Delta Digital News Service

by Levi Collins
Delta Digital News Service

JONESBORO — The Arkansas State University Aggie Market is doing more than selling locally processed meat. The market to many students and community members provides a visible connection between A-State and the larger city.

Part of the College of Agriculture, the Aggie Market serves as both a student learning facility and a public retail space. Students help process, market and sell products while interacting directly with Jonesboro residents during weekly retail hours and community events.

Richard Readnour, meat laboratory manager, said the market’s role extends beyond education by creating direct interaction between students and the Jonesboro community.

“The Aggie Market’s target audience is anyone within the Jonesboro community, or surrounding areas. We seek to build relationships with students, staff, faculty, and strengthen our community ties,” Readnour said.

The Aggie Market first opened in 1971 as the ASU Meat Lab under the leadership of Raymond Hostetler. The meat lab originally focused primarily on teaching and USDA-inspected processing.

In 2021, the College of Agriculture received grant funding from the Arkansas Department of Agriculture that allowed the facility to undergo major renovations. The market reopened in 2023 under the new name A-State Aggie Market as the first state-inspected facility in Arkansas.

The renovation also expanded opportunities for students beyond meat processing. Students can now participate in nearly every step of production, from raising livestock at the university farm to developing and marketing retail products sold to the public. Students working inside the market are often the face of those interactions.

Hannah Johns, a student employee at the Aggie Market, said they provide hands-on learning opportunities and even employment for students.

“We are committed to producing products handmade by students and being engaged with the community,” Johns said.

The market opens weekly to the public, allowing residents to purchase products directly from students working in the facility. Readnour said those face-to-face interactions help students gain experience while also giving customers a better understanding of agriculture and food production.

According to Readnour, the market isn’t a one-time stop.

“We have several repeat customers who come back often to pick up their favorite products. We use this as an opportunity to tell them about the importance of agriculture, and our students who help us through every stage of
production,” Readnour said.

Still, awareness of the Aggie Market itself may not be widespread throughout Jonesboro.

Craig Rickert of the Jonesboro Advertising and Promotion Commission said he was more familiar with the broader Judd Hill Farmers’ Market than the Aggie Market specifically. Rickert said community-centered agriculture events hosted through A-State play an important role in connecting the university with Jonesboro residents.

“The great appeal of the Judd Hill Farmers’ Market is that it brings people to campus,” Rickert said. “Those Saturday morning and Tuesday afternoon trips can be as much about being social as shopping. You can get great local products in a lot of places. But the farmers’ market gives you community on top of that.”

Rickert said the Aggie Market should be viewed as a community resource and not exclusive to the university.

“When you see the full parking lot, the families, the kids running around snagging a free taste of something, that’s special,” Rickert said. This most definitely strengthens the connection between the city and the university. A-State is the heart of our city.”

While the Aggie Market operates on a relatively small scale compared to other university outreach efforts, it continues to provide one of the few spaces where students and Jonesboro residents regularly interact through a shared local experience.

“We need to drop the sentiment that something is only A-State or only Jonesboro. The city and the university live together hand-in-hand,” Rickert said.