Loco for Locavores

L.B.C. Laps L.A. Locavorism with Ambitious New Urban Farm

A new wave of chicken heads is due for Downtown Long Beach
A new wave of chicken heads is due for Downtown Long Beach Photo: Sandy Seek via Flickr

We had no idea that Long Beach is discreetly poised to lap L.A.’s own locavore movement, but apparently the city has announced a massive commitment to sustainability and appears to be be following through with a cool transformation of its urban space into a pastoral paradise.

LAist reveals plans for LBC to get back to its bucolic roots with a quarter-acre farm planned in an urban business corridor near the city’s Downtown that breaks ground during a “build day” next month. Not only is the city hoping to re-imagine how public and corporate spaces are shared, but the giant vegetable garden, flower beds, and fruit trees will be tended by students of a neighboring school. The farm will essentially be used to do what Jamie Oliver couldn’t and educate students on nutrition and where real food comes from, while animals might be introduced later on, possibly to the same end. Studio One Eleven’s layout for this true urban farm includes room for a chicken run, windmill, kitchen, berry bushes, a grape arbor, and farm stand, all sounding so quaint and charming, that we almost want to go back to grade-school. Let’s hope the trend only spreads.

Opening at 15th Street and Long Beach Blvd. on June 10th.

Long Beach Gets an Urban Farm [LAist]

L.B.C. Laps L.A. Locavorism with Ambitious New Urban Farm