.

 

[GoesStation]

It means the worst imaginable farmers market.

 

[Tdol]

I've been to some hardcore wet markets, and I would never think of calling them a farmers' market. Farmers' markets are full of people buying organic leeks, and taking the odd risk on a single-herd raw-milk cheese. I went to one in northern Laos that would have given David Lynch sleepless nights.

 

[jutfrank]

The writer is attempting to be humorous by referring to them as 'farmers markets'.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

... and as more than one farmer does business there, it should be the farmers' market.

I looked it up about ten years ago because I was writing a lot of copy regarding a lot of farmers markets. I couldn't find consensus. All three — farmers, farmers', and farmer's — are widely used. (The only form I never found was farmer.)

All three make some sense. I ended up using farmers, no apostrophe, for two reasons: It's the one that's easiest to type, and though they're occupied by farmers, they don't belong to the farmers. They're public spaces and public programs that farmers pay to take part in.

But again, cases can be made for farmer's and farmers', too.

 

[Tdol]

And then there's the irony of whether to say grocer's apostrophe or grocers' apostrophe.