In June 2006, a land dispute led to the shutdown of the South Central Community Garden in Los Angeles. Weeks of protest and tree-sitting by celebrities and regular folk proved unfruitful, and the 14-acre garden, tended by 350 low-income families in the middle of one of L.A.’s poorest neighborhoods, was bulldozed. Nearly two years later, with legal wrangling over the land’s ownership ongoing, the gardeners are plotting again in Buttonwillow, Calif., a tiny town west of Bakersfield. With the help of a nonprofit foundation, some farmers have bought 85 acres of land that they hope convert into a working farm in the next couple of years. In the meantime, a couple of dozen ousted gardeners raise vegetables on a leased field in a nearby town, which they sell in L.A. farmers markets. Says one farmer, “It’s important that people see we’re not defeated.”
