Transportation and food Access idea 3: Regional Food Hubs
I’ve written about how transit could be improved and sidewalk vending legalized to increase access to healthy food. Before food can get from stores and food trucks and carts to shoppers, it first has to be transported from farms, through distribution chains, to retail sources. This third installment in a short series on transportation and food access considers how we can improve food distribution channels to expand the availability of good, healthy food in the Los Angeles region.

Apparently California is a good place to grow oranges. Photo:Budget Travel Adventures
Orange empire
Los Angeles grew up around three discoveries of what the local soil was good for. First, the ground harbored petroleum. Second, and probably more significantly, it was good for growing citrus at a time when a confluence of plant breeding and the completion of transcontinental railroad links with refrigerated cars made it possible to grow fruit here and ship the produce eastwards. Third – linked to the second by way of picturesque citrus crate labels that advertized a pleasant life in the sun – the land was good for subdividing.
As a result, the L.A. region boomed first as an agricultural zone and then as a population center. In 1910 there were 8000 farms in Los Angeles County and the county was the most economically productive ag county in the state, probably number one in the country as well, with 1.7 million orange trees and more than 7000 ‘backyard’ cows not on farms but kept for milk like someone might have a chicken nowadays.
The population of Los Angeles County rose by 1197 percent between 1900-1930, the golden years of local agriculture, followed by a second demographic jump in the 40s and 50s and a third in the 90s. Groves and fields were converted to houses, businesses, asphalt. Today, there are approximately 90 farms left in L.A. County, now ranked the 28th leading agricultural county in the state. Read more…











