Agriculture at the Metropolitan Edge: New Ruralism and Other Urban-Rural Sustainability Strategies--A public symposium

From April 5 to 6, UC Berkeley's new Agriculture at the Metropolitan Edge program will host a public symposium. The event will bring together academics, policymakers, farmers, developers, design professionals, planners, and activists involved in bridging sustainable agriculture and smart growth to advance a systems- and place-based framework for linking sustainable metropolitan development with sustainable urban-edge agriculture and local food systems. For more information, click here.

Saturday, March 10 ~ Market to Table events

10:30 am - Meet the farmer
Freeman Barsotti of Capay Fruits and Vegetables

11:00 am - Cooking demonstration
Jesse Branstetter, local chef

Saturday, March 17 ~ Market to Table events

10:30 am - Meet the farmer
Maria Catalan of Catalan Farms

11:00 am - Cooking demonstration & book signing
Ann Cooper, Renegade Lunch Lady and author of Lunch Lessons
* Books for sale courtesy of Book Passage

All events take place in our Dacor teaching kitchen in the arcade north of the Ferry Building's clock tower.

The producers that attend the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market are as varied as their products. When we talk about our farms, it is tempting to generalize—they are small, they are ecological, they are local. This is largely the case, but these descriptions are not true of all operations; the agricultural practices, sizes, and localities of the farms that attend differ significantly. Perhaps the only thing that can be said of all the farms is that they are in California. We can, however, take a collective look at our producers. CUESA gathers information about the sellers that attend the market during an annual application cycle; this year, the application was extensive. Some things we learned that we thought might interest our readers:

*Note that all data is self-reported

• Collectively, our farmers and ranchers manage 8,943 acres of land.

• Farms raising plant crops (grazing lands not included) range in size from 2 to 1,500 acres; the average size is 80 acres.

• Farms range from 10 to 525 miles from the market; the average distance between the farms and the market is 122 miles.

• 95% of farms are family owned; they have been operated/farmed an average of 31 years.

• 6 producers collectively manage over 5,100 animals (3 breeds of cattle, 7 breeds of goat, 4 breeds of sheep, 5 breeds of chicken and 3 breeds of hogs) on 3,366 acres of land.

• 50% of farms have some portion of certified organic land. A number of other farmers farm ecologically but are not certified organic.

• Top pest management methods are:
o Providing habitat for beneficial organisms
o Rotating crops
o Using organic insecticides

• 14% of farmers report regularly using synthetic pesticides.

• Top soil management practices:
o Cover cropping
o Adding compost
o Mulching

• 86% hand-harvest some or all crops and 20% do some mechanical harvesting

• Our farmers make, on average, 23% of their farm sales at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market; their remaining sales are made at other farmers’ markets (sellers average 27% at 2.5 other markets), to distributors (21%), to restaurants (10%), to stores (7%), through Community Supported Agriculture programs (4%), on the farm (3%), online (2%), to food processors (2%), and to schools (1%).

• Our farmers employ more than 450 year-round full-time workers and more than 1,000 part-time or seasonal workers.

Want to learn more? Check out the producer profiles on our website, see satellite images of the farms on our interactive farm map, attend our Meet the Farmer interviews, and talk to the farmers in person every Tuesday and Saturday when you shop. This spring, we’ll also be hanging informational signs at every farm stall at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and resuming our popular farm tours.

This is the most up-to-date information about which sellers will and won't be attending the market as of Friday, when we send this letter. If there are no changes to a seller's status, they will not be listed. To find out which farmers regularly attend each market, click here. Please understand that there are often last minute changes--it's the nature of farming!

Saturday, March 10

In/Returning: The Apple Farm, Bernard Ranches, Orangewood Farm
Out: Mariquita Farm

Tuesday, March 13

Out: Snyders Honey, Sutton's Protea