Los Angeles is an ideal city for urban agriculture. Here you’ll find lots of people, space, and sunshine. With four million people, LA is the second most concentrated city in the country. Spread across 469 square miles LA is a vast city with ample vacant lots and untouched areas for potential use. And due to its Mediterranean climate, LA stays at a consistent 70 degrees Fahrenheit with mild seasons and plentiful sunshine, making it a great place to grow. In addition to these draws, LA has seen increasing government support for urban agriculture. Due to strong community interest, municipal policies were updated recently to facilitate the development of urban agriculture projects throughout the city.
The urban agriculture community in LA is robust, and continues to grow stronger. This article highlights seven urban farmers who are leading the way to a healthier, happier, more sustainable city.
David Rosenstein: Champion Job Creator
David Rosenstein is the Executive Director of Our Foods, a non-profit social enterprise dedicated to urban agriculture education, training, and jobs. He built the first aquaponic farm in Los Angeles County in 2012 and developed the Art & Science of Aquaponics, an educational platform for school universities and the general public.
Rosenstein is a man pure of heart. He has a deep rooted dedication to creating green collar jobs. Rosenstein helped create a re-entry program called Our Foods Urban Ag Training Program in Los Angeles & San Francisco that trains prisoners to learn to be growers, then placing them in jobs upon reentry into society. As a thought leader in the urban agriculture space, Rosenstein served as a selected judge for the LA Agritecture Workshop.
(Image: Our Foods Impact in LA)
Matt Vail: Ag Tech Wiz
Matt Vail is the Co-Founder and COO of Local Roots Farms, a company that designs, builds, and operates indoor farming solutions. Local Roots has shown great promise, having been selected as a portfolio company of the prestigious Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator.
Vail is one of the most qualified tech people you’ll be lucky to meet in the controlled environment agriculture industry (CEA). He has four plus years of real growing experience, putting him years ahead of others. Vail and his team were also was able to pull off the feat of getting one of their 40ft shipping container farms to South by Southwest. With traveling farms and hard nosed experience, it isn’t hard to see why Vail is considered a leading CEA expert in the Los Angeles County.
Niels Thorlaksson is a partner of LA Urban Farms, a full service urban produce grower currently utilizing Tower Garden aeroponic technology. They’ve installed over 600 towers for businesses, universities, restaurants, and communities across Southern California.
Thorlaksson has created a unique model in this industry by distributing his nursery business across the region, and by placing his farms right at the point of consumption. Some of his clients include universities such as UCLA, USC, and CalTech, large chains such as Tender Greens and Ocean Properties hotel, and Thorlaksson is even known to grow for a few celebrities; though he’ll never say who. All of this started out by growing Tower Gardens in his backyard in Santa Barbara.
Kathleen Blakistone: The Community Hero
Kathleen Blakistone is the Co-creator of Moonwater Farm, an urban microfarm in Compton, CA that provides youth and residents of South Los Angeles access to organic farming and livestock. Their aim is to re-establish attention on homesteading and to train community members for potential employment in the LA food industry. Blakistone originally purchased the property to start an aquaponic greenhouse, but changed directions when she saw how special a space it was for urban youth. They now provide school visits, summer camps, and workshops.
We could try and summarize further what makes Kathleen so unique, but instead we’ll share some footage of our interview with Kathleen during the LA Agritecture Workshop earlier this year. Enjoy!
Nate Looney, Westside Urban Gardens: The Aquaponics Expert
Nate Looney is the founder of Westside Urban Gardens, a veteran owned and operated micro green farm. He originally got the idea for West Urban Gardens when he was a junior studying business at the American Jewish University.
Soon after graduating from AJU, Looney started growing microgreens, eventually completing a microgreens, eventually completing a three month internship at Ouroboros Aquaponics Farms. This began the cultivation of the deep seeded knowledge in aquaponics he shares today. Drawing inspiration from his religious beliefs, Looney is known for his rooted commitment to the social mission of urban agriculture.
Ron Finley: Food Policy Warrior
Ron Finley is the Director and Head Trouble Maker at The Ron Finley Project, a nonprofit that is dedicated to eradicating food deserts and changing food culture in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Finley is best known for his inspirational TED Talk, which has over 3,000,000 views to date. Finley discusses how food is both the problem and solution in food desert areas such as his neighborhood in South Central LA, where the drive thrus are killing more people than the drive bys.
Ron’s vision and mission is to activate each individual to revitalize a collective consciousness that leads to an empowered, self reliant community. Finley is known as the “Gangsta Gardener,” and he is flippin the script on what it means to be a gangsta. Growing your own food is gangsta, being self sustainable is gangsta. Ultimately, Finley wants people to know they have the capacity to transform and design their own lives.
Ben Hirshfield: Permaculture Expert
Ben Hirshfield is the Garden Director for Community Healing Gardens, a Venice-based nonprofit. Community Healing Gardens grows food and provides urban garden education in Los Angeles for those in need, as well as for Edwin Markham Middle School in Watts. At Markham, what started out as a field of weeds, rusty scrap metal, and other rubbish is now a flourishing garden.
Anyone who volunteers around the garden at Edwin Markham comes to know Hirschfield as the permaculture expert. From building swales to compost health, to terracing with recycled materials, Famer Ben is among the top permaculture professionals in LA. Currently, in addition to Ben’s work with CHG, he also has a private landscaping business, 3R Garden Design. Farmer Ben’s work proves that it is possible to turn a city liability into a community asset.
*Fun fact: long before Farmer Ben or David Rosenstein were urban farmers, they were roommates!
** Bonus Content: Our interview with Farmer Ben during the Los Angeles Agritecture Design Workshop
Bonus Grower: Colin Archipley
Colin Archipley would easily make the list if he was located in LA proper, but since most of Colin’s work is in San Diego or Pomona, we have included him as a bonus! Colin is the co-founder of Archi’s Acres, a hydroponic organic farm that trains veterans how to grow and start their own agrobusiness.
Archipley was a member of the Marine Corps and served in Iraq. Upon returning to California he recognized the difficulty of transitioning to everyday life. Inspired to do something that would help his fellow veterans succeed, he and his wife Karen designed full curriculum education courses meant to help veterans create their own businesses in controlled environment agriculture.
Conclusion
These folks are the backbone of the urban agriculture movement in Los Angeles. Their stories provide a good benchmark on the variety of ways that everyone can participate in the world of locally and sustainably grown food. To learn more, or to meet these and other urban farmers, please join Andrew Blume on September 13 for the LA Clean Tech Incubator (LACI) Food & Ag Cluster Meeting. This event will provide you the chance to be inspired and have your questions answered. We hope to see you there.
Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption on a yearly basis is wasted. Meet the companies that are trying to change that.
Join us for a panel on the Zero Food Waste Initiative on Tuesday, June 11th from 6:30-8:30pm for an interesting and intimate presentation, followed be a Q&A session.
Featured Panelists
Madi Holtzman, Toast Ale USA @toastaleusa
Taylor Lanzet, [Sustainability + Sourcing] Dig Inn @diginn
Wen-Jay Ying, [Founder + CEO] Local Roots @localrootsnyc
Making Urban Ag Happen in LA – A Gathering of Thinkers & Leaders
Agritecture recently had the pleasure to attend an Urban and Indoor Agriculture event in Los Angeles. Hosted by Local Roots and organized by the Larta Institute - we very much enjoyed the evening of networking, touring, and our community manager Andrew Blume even had the chance to speak during the open MIC session about his volunteer work with the Association for Vertical Farming.
We were going to write a recap of the event, but our friend JIM PANTALEO from Urban Ag News wrote such a nice write-up, we figured we would share his words.
ORIGINAL SOURCE HERE ON URBAN AG NEWS
I recently had the opportunity to attend an event in Los Angeles hosted by urban farm start-up, Local Roots Farms. It was sponsored by the Larta Institute, Indoor Ag Con and Autogrow Systems.
The Larta Institute’s mission is “to energize the transformation of technology ideas into solutions that elevate economic opportunities and make lives better for people around the world.” And digging deeper, the Larta Institute’s Global Ag Innovation Network (GAIN) is a national forum of thinkers and leaders in the agriculture innovation community that utilizes the network to stimulate the creation and implementation of solutions to pressing challenges across current food and agriculture value chains.
Dr. Claire Kinlaw of Larta Institute
With over 100 of those “thinkers and leaders” gathered on a balmy October evening at Local Roots Farms, the Larta Institute is certainly capturing the essence of their mission. On this night, Dr. Claire Kinlaw, Larta’s Director of Agriculture Practice, moderated a panel of indoor agriculture experts which included: Nicola Kerslake of the well-known industry-gatherer, Indoor Ag Con and investment adviser from Newbean Capital; Kelley Nicholson of Autogrow Systems; and Local Roots’ co-founder, Eric Ellestad. Together they fielded questions from the audience which crossed a number of spectrums in the indoor Ag world, including everything from the safety of the plastic used in manufacturing NFT’s (nutrient film techniques) to grow plants in to inquiries from those seeking funding for their Ag start-ups.
Local Roots Farms Founders – L to R: Matt Vail, Eric Ellestad and Daniel Kuenzi
Among the notable crowd was Henry Gordon-Smith (see the Association for Vertical Farming and AGRITECTURE), and a student contingent from Cal Poly Pomona’s School of Agriculture, led by Department of Plant Science professor, Eileen Cullen.
Local Roots Farms’ first container (now located with others at their new facility in Vernon, CA)
Claire Fox, Executive Director of LA’s Food Policy Council detailed their mission of acting as “a collective impact initiative working to build a Good Food system for all Los Angeles residents — where food is healthy, affordable, fair and sustainable.”
Claire Kinlaw relayed her pleasure and excitement at the larger-than-expected turnout, “This is about community justice – people want to know where their food comes from.”
Nicola Kerslake was even more vocal. “This is an awesome event with Larta getting it right in terms of the roles of government and economic development.”
Standing room only at Local Roots Farms
Kelley Nicholson from Autogrow Systems noted, “It is exciting to see all the passionate people exploring Urban Ag… for years I have been supporting indoor farmers and it was great to get everyone together to share their experiences and expertise. Working together, we will make Urban Ag in Los Angeles a real possibility!”
Kelley Nicholson (right) of Autogrow Systems sharing knowledge
Eric Ellestad was energized by the “inspiring, diverse and robust crowd” and is “excited that Local Roots Farms is an integral part of the movement” bringing indoor agriculture to Los Angeles and beyond.
Local Roots Farms, in particular, holds a special spot in my heart, and I owe a literary shout-out to their COO, Matt Vail, as he was the very first person to allow me into their initial container for a tour back in late 2014. I remember meeting Matt at the KISS (rock band) restaurant, Rock & Brews in Redondo Beach (his choice) for lunch. I immediately sensed not only was this a smart dude, but that he was going to make a real difference in the world of precision agriculture and indoor farming. The container was housed in an industrial lot around the corner from SpaceX in Hawthorne and my pupils dilated upon entering the inner sanctum of butter lettuce bathed in pink LED lights. Indeed, time has proven me right in that Local Roots Farms has not only grown in employees and containers but they are also supplying produce to the likes of Tender Greens, SpaceX and Mendocino Farms, to name but a few of their marquee customers.
The key themes of this night were about community justice, bringing passionate people together for a shared cause, elevating economic opportunities and making the world a better place. In the view of many, myself included, this is what it’s all about. For this, you’ve got to love LA.
Local Roots is seeking a Lead Grower at its premier indoor farm in Los Angeles, CA. Ideal applicants are self-starting problem solvers, hard-working, detail oriented, and exceptionally organized with a passion for agriculture, healthy lifestyles, and technology. We are seeking a…Read more ›
Local Roots is Seeking a Lead Grower - Be Part of a Superstar Team in a Rapidly Rising Industry!
Local Roots is seeking a Lead Grower at its premier indoor farm in Los Angeles, CA. Ideal applicants are self-starting problem solvers, hard-working, detail oriented, and exceptionally organized with a passion for agriculture, healthy lifestyles, and technology. We are seeking a professional researcher with a true desire to innovate within Controlled Environmental Agriculture (CEA) and take ownership over projects that will change the world of agriculture.
This position will require 40 hours per week with the possibility of increased hours with future farm deployments. Salary is negotiable.
Responsibilities will include:
General growing responsibilities at the farm
Collecting basic data on crops and farm systems
Developing farm Standard Operating Procedures, training materials, hiring criteria, etc.
Supporting the team in establishing an ERP management system for the farm
Enhancing our existing food safety programs
Building guidelines and practices that enable us to achieve Non-GMO, Organic, and other certifications
Maintaining food safety, risk management, and hazard action plan protocols and standards
Read the full job description and see other positions available at Local Roots
Ok so if you want to see what Hawaii influence has here in Seattle you need to stop by and make time for Wednesday nights at ohana in Belltown on 1st ave.
Big Mahalo to Bruddah Kyle a.k.a "YOSH" And da Yamada boys showing nothing but love, letting us come and share what we do. Big Mahalo!
Got to catch up and see Bruddah Steve from PG, Aaron from Sansei back in the day. Steve mahalo for taking me on the drinking tour before the show... That was a great idea!
I would like to thank the band although I can't remember anyone's name but bruddah Pak, the guitar player was on point and says he will be on Maui June-July and I gotta tell you I really like his chops! The horn player and guitar locked very tight, Pak is da most awesome host unselfish, happy and willing to step in and help! Energy was positive.
Really no down side to last nights show. If you live in Seattle and you love 808 music you missed one high energy ukulele Hawaiian roots funk session. They said I had a hour... I started at about 12am and got off at 2:10am lol dis Hawaiian KAN!
