The Garden documentary

The Portland International Film Festival has been going on for about two weeks now and I had the pleasure of seeing a great documentary this week called The Garden.















A couple years ago I was traveling around the country, on tour with a documentary about infoshops that I had made with my friend Courtney. One of our stops was in LA and the people we were staying with mentioned that we should definitely check out the South Central Urban Farm while we were in town. It was one of my favorite things from the entire trip and really got me started thinking about the possibilities of urban agriculture as an act of resistance that yields tangible results and can really bring a community together. While we were there (early 2006) the farmers were already in a battle against the developer who eventually won and was able to bulldoze the land. At the time though, it seemed like the farmers would probably prevail. Seeing this oasis right in the middle of a warehouse district was incredible.

The documentary describes the history behind how the garden started in 1992 after the LA Riots, the work the community put into turning desolate industrial land into an urban farm capable of feeding over 350 families, and the battle to keep the land in the hands of the community. Despite wide-spread support, including by some prominent Hollywood actors, the land was eventually bulldozed. I won't go into detail but the documentary argues that there was a corrupt closed-door deal between the develop and the city, along with another community leader who was apparently motivated by greed. The details on what really transpired to allow the land to be bulldozed isn't quite clear at the end, but whatever happened, it is a tragedy.

On a brighter note, some of the South Central Farmers have gotten new land and are farming on it. If you live in the LA-area they are running a CSA that you can subscribe to.