USA - CALIFORNIA, L.A.
South Central Farms
The South Central Farms in Los Angeles California was the largest community urban garden in North America.
ariel view of the South Central Farms in Los Angeles
The South Central Farms was a plot of land in the heart of East LA, that was cultivated into a thriving, sustainable community garden, feeding 350 Latino families - upward of 3000 people. The farmers lovingly tended the land, creating a lush paradise out of a 14-acre vacant lot.
Activist and friend Daryl Hannah introduced me to the farm. She told me how the farmers provided fresh produce for the community, and the amazing urban oasis they created. When she told me the Farm was threatened and South Central Farmers were facing an eviction notice, I couldn't bear to to imagine the loss of something so beautiful I'd just found.
The South Central Farmers, who are a self-sustaining community, made the difficult choice to put out a call to others to join them in their fight to save the Farm. And we answered the call! Supporters came from all over to join the encampment, and to bring the media's attention to threatened community garden.
Like many, I thought I would be there for a few days, and like many, once I was there, I was captured by the magic, and didn't want to leave.
The Farm was culturally rich, and the days of the ‘habitation' turned into weeks. A new community was formed. The farmers and their supporters came together with a brilliantly diverse human ecosystem that cut across lines of race, class, religion, and gender.
We live in a time of great crisis, in which the very life support systems of the planet are under threat. South Central Farms is a model that needs to be replicated everywhere, a model of restoration, of healing both the land and the human community, of urban sustainability, of possibility in a place where possibility is precious and rare.
After years of struggle, and weeks of peaceful protest, the South Central Farmers were evicted from their farm. Daryl Hannah and John Quigley and many other supporters were arrested for their peaceful protest. And the farm was lost.
I was honored to have experienced the final weeks at the South Central Farms, and forever changed. At its essence, it was an outpouring of love - love for humanity, love for the planet, love for all that is sacred. It was a luminous example of ‘love in action' as Martin Luther King would call it. A community rising up, committed to non-violence, peace and life.
BLOG
WEB LINKS
South Central Farmers Official Site
Films
The Garden Academy Award nominated film by Scott Kennedy
South Central Farm: Oasis in a Concrete Desert
