Degnan Microfarm
Hyperlocal Microfarms—Doing so much with so little
Everyone’s heard the slogan, “Think globally. Act locally.” But Jamiah Hargins, Founder, Executive Director, and Director of the Board of Crop Swap LA, believes we can do better. He’s working on the hyperlocal level through microfarming to feed families, create jobs, save water and other resources, and empower communities.
Background
As weather becomes more unpredictable, it follows that food could become increasingly scarce. In this country, many people are privileged enough to not yet feel that threat. However, according to The World Bank, food price inflation is on the rise worldwide. In Los Angeles County, one in three households are food insecure, and approximately one in four individuals live in areas identified as food deserts, according to Public Exchange’s June 2022 amended report.
Terms like food insecurity, food desert, and food apartheid flood the media. Though not synonymous, they all have to do with a growing concern over the declining availability of healthy food. People living in marginalized, segregated, or remote communities already struggle to find affordable nutritious food. Social activist and entrepreneur, Jamiah Hargins, has done something few people do when confronted with a problem—he’s come up with a truly new idea for farming unused city spaces.
The Hyperlocal Solution
Not everyone has the luxury of time, space, and resources to grow their own food, and congested urban areas don’t have a lot of unused land waiting to be converted into community gardens. But Jamiah Hargins grew up a “Navy brat” in a family that practiced emergency drills and imprinted him with a survivalist mentality. He worried that in an emergency, most people could be out of food and water in a matter of days, so he set out to find a solution. Looking around his neighborhood, he saw unused residential lawns sucking up water and providing little of value. Hargins envisioned crops in these urban patches.
Hargins started in 2018 with a neighborhood fruit and vegetable swap announced over NextDoor. This evolved into three residential microfarms in South Los Angeles, with another project planned in 2024. During the initial phases of Crop Swap LA, Hargins didn’t own property that could be used to create a model microfarm, but he wasn’t daunted. He made arrangements with homeowners to share their lots.
