As farmers markets in South Los Angeles struggle to connect with the African-American community, city officials are developing a food policy task force that could make them more viable.

Comprised of a dozen members and funded by federal stimulus dollars, the task force would work to “ensure that our residents have access to healthy, organic and affordable food, provide economic support for sustainable farming practices, help more farmers find local fields, and supply under-served communities with healthy alternatives to fast food,” said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

In the endeavor, the city will partner for the next six months with the Los Angeles Conservation Corps and the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute of Occidental College. They will be tasked with researching and developing policy on food retail, emergency food networks, urban agriculture, community gardens, sustainable agriculture, marketing, food waste, water use, pesticide use and nutrition education programs.

But at least one Black farmer believes the initiative falls short of what is needed to boost his fortunes.

“There’s a political agenda set in place [where] monies are never actually given to people of [color], like me, who are trying to set something up in the community,” said Larry Williamson, who trucks from his farm in Merced to the Harambee Certified Farmers’ Market on Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson Avenue every Saturday. “There’s always rhetoric. The issue that we have here is an old problem. … Old problems are solved with old solutions, new solutions only mask the problem, therefore giving people the illusion that something is going to happen but there is no answer to an old problem with a new solution. The problem is that when the monies come in from the federal or state, the government will make it available and the federal will make it available … but they never make amends to the people who have been in it for a long time. We hear this rhetoric but yet when it comes down to the table, there is nothing there.”

On a recent visit to the Harambee site, there were few visible signs of a vibrant farmers market. There were only three booths, with only one — Williamson’s — providing fresh fruits and vegetables.

Several years ago, the area was booming with Black farmers and produce. But according to Williamson, who set up shop there three years ago, many of the farmers either died, were too old to continue farming, moved on to flourishing farmers markets like the one in Hollywood, or simply could no longer afford it.

“Fuel has doubled in cost so to bring it down alone without a guaranteed market, they are basically in peril,” he said. “The costs alone will kill you.”

Since 2000, when Williamson leased his farm in Merced and began growing crops, he said he has easily lost $15,000 a year just on leasing the land, getting it turned over, buying and repairing equipment, paying employees and fuel.

“I have gotten zero [dollars] back,” said Williamson, who is also a network analyst. “I didn’t go into it for that. Some people buy a Mercedes Benz, some people buy a home, me what I am trying to do is build a community and I knew when I went into it that it was going to be a long battle. How many do you find like me? That’s why there are so few out there.

“I went into this not expecting a profit because I’ve gone in there and basically have been carrying this with my money alone,” he said. “And I predicted for myself a 15-year plan to even begin to see daylight and I knew that when I went into it. It’s not about trying to sell vegetables, it’s about educating the community first and foremost.”

Williamson said he has been actively trying to partner with churches in South Los Angeles, “to get them to become involved because the success of what I am trying to accomplish is dependent upon the churches in the community realizing that they need to get back to healthy foods, regardless of whether they are buying it from me or anyone else.”

Produce from local grocery stores, he said, are often purchased from various parts of the world where pesticides and chemicals are used. Then it is shipped and trucked over, placed in storage, where it then loses its nutritional value. Nonetheless, these products are appealing to consumers who are looking to save a buck.

“What they are looking at is ‘I’m getting corn, five ears for a dollar,’ not realizing that if you get an ear of corn of mine that comes straight from the stalk, then that one ear has more nutrients than those five, maybe 10, ears,” said Williamson. “That’s the kind of thing I find myself battling with, where they are buying in bulk volume and the advertisement has told them that it is good to eat corn but they don’t tell them it is nothing but bulk if it’s not processed correctly.”

Williamson grows a variety of crops including, but not limited to, black-eyed peas, greens, squash, tomato, okra, strawberries, watermelon, pomegranate, grapes and any other foods that work to eliminate diabetes and high blood pressure.

Over at the Los Angeles Leimert Park Certified Farmers’ Market, located on 43rd Street and Degnan Boulevard, fewer than a dozen vendors and farmers make up the weekly event. The amount of business there “varies,” said site manager Betty Brown with Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles, a private, nonprofit that operates this location as well as the one in Hollywood. “Sometimes we do, sometimes it’s a little bit slow.”

The issue, as SEE-LA Executive Director Pompea Smith sees it, is that the community is not sufficiently educated on the importance of eating healthy foods. In addition, the farmers’ market lacks the promotion and visibility needed to generate wide interest, she said.

“It’s a little bit hidden,” said Smith. “Where we are located — although it is a beautiful parking lot — it doesn’t have the visibility. And we don’t have the money to also make banners that would make it more visible to the customers in the area.”

Teule Aminifu, who frequents the Leimert Park Farmers’ Market on most weekends, goes to support the farmers and vendors but also to get fresh produce, he says, which make him feel better and more energetic. But he is skeptical that even if more farmers’ markets are placed in the African-American community that they will come.

“Our people won’t support them,” said Aminifu. “They would rather go to the store and get something cheaper. … It might cost you a little bit more but you can’t put a price on organic food, better quality and healthier foods … I don’t think that they are that conscious about their diets and healthy eating habits. I doubt that few people in the area even know about this.”

This lack of interest, said Smith, has deterred some farmers, especially Black farmers.
“There aren’t too many,” she said. “They do frequent a few of them but they are often [at] the Hollywood Farmers’ Market, which is the other market we operate; that is a very successful market.”

Brown added: “We have tried to recruit African-American farmers but in just researching, most of them to my knowledge are up north,” she said. “This is a long way for them to come.”

As an alternative, SEE-LA has begun to reach out to residents who have gardens in their backyards. But even this has proven to be a difficult undertaking.

“A lot of times they don’t want to go through the process of being certified, which is unfortunate,” said Smith, citing that they have to be willing to have the county commissioner come to their yard or wherever they grow and inspect to make sure that they are growing proper foods without harsh chemicals. “And a lot of times they don’t want to pay fees and insurance,” which run anywhere up to $100 or more. In addition, vendors for this site are required to give the operator, SEE-LA, 6.5 percent of the money they make.

Health-conscious consumer Tiye Ford hopes that the mayor’s initiative will bear fruit. “The majority of my produce for my house is purchased here,” she said. “The quality is definitely superior and the taste is amazing compared to the other food. The flavors are really distinct, the quality is so much higher … because it doesn’t have any chemicals or pesticides or herbicides in it. … It’s a total difference, you can feel it immediately as far as your energy is concerned, total health and everything.”

Ford liked it so much that she went to the one on La Cienega to purchase parsley, cilantro, basil, thyme and oregano and now has a huge organic garden planted in her backyard. In terms of price, she said, she has actually saved money. Prior to strictly eating organic foods, Ford made frequent trips to the doctor for allergies and cramping joints as did she spend countless dollars on pharmaceutical products and prescription drugs.

“With the other food I was full of mucus, coughing, itching, allergies, cramps in joints. You eat that stuff but then it brings a whole lot of other problems,” she said. “When I eat natural, I don’t have those problems.”

To top it off, she added, vendors become familiar with their customers and often give discounts or extra food with each purchase. Also, you can get samples of the produce prior to purchasing it.

Over at the farmers market on La Cienega and 18th Street, which takes place every Thursday, consumers had similar sentiments.

“What I like the most is that it is fresh and locally grown and it’s a matter of supporting small mom and pop shops rather than big grocery stores,” said Patrick Perkins, who visits the La Cienega location every other week and purchases fruit along with fruit juices. “You can find the same things … but it just seems fresher. Every single bottle in the grocery store tastes the same and here you are going to find more differences in the taste.”

Amina Jama, who attends every week, likes to shop at the La Cienega site for the quality and the low prices. “Most people think it’s really pricey but it’s not,” she said. “Plus I like the contact with the local growers and supporting them. … I have a particular woman where if I’m late I can call her and have her hold strawberries for me, you can’t do that and you don’t have that person-to-person contact at grocery stores. Sometimes you may be a dollar short and they say bring it to me next time. It’s just that human contact that I appreciate.”

Jama has been purchasing her produce solely from farmers markets for over five years and says the taste is not comparable to that of local grocery stores. Aside from that the fresh produce has a much longer shelf life, she said. But best of all “you don’t pay tax and you can negotiate sometimes,” she said. “There are a lot of benefits to coming here.”

Nina Moore, who has not purchased a single ounce of produce from grocery stores in about 10 years, said an added benefit is that, “It’s festive, you see children with their parents. It has a feeling of happiness. You see families teaching their children about nutrition.”

Gwendolyn Flynn, Community Health and Education Policy Director with Community Health Councils, concurred. “Not only does it create a sense of neighborhood and community but it strengthens that,” she said. “The impact I think will be to provide greater access to fresh whole foods and it will increase the options that people have. So, in addition to the supermarkets, which there are few of, and the neighborhood markets, which don’t have the capacity to sell most often fresh whole foods, people will have farmers markets available to them where fresh whole foods are brought to them farm fresh. … It will be there in their neighborhoods and they don’t have to leave their community.”