Seeds of Resistance: Combating spatial inequality with urban farming in SanTana

Keywords: urban farm, social movements, urban agriculture, food systems, cooperative, community-based research
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 31

Abstract

Longtime Latinx residents of Santa Ana, California are being displaced by the forces of gentrification, but despite this, residents have developed creative strategies in response to unwanted development, but also to (re)create the community they want to live in today and for the foreseeable future. Working families of SanTana have demonstrated that despite the challenges facing their communities through activism and community organizing they have developed strategies to not only resist but also adapt to neighborhood changes. This has resulted in community groups taking different approaches to combat the combined threats of gentrification: unwanted development and displacement. One strategy has been to create community-owned urban farms with the specific purpose of acquiring land on behalf of the community to use as an outdoor gathering space and urban farm producing healthy food. My research draws from a case study of an urban farm cooperative in Santa Ana, California using ethnographic research methods like participant observations, interviews, and document analysis. I am embedded in the farm cooperative where I wear two hats 1) program coordinator 2) community-based researcher. Taking an asset-based approach, urban farms represent community-driven development projects built on the strengths of the working families of Santa Ana. This research is important because it highlights how immigrant and communities of color respond to structural inequalities and urban change by demonstrating how these folks rely on community assets such as tight-knit grassroots networks and expertise in agriculture and organizing in their community-driven development practices.