Recap of Our Future Food Ecosystem and Climate in LA Foodscapes: Conversations at the Intersection of Food, People, and the Land series.
Our Future Food Ecosystem and Climate
The Los Angeles Food Policy Council hosted it’s second LA Foodscapes event in the 5-part series on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 at Crop Swap LA. Together we explored how to create a resilient food system that supports healthy communities and ecosystems in the face of our changing climate.
Our expert panelist hosted a DIY demo on starting a sustainable food garden and discussed actionable strategies for disrupting our current industrial agriculture systems in pursuit of climate justice through regenerative foodways that build climate resilience and community food sovereignty.
The event speakers from left to right: Ali Frazzini Policy Director in the LA County Chief Sustainability Office, where she promotes health equity through the OurCounty sustainability plan; Matthew Teutimez Council Member on California’s Environmental Protection Agency’s Tribal Advisory Council, where he works with the State’s Environmental Boards, Departments, and Offices to support tribal involvement and their environmental enhancement; Arohi Sharma Senior Policy Analyst for the National Resource Defense Council, where she advocates for policies that promote regenerative agriculture to mitigate climate change, protect soil health, conserve and reduce water use, and restore biodiversity; Dr. Arianna Bozzolo (PhD) director of the research department at Rodale Institute California Organic Center, where she focuses on focuses on agricultural profitability and environmental sustainability; Alba Velasquez Executive Director of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council; Jamiah E. Hargins founder of Crop Swap LA, where he grows food on unused spaces, creating green jobs, independent economies, and nutrient-dense food.
“A micro farm is a self-contained growing system. It includes creating our own fertilizer, our own seeds, our own plants, if we can, and cultivating and growing and doing it over and over in one space. Generally residential homes are more effective for us, because the land is proprietary. The homeowners can do whatever they want with it and there are incentives in line, on the policy side of things, to incentivize families to do this.’” -Jamiah Hargins
Jamiah Hargins hosted a do it yourself demonstration on starting a home food garden with limited space and resources. He shared on what creates healthy soil that makes for a healthy garden, sustainable water use, and resources needed to create financially sustainable urban farms that sustain local communities.
“We understand that climate impacts on the region’s natural biodiversity may decrease access to traditional foods in native populations. We have seen in our region and beyond and certainly in the central valley that extreme climate events can put agricultural workers at risk and affect food access by impacting food related services, equipment and goods delivery.” -Ali Frazzini
Our panel discussion included perspectives from indigenous, local, state, and federal visionaries in the environmental field that work to protect our land through policy, research and advocacy. Ali Frazzini moderated the panel and included questions exploring risks climate change is creating in our food system, organic and regenerative farming, native foodways and tribal land management.
“We want to say Hey California Legislators, Assemblymen, Assemblywomen, Senators, you have this opportunity to change. To rebuild our food and farming system, so that we collectively, when we experience another climate threat or another public health threat we don't experience it in the same way. That we built the infrastructure that promotes diversity, that promotes access to local, and regional foods. That’s the kind of infrastructure that we want. ” -Arohi Sharma
The LA Foodscapes series is designed to catalyze transformative action within LA's diverse food ecosystem. As a backbone organization, LAFPC collaborates with a multitude of sector organizations on various topics that contribute to food equity. We aim to bridge community-based organizations with elected offices, fostering meaningful conversations that not only provoke thought but also lead to actionable next steps.
“The idea of using natural areas that can still provide us with the food that urban farming does, that still provides medicine that urban farming doesn't yet… These components that we are missing out on, that have been pushed to the side, and replaced by these other European concepts are now what's leading to our problems. And now leading to us having to create policies to now fixate on these problems we created. When we can go back to what always worked, dependence on our creator and what our creator provides, by us providing for the earth the earth will provide back to us.” -Matthew Teutimez
By bringing together leaders and the community at the various intersections of food, the series emphasizes equity, stewardship, and innovation. Each event is an opportunity to engage in discourses that not only enlighten but also empower attendees to enact change, ensuring that every discussion translates into practical and impactful outcomes for our food systems.
“When I think about climate change, it is increasing temperature and shift of weather patterns. This factor causes severe droughts, floods, and storms. We call this an extreme weather event, which as you can imagine impacts our crops and fields fields. Destroying them partially, totally, destroying the new planting. Also making it challenging to schedule normal farming operations.” - Dr. Arianna Bozzolo
Thank you to our sponsors for making this event possible:
Special thank you to Cedars-Sinai for seed funding the inaugural 2024 series.
