Urban Farm DB
Research catalogue
Database research record2008·United States (California)

From Industrial Garden to Food Desert: Unearthing the Root Structure of Urban Agriculture in Oakland, California - eScholarship

Nathan McClintock

Urban Farm DB summary

This paper uses urban political ecology to explore the rise of urban agriculture (UA) in Oakland, California, where the city aims to source 30% of its food locally, partly from UA in "food deserts." The analysis argues that 20th-century industrial capital flows and racialized urban planning concentrated capital devaluation in the flatlands, leading to the creation of food deserts. Food justice activists are mobilizing through UA to counter these uneven transformations.