Urban agriculture in West Oakland
[2] Poverty became rampant in West Oakland beginning in the 1960s when Alameda County's manufacturing industries decreased productivity or closed causing unemployment to rise.
[2] With a depressed economy and high crime rate, West Oakland failed to attract major retail including supermarkets, further isolating the area as a low-income community of color.
[4] The Black Panther Party (BPP) played an important role in seeding urban agricultural practices in West Oakland.
[1] One of the BPP's social programs aimed to improve the access to healthy food for the city's black population by providing breakfast in local schools, churches and community centers.
Given the majority of abandoned flatlands located in West Oakland, the PCGN movement's activities began to spread most in this area.
This initiative called for a sustainable approach to an economic development program with increased education within the community, and the PCGN's expansion of urban agriculture served as a vehicle to achieve this goal.
City Slicker Farms is one of those organizations and was founded in response to the multitude of empty urban lots In West Oakland that could be used to produce nutritious food for the surrounding community.
Through land donations from local residents of West Oakland, mainly Willow Rosenthal, a network of urban farmers and farm stands was created and began to flourish.
[8][9] The FPC has teamed up with organizations like the Health for Oakland's People & Environment (HOPE) Collaborative, which works with city leaders and departments as well as local grassroots organizations like City Slicker Farms, in order to improve the health and wellness of Oakland's residents that experience social inequities.
They work in partnership with West Oakland residents to increase education about sustainable and healthy diets and to address systemic economic and health inequities.
"[17] They focus on providing economic opportunities for "historically disenfranchised" farmers by initiating distribution channels for them to sell produce to Oakland residents.
Their mission of increased food security and education was sparked by the high prevalence of empty and vacant lots in the flatlands of West Oakland.
[6] In 2010, they were granted 4 million dollars through California Proposition 84 in order to develop an urban green space in West Oakland, which is their latest project in helping low-income communities achieve food security.
[18] Their goal is to provide the resources necessary for West Oakland residents to develop urban farms that sustain the local produce needs of the community.
[20] These workshops provide a hands on education that both motivates students and equips them with the necessary tools for creating and sustaining urban gardens.
[25] They are developing a 1.4 acre lot in West Oakland in which they will have a community garden, chicken coop, fruit orchard, and a vegetable plot.
[26] The city of Oakland would be able to enter into 10 year contractual agreements with its residents allowing them to use these lands for farming on "[rates] based on the average per-acre value of irrigated cropland in California.
