News
Los Angeles Greens
www.losangelesgreens.org
Sunday, December 4, 2005
Greens Support South Central Farmers
By Jason Neville
As the struggle for land rights continues for the South Central Farmers, Greens are needed more than ever to show our support and solidarity with the farmers.
I spent a recent night at the South Central Farm, where hundreds of working-class families have spent more than a decade tilling the earth and transforming a parcel of abandoned, rat-infested, trash-strewn land into a vibrant community garden overflowing with fruits, vegetables and Meso-American spices.
It was hard for me to reconcile my immediate feeling of inspiration with the knowledge that this "green oasis amidst a cement and metal desert" (as one campesino described it) faces destruction by developer Robert Horowitz, who intends to raze the 14-acre farm to build a warehouse.
As one farmer put it "We are not starving for warehouses - but on the contrary there are families who live in this community who are starving."
The land where the farm sits was acquired for the community after the 1992 uprisings to address the economic inequities that continue to plague the area. Since then, the farm has become an essential safety net for many working South Los Angeles residents and for the last 13 years has helped to alleviate the effects of poverty and malnutrition in low-income communities - all at no expense to taxpayers.
Now that the California Supreme Court has refused to hear the SCF case against the illegal sale of the land to the developer, only one option remains. The city could still reacquire the land and pay the developer the land's "fair market" value, which SCF organizers say is about $15 million - three times what the city sold it for in 2002.
While the developers and a pliant City Council seem to be willing to destroy the farm, we as Angelenos and as a community must stand with the farmers. And as urban planners committed to social and economic justice, community-based development and sustainability, we furthermore propose that this model should be replicated.
This is exactly what happened recently near Chinatown when downtown neighborhoods organized to oppose the development of a warehouse on a 32-acre plot of unused land. This community effort culminated in the development of the acclaimed "Not a Cornfield" project, which is nearing its next phase: to harvest the corn and be converted into a state park for all Angelenos to enjoy. This site was purchased by the state from a developer for $30 million - the same cost per acre as a purchase of the South Central Farm.
The "Not a Cornfield" organizers proclaim on its Web site: "The seeds for this state park as a space full of life have been germinated."
But what to do with the seeds of life in South Los Angeles? Will we allow the myopic interests of a single man to unearth seeds the farmers tilled from heaps of rotting garbage? Or will we help nurture those seeds of life to a more permanent fruition? Will we germinate farmers' hopes to continue farming and providing healthy foods to feed their families and to sell at local markets? Will we stand not only with the South Central Farmers, but with all communities who take the initiative to transform their neighborhoods into spaces of hope, healthfulness and sustainability?
At our last Los Angeles Greens meeting, over a dozen Greens wrote letters of support that were hand-delivered to the Mayor's office.
The most important action we can take as Greens is to put all of our names on the "Phone Tree." When Horowitz moves in to destroy the farm (as he has pledged to do) the farmers will immediately enact the phone tree, which will enable thousands of activists to converge on the site to protect it from destruction.
Please send an email to Jason Neville (nevitate at gmail.com) to put your name on the GP phone tree. And be sure to visit www.SouthCentralFarmers.com for regular updates and information on writing the mayor and city council.
