And the fight continues. This time, however, Bay Area (and other) food bloggers are picking up the nonburied hatchet and weighing in with their opinions on the Slow Food/CUESA debate.
Amy at Cooking with Amy decides:
The problem is, there is expensive and there is highway robbery. And now someone has dared to blow the whistle. My infrequent trips to the Ferry Plaza farmers market are much like my infrequent trips to the local supermarket—I look for what is ripe, fresh, in-season AND reasonably priced.
While Eggbeater’s Shuna muses:
One day, when I’m up for another opinion war, I’ll weigh in on the Carlo Petrini debate. I’ve seen him speak a number of times, and like all leaders, he has strong opinions, a fearlessness about his words and a message he has successfully delivered to the world over. His critique needed to be voiced, whether it is wholly wrong, partly true or, more likely, a little of everything. People are complicated.
Then the Gurgling Cod downplays the whole thing as smacking “not so much of pots and kettles, but more of the oval dutch oven calling the round dutch oven Sonoma Green” and decides that the Northern California farmers are just “thin-skinned.”
Finally, Sam of Becks & Posh takes another route. First she notes:
It is understandable that something as popular and as liked as San Francisco’s Market should attract its fair share of critics. But when you are all gooey-eyed and ga-ga about something you all but unconditionally love, like I am, about the Farmer’s Market, it’s tough to hear it being bad mouthed. There are dozens of cruel words that have been thrown at it recently it by people who otherwise claim to care about food; ‘elitist’, ‘highway robbery’ ‘astronomical’ and ‘extremely exclusive’ being among the most upsetting. But instead of arguing, bickering, taking cheap shots and taking sides, as some people seem more apt to do, I wondered how I might be able to somehow celebrate my own personal love of the Farmers’ Market by helping to show that it is not the exclusive rich-person’s club it is ofttimes made out to be and at the same time perhaps help prove that these ignorant accusations are simply unfounded.
She goes on to do a fairly fascinating comparison of two receipts. She showcases the prices of identical items, but one is from Safeway and the other from the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. The result? The Safeway receipt comes out to be $9 more than the FP receipt.
The Becks & Posh challenge is interesting–I scrolled through the comments, and did not see this issue raised — are the online prices for delivery, or for having the order packed and ready for you to pick up. In either case, Safeway is providing a service the farmers’ market is not, and for which they would reasonably be charging. I’d rather shop at the Ferry market than Safeway, but I wonder about the validity of the comparison as it is laid out.
Safeway’s on line prices are the same as in the store, and delivery is $5 (if I remember correctly) for a minimum order ($100?). Point being, the prices Becks & Posh writes are the same whether they were delivered or she went to the Safeway.
As a former SF resident, I can say confidently that I was able to (or forced to, I should say) shop at the Farmers Market because the alternatives were nearly or more expensive. There aren’t many cheap markets within city limits, so I figured if I was going to pay anyway I should get the good stuff.
http://www.slowfoodforum.org/showthread.php?p=4030#post4030
“I Left My Heart In San Francisco or Let’s Expatriate the Politically Correct”
This site on Slow Food forum has some very interesting comments. I love that this discussion is getting people to talk more about food issues and is raising the awareness about good clean fresh food for all.
There is also a large excerpt from Slow Food Nation… as opposed to the small paragraph that was objected to and taken out of context by the cuesa. I agree with the author that when you take the conversation off the table nothing is accomplished. Keep talking! (And yes, I am a slow food member.)
interesting comparison between the market and safeway. I always felt that was the case, but never tried a direct comparison.