A new battle takes to the field

South Central Farmers acquire 85 acres of new farmland in Buttonwillow, California*

*Note: The following information has yet to be published in the media, though its source is confirmed by longtime SCF organizer and advocate, Sarah Nolan.

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A week’s work has just ended on a Friday night, and families in South Central climb aboard a small bus to drive for hours into the Central Valley. Not long past dawn, the bus slowly lurches into Buttonwillow where the South Central Farmers will pack another week’s work into one weekend – plowing, sowing and harvesting fresh fruits and vegetables from 85 acres of new farmland.

A year and four months after the forcible eviction from their 14-acre community garden on 41st and Alameda Streets, the South Central Farmers (SCF) now have a new place to call home – well, maybe not home, exactly. In October 2007, the South Central Farmers Health and Education Fund (SCHEF) secured a loan from an anonymous non-profit organization, allowing SCHEF to purchase 85 acres of land in Buttonwillow, California. As such, the farmers maintain that they have only been displaced, not defeated.

“We stood up for the needs of the community and we will continue to develop the work that was done at the South Central Farm,” stated Rufina Juarez, SCHEF president. But this isn’t the first time that the farmers have brought in fresh produce following the eviction. Since summer 2006, SCF has been farming on smaller community gardens throughout Los Angeles and on leased land in collaboration with other agricultural cooperatives in Fresno and Bakersfield.

Yet this new farmland, just east of Bakersfield, resembles little of the 14-acre urban oasis that had served as the foundation of SCF. Without the picturesque setting of massive walnut trees and burgeoning flowers collectively halting South Central’s typically blighted landscape, row upon row of crops frame this farmland. As part of the Central Valley, Buttonwillow is situated in the region that sustains California’s most productive agricultural efforts.

Still, many things remain the same. Dotted by hunched-over wives and husbands or fathers and daughters, the new farm is still the site of toddlers running through the furrows. And as the farmers finish churning the earth, planting and watering seeds, weeding tiny sprouts, and harvesting crops, they must package all of the produce, driving it along Interstate 5 and back into South Central by Sunday. Once here, the fresh, organic produce is sold by SCF at a monthly “Tianguis” (Meso-American marketplace), in which music, dancing and other cultural events also take place.

And the food does not stop here. Nearly a ton of produce – including Swiss chard, radishes, squash, lima beans, broccoli, cauliflower, corn and other crops – is distributed and sold in farmers markets across Los Angeles. All of the excess produce is then donated to Catholic Charities, Food Not Bombs, food banks in Azusa and other local, non-profit organizations.

As such, the South Central Farmers embody all that is grassroots LA. Their continued srength and solidarity despite eviction, displacement and repeated setbacks is exactly what this city needs and thrives on - even if it is the City working against them for most of the time. With the mayor waning in support for SCF since his 2005 election into office and Councilwoman Jan Perry (District No. 9) who has always kept close relationships with city developers for political support, SCF has learned that they cannot depend on these same elected officials to maintain their empty promises.

Moreover, as the lengthy appeals process over the original 14-acre farm continues in the courts, SCF cannot and has not waited to address the needs of the community. While SCF refuses to give up on this land, continuously striving to bring local farming back to South Central, this goal is just one part of a larger objective now. The destruction of the original farm and current displacement of the farmers has not stopped SCF from pursuing its greater mission of bringing healthy food and nutritional consciousness into the city’s most impoverished and neglected communities. According to Sarah Nolan, longtime SCF advocate and organizer, “The fight is not over, it’s just a different struggle.”

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Additional sources:

Sarah Nolan
SCHEF
Phone: (888) SCFARM-1
Fax: (302) 370-0612

(USA Today) Dozens arrested at L.A. community garden
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-06-13-urban-garden_x.htm?POE=LIFISVA

(L.A. CityBeat) Tezozomoc
http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=1955&IssueNum=98

(BBC News) Actress Hannah in garden protest
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5078404.stm

(Washington Post) Farmers vow to prevent garden demolition
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/14/AR2006061402132.html