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LA Foodways Title Card
56:45
"LA Foodways" looks at the storied agricultural history of Los Angeles to understand present food waste challenges and opportunities to bring fresh foods to urban communities.
LA Foodways Title Card
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"LA Foodways" looks at the storied agricultural history of Los Angeles to understand present food waste challenges and opportunities to bring fresh foods to urban communities.
Underwood Family Farms | Kent Kanouse/Creative Commons
Ventura County is the nation’s eleventh largest county in crop value, despite its close location to the country’s second most populous city. How do they do it?
Dorothea Lange photographerd a family working on their El Monte small farm homestead as part of the Subsistence Homestead Program | Courtesy of Angel City Press
For more than four decades, Los Angeles County was America's top agricultural producer. What happened? Author Rachel Surls gives readers a preview of her book chronicling L.A.'s agricultural history and prospects.
Rather than let the fruit from orange and lemon trees go to waste, the non-profit Food Forward formed in 2009 to gather fruit from trees throughout the region and donates fruit to local food banks. 2014. | Courtesy of Angel City Press
Food Forward is a Southern California nonprofit that "rescues" fresh local produce from rotting away and diverts to the tables of those who do not have access to fresh food. Read their thoughts on the state of food in L.A. and beyond in this Q&A.
Ch 2: King Citrus and the Selling of the California Dream
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The citrus industry started in Los Angeles in the 1870s, soon becoming one of the largest.
Ch 3: The Paving of Paradise
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Los Angeles was once the largest farming community in the U.S.
Ch 4: The Central Wholesale Produce Market
12:34
The Central Wholesale Produce Market was founded in 1898 and still thrives today.
Ch 5: Watts Action
14:07
The Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC) tells stories of early Watts residents.
Ch 6: Los Angeles, Garden Paradise
12:40
Various efforts at across Los Angeles are being attempted to solve the food crisis.
Ch 1: From Farm to Freeway
12:02
Los Angeles is now home to the largest population of people dealing with food scarcity.
Patricia Baltazar harvests in a field that would eventually be part of the 105/Century Freeway. 1986. | Courtesy of Angel City Press
Farming was at the center of life in Los Angeles from the time of its founding in 1781, an aspect of local history important well into the mid-twentieth century, when Los Angeles County was the top agricultural county in the nation.
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