[Sdpg] Anna Carter "The Seed Lady" South Central Los Angeles

sdpg-admin at arashi.com sdpg-admin at arashi.com
Tue Mar 19 10:12:51 PST 2002


http://www.awakenedwoman.com/seed_lady.htm

"The Seed Lady" gives away
                           gardens to ailing neighbors
                           in South Central Los Angeles



                          After the Bioneers Conference, AWe editor met 
with "Seed Lady" Anna Marie Carter
                          in Occidental, CA, where she was attending a 
weekend class in herbalism at the
                          Occidental Arts and Ecology Center as part of her 
scholarship from the Bioneers.
                          Following is her story, as she told it.

                          In 1992 I took an entrepreneurial training 
through the city of Los Angeles that the city
                          provided to disadvantaged low-income people to 
teach them to create businesses within
                          our community.

                          I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do. Right 
at that time, that was when the Rodney
                          King riots came. Everything in my community got 
burnt up so there was no place to find
                          food, and if you wanted food, you had to go to 
the grocery store and stand in a real real
                          long line. And I just thought to myself, I might 
as well open a store that provides organic
                          vegetables because that's what I ate but I had to 
travel far to get it. So I opened a store at
                          74th and Crenshaw called The Seed Lady, and that 
became like a little oasis within the
                          community for people to come together and talk 
about issues in the community. The
                          children used to come and I would show them how 
to grow vegetables in the yard behind
                          the store and teach them how to market their 
vegetables.

                          We planted three tomato plants and the rains 
knocked them all down. Then about two
                          weeks later, these plants just took off! They 
grew to about seven feet tall and went over the
                          fence so the neighbors had free tomatoes. And the 
kids would come on the weekends and
                          sell the tomatoes. It was l994 and there was a 
shortage of tomatoes in Los Angeles; people
                          were selling them for $2 a pound. Well the kids 
sold them for about a dollar and they made
                          enough money to buy their school supplies. One 
kid even made enough to pay his mother's
                          electricity bill. I don't know if it was because 
I told the kids to pray when they planted their
                          seeds. Or maybe it was because we had an alo vera 
plant there. I just learned this weekend
                          that alo vera is a good companion plant for tomatoes!

                          I ended up closing my store. I was getting a 
little too popular, and with my regular job and
                          the store, I decided to rethink it. I either had 
to get bigger &endash; I didn't want to work
                          hard, I wanted to work smart! I decided I would 
get on the Internet but in the meantime
                          people kept asking me for help with their 
gardens. So I decided one day I would start
                          giving away free gardens, because to tell you the 
truth, when I looked around my
                          neighborhood, people of my community look bad 
&endash; they look sick &endash; and
                          it's because of what they eat.

                          So I would go to their homes and install the 
gardens. It was their responsibility to prepare
                          the land, because I'm only one person. I would 
get the supplies they need and set it up.

                          It's the best feeling in the world, when you give 
someone a garden, especially when they
                          appreciate it.

                          I get to eat for free a lot. It's a win-win 
situation.

                          Unfortunately I'm getting so popular, I'm forced 
to go ahead and incorporate as a non profit
                          so I can accept some major corporate contributions.

                          Right now I have organizations that insist on 
giving me things. They know I need 'em so they
                          give them to me &endash; tools, lumber, the 
seeds, the soil


                          A lot of the people have HIV and Aids. I'm not a 
doctor but I think that if a person has that
                          particular disease, which is a virus that 
inhibits their ability to assimilate nutrients like protein,
                          minerals and enzymes, that if these people could 
eat organic food from heirloom seeds and
                          juice them &endash; because when you juice them, 
the minerals go directly into your
                          bloodstream without having to be digested by your 
stomach. I think that will help them live
                          longer. It's a devastating disease and it's 
rampant in my community. It's horrible, and so is
                          the cancer.

                          In the city you can get bogged down with city 
life. I know I've become immune to things
                          like drive-by shootings. I just roll over onto 
the floor and I don't even wake up! I'm hoping
                          to buy a farm in Compton which is the closest 
site zoned for farming and turn it into an
                          educational facility for the kids so they know 
where vegetables actually come from because
                          they just don't know. If you ask them where their 
vegetables come from, they will tell you
                          the name of a major supermarket!

                          I learned at the Bioneers about things like RGBh 
in the milk. I need to be a community
                          leader and talk to my people about what's going 
on because if you don't know, you'll
                          perish.. And I'm speaking of the masses &endash; 
giving the masses a choice and a voice.

                          So that's basically my story and I'm sticking to it!

                          I believe you have a path in life and you've got 
to follow your path. As long as I'm going on
                          the right path, things will go well with me. But 
if I do go off a certain way that's not right, I'll
                          get knocked down, and I know to get back on my 
path. It seems like the things I'm doing,
                          everything is already waiting for me, I just come 
to it and it's there. Hearing about the
                          Individual Development Account is definitely part 
of my path. For every $150 you save, the
                          government gives you $450, so in a month you've 
got $600. Then in a year or so you have
                          enough to qualify to purchase a piece of 
property. I saw it on the nightly business report. I
                          got the information and I went to the meeting and 
that's what I'm going to do. It just came
                          along like a blessing, because so many people 
asked me to speak at their church functions
                          and they said It would be nice if you had a farm 
because then I could come and see these
                          things.

                          I hear that black farmers are becoming 
non-existent. Maybe this is a way for us to see that
                          we should start providing for ourselves. Most 
black people are consumers. We do not
                          create anything to sell. If we could do just one 
thing, we could learn to feed ourselves. We
                          would come out a whole lot healthier and we would 
be a lot more economically viable. We
                          would have the income instead of always 
complaining about what we don't have.

                          Why cry about it when you can plant a seed?

Anna Carter, the "Seed Lady" of Watts, is an educator, researcher, advocate 
of organic
gardening and heirloom seeds. She builds free organic gardens for residents 
of South
Central Los Angeles who include the elderly, handicapped, disabled, AIDS 
and HIV victims,
Breast Cancer survivors, and residents of drug, alcohol and mental health 
shelters. Currently
interning with the Master Gardening Program at UCLA, she is also teaching 
children of the
Jordan Downs Housing Project and surrounding neighborhoods "gardening, 
English, math
and manners."

Anna "The Seed Lady" Carter c/o Watts Family Garden Club PO Box 19234 Los 
Angeles,
CA. 90019 E-mail wattsgardenclub at hotmail.com Ph. (323) 969-4740 Fax (323) 
789 ...
www.bioneers.org/features/anna.html - 10k - Cached - Similar pages

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