Fresh Markets

With a presidential election on the horizon (more accurately, in our front yard), the question of government involvement in commerce appears to be the fulcrum on which voters will choose their MAN (again).
My fresh impression of France's small market economy (not to give the impression of pastoral purity, there were big box stores etc ), is that every town has an outdoor market with vendors of fresh local food convening in various towns regionally over the course of the week.
This is starkly absent from American culture.  Is it the box-store/supermarket over-shadow that knocks out small vendors or is it the lazy American who won't walk or drive to the center of town (or initiate a market setting) to shop, one item at a time from actual producers?  Or, is it something else, some combination of government encouragement and government relaxation?

Fresh markets are colorful, fun, social places that can supply nearly all the food needs for any family.  I live in a rural part of the country, certainly surrounded by producers of fresh products.  What would it take to make public markets a part of our economic and social landscape?
And, what can a president do???