Much Ado About Urban Farming
We’re beset by fast food, plagued by food deserts, and our waistlines are growing nearly as fast as the Federal debt- but don’t despair, folks! We can fix these problems with a little ingenuity and a lot of communal elbow grease. In fact, one exciting solution is already sweeping the nation: urban farming.
Urban farms offer a number of benefits. They provide a ready supply of fresh fruits and vegetables to inner city communities which all too often have a dearth of nutritious, healthful food. This locally grown produce is more earth friendly than typical supermarket fare, which must be shipped from distant rural areas. Urban farms also help to make a community out of otherwise anonymous inner city neighborhoods. If you’ve ever lived in a big city (like Los Angeles), you’ve had the experience of your neighbors being strangers. You pass by people on the street and you rarely say hello. There’s really nothing like a good democratic effort to make a community out of anonymity.
No where in the United States has capitalized on the potential of urban farms like Detroit. Economic devastation has yielded the city a unique opportunity: there are currently 40 square miles of vacant lots in metro Detroit. The city has begun turning the vacant lots into community and family gardens- over 80 acres have already been planted. There may not be a single supermarket in downtown Detroit, but there are now farmers markets supplied by these gardens which provide critically needed fruits and vegetables.
Here in Los Angeles, communities underserved by supermarkets and other fresh produce vendors have also turned to urban farming. It’s been a struggle, however. The South Central Farmers, for example, used to run the biggest urban farm in the country on the corner of East 41st and Alameda.
About 350 families living in the South Central area worked together on the 13 acre farm to grow a veritable cornucopia of crops: avocadoes, beans, yerba mate, walnuts, guava, cilantro, chayote, beans, beans… and that’s just to name a few!
Unfortunately, there’s always trouble in paradise. The South Central Farmers did not have full control over their land. The lot was originally seized from the Alameda-Barbara Investment Company by the City of Los Angeles for a waste-to-energy incinerator. When community opposition defeated the proposal to build the incinerator, the city decided to give the LA Regional Food Bank a revocable permit to plant a community garden on the lot. The community garden eventually became what we now know as the South Central Farmers. The former owners of the lot, however, sued for the right to repurchase the land and, after years of legal wrangling, the South Central Farmers ultimately had to give up their farm. The whole saga was captured in the Academy nominated documentary “The Garden: Eviction from Eden.”
While due process was served, it still is an unfortunate setback for urban farming in Los Angeles. There’s no reason, however, that we can’t bring urban farming on the same or even a greater scale to Los Angeles- we’ll just need your help. Yup, I’m talking to you, the forward thinking individual who’s taken time out of their day to read a blog about hunger. For example, the South Central Farmers now run an 80 acre farm cooperative in Bakersfield. On weekends, the South Central Farmers shuttle out to Bakersfield to pack produce boxes to sell at Los Angeles area farmers markets. Support their effort to reestablish themselves back in Los Angeles by buying a box of delicious fruits and vegetables. The boxes can conveniently be ordered online and picked up at a location near you. You’ll get a week’s worth of tasty meals and a bucket of good karma to boot!
Hey, you could even plant your own food garden. Check out UrbanFoodGarden.org for everything you need to know about growing your own fruits and vegetables. Be an example to the community. Invite people over and feed them a delicious home grown meal. Make them jealous.
Really, that’s what Fed Up With Hunger is all about- motivating people to make a difference. Angelenos, let’s get out there and sow some crops! As Rabbi Hillel was wont to say,” If not now, when”.
