From Farm to Freeway | LA Foodways | KCET
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2019
- Los Angeles was once the largest farming community in the U.S. It is now home to the largest population of people dealing with food scarcity and hunger. Through interviews with historians, a 94-year-old farmer and a first-person narrative from a fifth-generation farming family in Lakewood, the episode goes back in time to reimagine the landscape of Los Angeles.
Want to learn more? Watch more LA Foodways at www.kcet.org/shows/la-foodways
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#LAFoodways #LosAngeles #food #history #agriculture - บันเทิง
While helping my father to dig a trench to install the sewer system main line for our newly purchased house near the corner of Lindley Ave. and Nordhoff St. in Northridge directly under the house about 3 feet down my shovel hit something with a metallic sound, I dug up a piece of petrified wood it looked like it had just been cut down, it has bark,knots,rings and is about 18" X 6" it had mineralised, and is now metal! I took it to the Natural History Museum; for an expert to look at, he said "It is from a citrus tree and is about 50 to 100 thousand years old and was sitting on the ground for 100s of years and was sand blasted by strong winds" I found it in 1972 and still have it today.
This is a treasure to see. It's hard not to burst into tears when he touches that tree. The feeling.... goes beyond words... connects us as people.
Love seeing the old photos. Amazing how open So Cal was less than a century ago.
i was born in San Jose in the 40s and there were tons and tons of orchards when I was a little girl. Our street was just a dirt road in front of our house with 4 houses on it.
I remember as 3rd gen Californian, So Cal was the "bread basket" of the U.S!
We grew it all, farmed it all, ranched it all!
My great grandfather was a first Sargent under Gen. Sherman. After the war, he was a blacksmith. He was in Dodge City Kansas for about 12-15 years, even sheriff a short while there. But after the railroad and big cattle drives dried up, he went west. Northern Arizona for a while, where my great aunts were born, but settling in San Diego eventually, where my grandpa and dad were born. My grandma, dad's mom & family came to California on the train. San Bernadino, eventually also settling in San Diego. All of that happened before 1900. I came along in 1959 and was born in Long Beach. I still remember the tracks from the Red Car even though it wasn't running anymore. I remember there were still many farming fields. We lived in Buena Park and we always bought a fresh Turkey at Thanksgiving where they still raised them. We moved to Villa Park in the late '60's and there was an old packing house there until the '80's I think. Our house had been built on a corner of a former orange grove... where they'd planted avocado trees. We had to actually plant our own orange trees! But the avocados were harvested every year and made for some appreciated cash, as I recall. My parents were both school teachers, while, as I recall, the man next door had helped design the second stage of the Apollo rocket. The '70's was the end of anything resembling farmland, orange groves or rural living. I was a city kid, but my heart was in the past and I was very aware of its passing. I would have loved to have been there when my great grandparents had first come. Somewhere on my dad's side was a line that went back to the Spanish land grant days. Now THAT would have been something indeed!
Interesting story. I tried to mentally picture as I had your post. ☺ Thanks for sharing.
Great story. Im from Long Beach.
That tree was like his family that connects him through time. The one living thing that totally knows the story he was telling us.
Southern California has very fertile dirt. All citrus groves, Avocado trees, walnut trees, strawberry fields, potato, onion fields too etc. can grow very well here. Southern California was ideal for growing so many crops. Farmers just loved the fertile dirt.
Dairy farms were in the area of Cerritos and throughout various areas around LA.
Farming is so much work, but it sure helps you to live a long life.
Amen
That's true indeed
My uncle Andy Southfield supplied dairy cows to all the farms in Artesia, Dairy Valley, La Palma, Buena Park and surroundings in the 1950's.
We moved to Concrete County in 1963 (formerly Orange County), and I remember Dairy Valley. It was dirt roads, farms, barns and cows. We went thru there again in 1970 and it was all gone, like it was a dream, that it had never existed. In its place were acres of low-rent ghettos, now called Norwalk.
This is so well produced
Thank you for making this video.
It should have been much longer.
One day there will be a video on Fresno, CA.... Talk about farming and city growing before my eyes 😟
search on youtube... ye shall find.
I was born in East LA, raised in Echo Park until 4th grade, then grew up in the San Fernando Valley, Reseda to be exact. This was really cool, it ended to soon
What was Echo Park like when you lived there? Today it's a tourist attraction with the little lake and shops and all that. I've heard it's changed but no one's really elaborated lol. What was your experience?
Your history is same as mine, Boyle heights, east LA start, Reseda growing up!
@@Aaron-fb6mb It was mostly Mexican. This is was a little before other latinos where migrating here. It wasn't bad, played sports. Went to Logan Elementary. Grew up on Sunset and Echo Park. Across the street from the Original Pioneer Chicken.
Not gonna lie, it was a little rough. I remember people looting the neighborhood during the 92 riots.
I totally back this video 1000000%
When I watch this I feel lucky to have seen at least the end of these days in Southern California. I was born in Hollywood in 1962 and grew up for the first 7 years in Orange County. I remember the citrus and berry fields I remember going to Corona del Mar and what is 55 today was a 2 lane hi-way through farm land. We knew we were close when the waving gorilla appeared by the roadside beckoning us to stop and eat and I dont think we ever did. Does any one else remember that Waving Gorilla?
Waving Gorilla lol 😀
Areas in Kern, Tulare, Fresno County are starting to head the same direction like LA. Losing farm land and towns growing out and connecting. The current LA water supply is coming from the water supply north of the grapevine. Up here in the San Joaquin Valley water is the biggest issue.
Interesting vid on LA, appreciate the info.
Great country great people god bless america and los angeles california.
I truly wish I could own a farm
They got the right folks workin it. Thank you for all you do.
Funny. Reagen was governor part of the time I was growing up in caliphonia. We moved away too, but apparently we have different memories of Ronnie as the governor. My memory of his MISrule is much less felicitous.
My Great Great Grandfather had a vegetable farm in Los Angeles!
Amazing, just truly amazing to see and think about the change and what a happened here a hundred years ago
Excellent Video!!!
a lot of the dairy ended up near the city of Ontario California, about fifty miles east of Los Angeles, but i think that may be moving north
PBS video is so good
It's very important that the viewer understand that at the turn of the 20th century the 1900 federal census of the 58 counties in the entire State of California they were barely 1 million people in 1900 throughout the state.
I am just old enough to remember a fee hold out farms in my neighborhood of Westchester/Playa Del Rey and Inglewood. The 92 year gentleman who said his family farmed the Centinela Valley of Inglewood and Playa Del Rey on the Howard Hughes Airfield property which is now Playa Vista, probably owned the old Lopez Ranch farm at Jefferson and Centinela which was in operation and had a farmers market farm stand where my family and just about everyone who lived in the area bought produce from. There were small "holdout" farms and open bean fields all around when I was a kid in the 1970s in Inglewood, El Segundo, Hawthorne, Redondo Beach, Torrance, and one by one they were sold by family members who didn't want to be farmers and who realized the value of their property was worth way more if developed than they could ever make as a dairy farm or growing strawberries.
It is very sad indeed knowing that all this urban landscape sits on top of what is some of the best soil in the world for farming almost any kind of fruit and vegetable and wheat and beans.
My parent's house in Westchester, when I was growing up had two apricot trees, two plum trees and an avocado tree. All five of those trees would produce so much fruit every year that we couldn't eat it all. We would eat fresh, my mom and grandma would make preserves, we would give grocery bags full away to neighbors and the birds got their share and our dogs and the wild animals would get their share and there would still be fruit on the ground and on the way high branches that would rot. The plums and apricots grew in bunches like grapes. Anything we planted in our backyard grew like crazy. The soil was incredible.
One main reason there are people going hungry in this country isn't for lack of food.
It is because the government realized after WWII that if they control the food they control the people. They are doing this on purpose. It started with subsidizing farms to grow certain crops and then buying up farms that didn't work with the government after the farm would go broke and in debt for all their equipment and that was because the government cut the water supply to those farms to water the government farms. The government didn't want the competition. You played their game or you were shut down.
Giant agriculture corporations then went in business with the government to take over all the farms and to buy more and more land pushing out the independent farmers.
Like the man in the video who works for the produce distribution center in Downtown LA said, there is plenty of food but the bridge between the food and getting it to the people isn't there. That's because the government doesn't want to build that bridge. It could easily set up a way to get food for free or cheap to those who need it but they don't want to. They want people to pay taxes and be dependant on the government for their food and pay the outrageous prices so they and their corporate agriculture companies get rich.
Nice video 👍👏 its incredible how much things have changed
There remains some beautiful farm country in Ventura County. I moved to Camarillo from Van Nuys back in 1968. Makes me wonder if the gorgeous Las Posas Valley will one day turn into another San Fernando Valley, just not as big.
My father and his brothers worked for the Lankershim Ranch before WW2.
Isaac Van Nuys was practically broke when he reached Southern California. He had raised sheep in North Central Ca. but had been wiped out by drought. He was looking for something that didn't require as much water and wheat was the answer. He paid roughly 18 cents an acre for the entire SFV. His daughter would marry Isaac Lankershim
I was raised in California. It was a great place to grow up. Lovely neighborhood. Reagan was Governor. Then things changed. I grew up . Married. Moved to Texas. Thank God. My beautiful Family is here. I’m Blessed.
👍👍👍
It's crazy no one lived there before
I feel you man, progress.. who needs it.
I am the only one on my block. At my house in Sunland. With 3- Original Orange 🍊 Trees & A Big Lemon Tree They must be from the early 1920’s. After watching this I’m gonna. Take better care of Them ❤️😇. Very Sad 😞 This Happened. In Los Angeles. Especially The San Fernando Valley. It is now a cess pool of filth and Crime. 😩
Notice how there were no damn Palm Trees back then? Now it's urban sprawl, freeways and thousands of none native Palms planted everywhere like toothpicks.
Better times if you can imagine that
I remember Anderson dairy?
What park in LAKEWOOD is the tree located?
Bloomfield Park. At the corner of Pioneer Blvd. and 215st St. (near Carson St.)
Hated seeing the OC and Ventura building houses, not using soil from hills and mountains.
It's interesting how discussions often bypass the mayor's (Fedrick Eaton) 1910s ambitious plans to expand Los Angeles, which involve questionable tactics like using corruption to facilitate a state employee’s easy acquisition of land and water rights from Owens Valley.
You mentioned San Pedro, but failed to address the shoestring annexation and the unmet promises by the city of Los Angeles, such as the nearly century-old delay in building the promised library. Los Angeles was primarily interested in controlling the port, neglecting the residents of San Pedro, which fueled their desire to secede. At the time, Los Angeles was rapidly expanding and manipulating the state of California to its advantage. The city's peculiar shape within the county was no accident, it's a scar of the past corruption.
The collapse of the St. Francis Dam made surrounding cities wary of Los Angeles’s control over resources. The city had already leveraged water from Owens Valley to coerce the San Fernando Valley into annexation. Meanwhile, the mayor (Fedrick Eaton) clandestinely aided investors in a Suburban Syndicate to purchase land cheaply from farmers before announcing plans to integrate the Valley into Los Angeles. This move was strategic because land without utilities is worthless, but the promise of water access convinced remaining farmers to agree to annexation. The ultimate goal was suburban sprawl, which was achieved, though some landowners who held out left a historical mark, evident in the large plots of land that contrast with the surrounding suburban landscape in the San Fernando Valley today.
This narrative is often avoided because it highlights how the wealthy have orchestrated many of the problems facing Los Angeles today, from traffic congestion to urban sprawl. Wealthy landowners control desirable areas, leaving others with long commutes if they move. Consequently, many people remain in unfavorable conditions, as the city prioritizes corporate interests. The St. Francis Dam collapse, however, led to the formation of the Metropolitan Water District (MWD), uniting surrounding cities and preventing further annexation by Los Angeles. This collective effort resulted in the development of the Colorado River Aqueduct, benefiting all of Southern California, something Los Angeles would not have done on its own, evidenced by its city charter prohibiting the sale of excess water to other cities in the past.
Fast forward to today, and the poorest neighborhoods in the City of Los Angeles are far worse compared to neighboring cities in the county, despite the city’s significant wealth. Areas like Wilmington, Harbor City (not a actual city), Panorama City (not a actual city), and Van Nuys continue to struggle. The use of neighborhood names rather than city names on IDs/Driver's License can keep residents uninformed and hinder their ability to advocate for change. For instance, residents of Harbor City refer to it as their city, even though it does not exist as an independent city, complicating their navigation of the governing system. Whether by design or coincidence? who knows.
But it makes you question the action of all politicians today, because much of this information regarding Fedrick Eaton and his trail of corruption wasn't revealed until after the lawsuit and investigation by the State. By the way that dam collapse sent water from Santa Clarita all the way to Oxnard, it's California second biggest loss of life by a single event in history. Some argue it might have been the biggest as at the time many undocumented immigrants worked in the area, the death toll could be much higher.
So sad 😞
Largest wetlands in North America before dams.
wow, really? thanks for the info
It seemed that anything and everything south of Bakersfield and west of the Mojave Desert has to be condemned. Southern Californians never did hold any respect for their heritage. Nothing has ever been worth saving for posterity. Even in Hollywood, where some of the most famous of California cultural treasures existed, complacency rules. Sunset Boulevard, once the front door of Southern California's hospitality, today is just an open-air strip mall of prostitutes and drug dealers.
There used to be a dedicated news reporter in LA named Ralph Story. He had a TV series on KCET called "Ralph Story's LA", where he featured historical aspects of the city's past. As I recall, most of his program was in pictures, since much of what he focused on had long been destroyed by greedy developers.
Fortunately, Ralph Story's LA can be seen on You Tube.
I was born and raised here in LA.
All I've ever dreamed of is living in a place like the ones depicted in those pamphlets. Today LA is a toilet. I hate it and wish I could leave.
Then leave. Almost Anywhere else you move to out of California will be cheaper.
Where's the freeway? I was promised a freeway in the title! 😂
Now the promise land has shifted to the East.
Gotta love the single family urban sprawl… :/
6:10 "they found water"
It's all Chinatown.
This story is not particular to Los Angeles. Farmland being turned into suburban tract housing is the story of 1950's/60's/70's America. Besides, you have limited water, most of it pumped in, and you could argue it was never really suitable for mass agriculture in the first place.
Well if they stopped building houses and offices and instead created farm land, there would be enough food and jobs
most rent is rip-off
People are severly malnourished in the USA, we eat shitty foods and are overweight. The sooner we start eating plant based diets the better. It’s a shame what California has become ... “we paved paradise, put in a parking lot”
Now its a dump…..
COLORADO BLVD...NOT STREET
All I see and hear is how coward America is straight up
N.Y.C.
Our homeless people are overweight 💯💯💯