Next Steps for Urban Ag in the LA Region: Long-Term Land Tenure

Written by Nikhita Jain

A few days ago, I was talking with my neighbor who is from Puerto Rico. “There’s a lot of urban farming in Puerto Rico, right?” I asked. “Informal or formal?” she responded. I thought for a second, and replied “informal”. She described how there are fruit trees and food growing everywhere. At that moment, I realized that’s exactly what is happening in the Los Angeles region. 

There is so much “informal” urban agriculture going on in LA. Because the cost of vacant land is so expensive, many urban farmers are growing on school or church land through informal agreements. Farmers access land through “right of entry permits” or being granted permission to access school or church land, rather than obtaining formal leases with the institution. For those who are able to acquire leases, they tend to be short term 1-3 year leases which still puts farmers in a precarious position. To me, these farm operations are informal, in the sense that they do not have secure long-term land tenure agreements in place.

Our Cultivating Farmers Program

In 2024, based on findings outlined in our Rooted Horizon’s report, we created a new program called Cultivating Farmers to support the formalization of urban farming in the region. Through our Cultivating Farmers program, we help urban farmers formalize their operations through establishing formal entity structures like an LLC or non-profit, getting insurance, and obtaining leases. We also help them to sustain their operation through workshops focused on grant writing, storytelling/social media, agritourism, and pricing/selling their products. 

Through our program, I am able to offer no-cost one-on-one business advising support for urban farmers. In doing so, I have had a bird’s eye view of the state of urban agriculture in the Los Angeles region. Through numerous individual sessions, workshops and conversations I have identified shared experiences and challenges among urban farmers in LA and, I hope to amplify their voices, struggles, and triumphs in relation to land access and tenure. 

Farmer Challenges

One farmer I am working with who runs an established urban farm on a school site without a long term formalized agreement, shared that when asking the school district superintendent for a formal lease, they were told to “just keep doing what you’re doing”. This leaves her in a risky situation. With the current superintendent she is allowed to farm the land, but without a long term commitment in the form of a lease what happens when the superintendent changes?

This type of arrangement is common - Others may have a good relationship with a pastor at a church who agrees to let them use the land, but again, they do not have the security of knowing they have stable land tenure. 

Just last year, one of the farmers in our network, Abel Ruiz, director and co-founder of CRECE Urban Farm, lost their land after 9 years of cultivation, when the church property they were operating on was sold.

Abel told us that “Losing La Grantija, or the People’s Garden, has been one of the most painful experiences that I have gone through personally and arguably the single most challenging period for CRECE as a project”. He also recalls digging up the top soil to take with them to their new church site and to their surprise, finding “one foot of that rich black gold that we had built in the last 9 years working with the land”. 

That is a heartbreaking story but it is the reality of urban farming. 

Farmer Resilience

Despite the many challenges, the resilience of the urban farmers in our network is truly remarkable. Two farmers in our network, Alexys Romo and Analisa Joh, who run Black Thumb Farm, have been diligently working to access publicly available vacant land. Over the past 5 years, they have been in contact with the City of LA to access a 2.3-acre vacant lot in the Northeast San Fernando Valley.

Throughout this process, Black Thumb Farm has had two strategic partners who helped this dream become a reality. The first is their partnership with the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, which has provided technical support and helped build credibility with the city. A key aspect of their negotiations with the city is that the LA Neighborhood Land Trust will be a professional co-signer on the lease. The second strategic partner is a champion within their city council district’s Planning Department who has continuously advocated internally on behalf of Black Thumb Farm. Having the support of a land trust and an advocate within the city has been essential in reaching this point.

Last year, Black Thumb Farm completed their Community Benefit Analysis, and now they are exploring a no-cost 20-year lease with the city. The process is nearing the finish line, but the term-sheet still needs to be reviewed by two committees before it goes to the City Council for approval. If all goes well, Black Thumb Farm will finally have access to that 2.3-acre vacant lot.

Land Tenure is the Key

All of these urban farms have been developed to serve a basic human right of access to healthy and nutritious food. In the face of growing food insecurity and food apartheid, these urban farms have become bastions of community. Their impact goes beyond providing fresh produce, they become gathering spaces and green spaces for communities of color. 

But the reason they are in this vulnerable land tenure position is because there are no mechanisms in place to ensure that land is available to people to grow on. In the case of Black Thumb Farm, access to public land takes years of relationship-building, advocacy, and political capital. Buying land from private owners is virtually impossible due to the record-high prices. So urban farms like CRECE are left to work with values-aligned land-owners willing to share, which usually comes in the form of schools or churches. 

How can you help? 

If you work within a church or school and are reading this, I encourage you to support the farmers you work with through a formal lease agreement. Ideally one that offers long-term tenure for the farmer. 

If you are a public official, I urge you to prioritize farming as essential to supporting our local food system and create straightforward pathways for urban farmers to access public vacant land through no-cost long-term leases. 

And if you are a funder, I encourage you to engage with urban farmers to support their purchase of land. This support could also be through the support of local land trusts or through supporting a grant program like our Cultivating Farmers Microgrant. Last year alone, we received over $3M in microgrant applications. 

Land Access White Paper Coming Next

Land access in the Los Angeles region continues to be top of mind here at the Los Angeles Food Policy Council. So our Cultivating Farmers team, alongside our Policy team, is working on a white paper to further explore the land access challenge in the Los Angeles area. We will be publishing this paper later this fall. 

Nikhita Jain is a food systems strategist focused on strengthening regional supply chains and expanding market access for local farmers. Over the past eight years, she has worked across the food value chain - from urban agriculture to food startups to national restaurant procurement. She previously managed $25 million in produce sourcing at Sweetgreen, where she built direct farmer partnerships and expanded local sourcing across multiple markets. Nikhita now works with the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, where she helped develop the Cultivating Farmers Program, supporting urban farmers with business training and advising.