San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Farmers’ markets struggle to stay open
Livelihoods of growers in jeopardy as some bustle while others close
The North Berkeley Farmers’ Market was surprisingly bustling on Thursday afternoon, with farmers hawking petite cone cabbages, oyster mushrooms and golden beets.
Hand sanitizer and handwashing stations greeted people upon arrival. Shoppers stood on chalked blue arrows to ensure a safe distance apart. Riverdog Farm completely redid its stall’s setup, placing all the produce in bins behind its tables and requiring people to order vegetables instead of picking them out themselves. The changes brought some confusion as well as a common refrain heard around the market: “It’s OK, we’re all figuring it out right now.”
Some neighborhood residents looked delighted to see all the activity. They didn’t even realize the farmers’ market was still operating.
That’s understandable. Roughly a dozen farmers’ markets have closed around the Bay Area. Some, like the Downtown Palo Alto Farmers’ Market, decided to shut down on their own. In other cases, like with Jack London Square Farmers’ Market in Oakland, the landlord deemed the market a large event that needed to be canceled in the name of social distancing. The closures — coupled with the collapse of the restaurant industry — have severely affected local farmers, who are scrambling to find new ways to get their produce to customers.
But many farmers’ market operators have lobbied government officials to keep them open — and they succeeded with Monday’s Bay Area shelterinplace mandate, which specifically named farmers’ markets as an essential service.
“People think they’re optional lifestyle choices, and they’re not,” said Christine Farren, the interim executive director at the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture, which operates the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. “Many people depend on farmers’ markets for their food and many farmers depend on farmers’ markets for their livelihood.”
Farmers’ markets are known in the Bay Area as not just a place to shop but to socialize, eat and enjoy the outdoors. That’s changed with the coronavirus. Under new guidelines from the California Department of Public Health, farmers’ markets must remove all seating areas, cancel events like cooking demonstrations, ban sampling and move vendors farther apart. Operators say they began making those changes even before the guidelines arrived.
“We’re not creating a lingering relaxing atmosphere anymore. Get in, get your groceries and go home,” Farren said.
Farren is frustrated by what she calls a misconception that
farmers’ markets are a form of luxury shopping — after all, people can use food stamps at farmers’ markets and get the value matched thanks to the statewide Market Match program. There were almost 200,000 such transactions across the state last year, according to Carle Brinkman of the Ecology Center, which operates three farmers’ markets in Berkeley.
“It will greatly impact people who are the most vulnerable if farmers’ markets don’t remain open,” she said. As part of the California Alliance of Farmers’ Markets, Brinkman is fighting to get some closed markets reopened. appeal to nervous shoppers, including aggregating boxes of produce from different farmers at the market for people to quickly grab and go.
While grocery stores are packed with shoppers despite empty shelves, Farren said, foot traffic is down 50% at the thriceweekly Ferry Plaza Farmers Market — it’s been particularly hit hard because tourism is down and few people are working in downtown offices. Markets in residential neighborhoods, such as the North Berkeley market, seem to be faring better.
Yet the Ecology Center’s efforts to instill social distancing didn’t make Berkeley resident Carol Sawdey feel much safer at the Thursday farmers’ market compared with a grocery store.
“I find I’m never 6 feet from people. It’s hard,” she said, holding a paper bag of beets.
Others said it was still a more pleasant environment overall — and they have bigger reasons behind their shopping decisions.
“I want to support the people doing the best farming we can have right now, and they need to be sustained,” said Berkeley resident Lenore Thompson. “It’s what we have to do.”