Boy, has the response been nasty.  Steve Sando of Rancho Gordo farm, walked out of a meeting that was pulled together to discuss the affront; Nigel Walker of Eatwell Farm told the San Francisco Gate that he felt like he’d been “kicked in the face”; Erika Lesser, director of Slow Food USA and Petrini’s escort on his book tour around the States, said, “It’s definitely awkward.” 

Anyone hastening to form an opinion should read Petrini’s own words, many of which have been taken out of context, as I have done to sensationalist effect above (scroll down to the bottom of the Ethicurean’s post for an excerpt, or check out Slow Food Nation).  At the risk of being a traitor to my own constituency, I have to say I agree with much of his observations (many of which are positive, by the way—people have been overlooking that).  The prices at the Ferry Plaza are astronomical—although, as Petrini writes, “it is hard to produce things so well, and what costs are involved in certification.”  The place is boutiquey, in both good ways in bad.  Many, though not all, of the farmers are “well-to-do college graduates, formers employees of Silicon Valley, many of them young.”  (Nothing about this comment denigrates their skill as farmers, and it’s factually accurate.) 

Petrini finishes the section with the observation, “As the outskirts of town [Berkeley] flashed by outside the window of the taxi, chains of fast-food joints succeeded one another on almost every block.  They were all crowded with ordinary people, very different people from the customers I had seen at the farmer’s market.” 

It’s rare hearing ugly things about the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s market, often cited as the best of its kind in America.  God knows I’d love a copy of it in my own city.  But it does appeal to a primarily well-off, monocultural audience, some of whom shop and some of whom browse, schmooze, and take pictures, leading two of the market’s favorite faces to leave it, citing lost revenue (see Andy of Mariquita Farm’s reasons here, well worth reading).  I, for one, am glad that Petrini didn’t give the market the same glazed approval everyone else does, even if he did ruffle a few feathers doing so.