Public Comment

There can be no good that comes from a global pandemic, leaving lives and economies in ruins, except hopefully the none-too-soon Trump exit. You would think this period of hording, uncertainty, and paranoia, extending to and including formerly banal activities like food shopping, might have a small silver lining with renewed appreciation for outdoor food shopping at farmers’ markets. Fresh air, disinfecting sunlight, farmers hurting from restaurant shutdowns but more seasonal offerings like asparagus and strawberries, more people cooking at home, with time on their hands and families around. And a renewed appreciation for fresh, local produce and other staples—farm-to-table made real, not just a cliche. Meet the people who grow the food. 

We may be in a new moment. Alice Waters and Michael Pollan are getting renewed attention, advocating for sustainable agriculture and victory gardens, people planting home gardens in their back yards. "Yes, in my backyard” may mean a garden, not a dense, market-rate, sunlight-blocking apartment monolith, or nanny-unit. 

And when, cross fingers, we get a different government in D.C., farmers’ markets will likely get the funding and support sustainable agriculture deserves. 

Unfortunately, the Ecology Center, which manages the three Berkeley farmers' markets, is applying even more restrictive social distancing procedures than local supermarkets, their main competition, and perhaps driving shoppers away, hurting the vendors in the process. Although arguably their measures are well-intentioned, albeit nanny-state, their herding compulsion, pushing vendors and shoppers into bottlenecks and kettling pens, adding to exposure at close quarters, may be worrisome to already rattlled shoppers. 

The Ecology Center now requires patrons to line up outside their markets, in addition to lines for individual vendors inside. The lines outside the Tuesday market on Adeline were prohibitively long. At the Downtown Saturday market, with the sidewalks blocked off with caution tape and only two exits and entrances, the line at Avalos Farms bent around into the main central walkway. 

These lines are mimicking lines outside Berkeley Bowl but once inside the store, you wander freely, there are no more lines except for check-out. 

There is a lack of science involved here by the Ecology Center. The outdoor markets are located, with fresh air and sunlight (often), in large open areas. We estimate the city block the Saturday market occupies is one tenth of a mile long, approximately 30,000 s.f., abutted by open space and sidewalks. Open-air markets are far safer, by definition, than indoor markets like the Berkeley Bowl, Safeway, or Trader Joe's. The Oregon St. Bowl, which occupies a former early Safeway, was expanded somewhat, but it’s approximately 5,000 s.f. The aisles were never designed with pandemics in mind, and can’t be accommodated now. 

Two week ago, the Ecology Center posted a sign outside their stall at the Berkeley Market: "Remember, this is essential, not social, activity." Their attitude is anhedonic—the sign sums up their practice. Their website repeats the “essential” slogan, and further suggests you “limit your visit time” and “send only one family member if you can.” 

Not exactly Retail 101. 

Having been habitués of the Berkeley farmers’ markets for several years, we’ve seen how insular and controlling the Ecology Center people can be, including purging vendors who don't conform to their rules. One vendor was banished for weeks for selling scallions from a neighbor’s farm. Another popular stall, Latino vendors with good produce and homemade salsa, was banished permanently. Some years ago, the venerable African-American vendor selling potatoes from his garden was forbidden from selling the fruitcakes his wife baked—the corn syrup ingredient was verboten. 

Two years ago, during the Paradise Fire, the Ecology Center closed the Saturday market because of smoke without consulting with vendors beforehand. It was the market before Thanksgiving, the most lucrative market of the year for vendors. Safeway and the Bowl did not close for a nano-second over smoke from the fires, even though customers walk outside to and from. 

But where the Ecology Center might use their heft, with City of Berkeley officials, they’re wimps. They allowed the parking lot behind Old City Hall to be put off limits even on Sat., despite the fact that is was so convenient for seniors and people with mobility issues, or just in a rush. It’s now breathtakingly empty on Sat.--we often must park blocks away. 

Is this the problem of the tail wagging the dog? The farmers and the shoppers are the market—the Ecology Center is the facilitator, except they’re falling down on the job. At a minimum, if the Ecology Center is to maintain ownership of farmers’ markets, using our public, taxpayer-funded streets, a process should be set up for community and vendor input. 

We have been shopping every week at the Berkeley Farmers’ Markets for years, supplementing what we grow in our backyard garden, after being inspired by Michael Pollan’s writing and our environmental concerns. 

Brokl knows first-hand the difficulties of trying to make a living from farming--he lived for the first years of his childhood on a farm in northerly Park Falls, Wis. Hand-pump outside for water, outhouse, wood stove for heat, one dairy cow, fields for potatoes and whatever else his parents could grow in the few frost-free months. 

They failed at this, selling the farm I was often told for a “dollar an acre” and moving to the city. 

Brokl knows first-hand the difficulties of trying to make a living from farming--he lived for the first years of his childhood on a farm in northerly Park Falls, Wis. Hand-pump outside for water, outhouse, wood stove for heat, one dairy cow, fields for potatoes and whatever else his parents could grow in the few frost-free months. 

They failed at this, selling the farm I was often told for a “dollar an acre” and moving to the city.