:: May 2006 Volume 5/Number 3

Ecology Section:
South Central’s Farm
Crime Free & Green, L.A.’s most famous
14 acres is a model for tomorrow.

By K Vera Brink

Ranging from timid ornamentals to radical subsistence, very few community gardens are officially tracked, much less protected. One reason is that, like fennel squeezing through cracks in the sidewalk and thriving, these green spaces often sprout in gaps of property ownership and use. In South Central Los Angeles at 41st and Alameda, 350 families grow over 150 varieties of medicinal and edible crops on a once-transitory 14 acre spot. More a communal farm than a garden, each sub-plot is tended by a family under the poverty line by USDA standards. This farm literally contributes to survival. Others in the area in similar financial situations who may not have plots also depend on the farmers for fresh food. As grocery stores follow the dicta of the market and shift to more
affluent neighborhoods, this food source becomes
increasingly significant.

Since 1992 hundreds of families have tilled the earth at L.A.’s South Central Farm.
Photos: Leslie Radford

In some sense the farm is an anomaly, embedded in a major industrial area. Yet great success in increasing the quality of life beyond proper nutrition for those involved is challenging the idea that growing kitchen crops is a secondary use of urban land.
Gem, oasis, bomb, seed. Described aptly as all of these things, the story of the South Central Farm unfolds like a parable, riddled with symbolism. The largest urban garden in the country, it grows under shadows of the concrete specters of environmental racism, campaign contribution politics and immigration rights.

This farm didn’t spring up by immaculate miracle; it emerged out of frustration, yearning, defiance, unjust court rulings and bad planning by the government. In a 1986 exercise of eminent domain, the City of L.A. acquired the land for a proposed trash incinerator. Not surprisingly this met resistance by the vicinity’s residents, so the lot sat neglected until 1992. The Rodney King rebellion ideologically opened it up for more creative use in the temporary space of bureaucratic indecision. The Los Angeles Regional food bank got permission to use the land, revived the soil, divided it into plots and invited gardeners, with enthusiastic response that has only deepened over the years.

When the City of Los Angeles dropped $ 2.4 billion to develop the area known as the Alameda Corridor to establish a hub in global trade around the ports of Los Angeles, the area’s property value suddenly skyrocketed and a controversy with the farm was born. The original owner of the land, real estate developer Ralph Horowitz, began attempts to reclaim the land by suing the city.
Three years ago behind closed doors, the city settled and illegally sold the land back to Horowitz, who is reported to have made campaign contributions to city officials that facilitated the deal. By law, the city is required to hold public hearings when public land is sold, but this procedure was not followed. The farmers were informed of eviction. A reprieve has been won as a result of extensive community action and protest, attesting to the empowerment such a project promotes.

The reasons to keep the farm outnumber the plants that grow there. Since they were notified of pending eviction three years ago, a group representing the farmers has submitted comments at the open session of city council held every Friday. Only recently has it made the agenda for discussion in closed session. Each person involved will give you a slightly different reason, all centered on some very basic issues: poverty, nutrition, safety, community.
South Central Los Angeles has a reputation for being a dangerous place, but police records reveal the farm to be a virtually crime-free area. In this green, organic haven, kids play as they learn about their relationship to the earth and each other, cultivating important life skills, such as communication and responsibility. A community clustered around the farm is a model for what involvement on a basic level can do to bring a loose conglomeration into maturity. On weekends, the farm draws as many people as some parks, as neighbors congregate to exchange stories and produce or attend dance classes or other educational workshops. Ancient practices of sustainability are transplanted quite literally in these lush rectangular patches, with radical relevance to the current state of our environment. Many plants are heirloom varieties of traditional Mesoamerican crops, a deep breath of biodiversity in the face of homogenous smog.

In some instances the mainstream media has bashed the idealism of those who would defend the farm. In others, this reclaimed patch of soil’s fertile community has been documented vigilantly. Many on the other side of the page have found inspiration. Independent media sources on the internet and radio have stoked an outpouring of support that could drown out the death knell.
A solution that satisfies everyone involved is within reach. This may be in the form of a recent deal between Horowitz and the Trust For Public Land, which gives the trust 30 days to raise the money to buy 10 acres; the rest will go to the city for soccer fields. The city of Los Angeles cannot help but cultivate something, whether a festering crisis of livability under the weight of the reality of corporate greed or a rare glimmer of the vibrant heart beating beneath our urban shell.

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