[Scpg] Patchwork quilt of food - L.B.O. to Celebrate 10th Anniversary!!!

[Paul Racko]

      Patchwork quilt of food
      L.B. man sees future in organic gardens.
      By Greg Mellen
      Staff writer, Long Beach Press-Telegram


      Saturday, May 01, 2004 - LONG BEACH - Charlie Moore can envision a day
when skyscrapers will be built for the sole purpose of growing organic
produce. He sees a day, not too far away, when the price of oil and thus
transportation of crops will become so high that locally grown food will be
the only alternative.

      Moore says that even in a crowded overrun setting such as Long Beach,
it's possible to have substantial food production.

      Say what you will about Moore and his vision, he is not just a
dreamer. The Long Beach native has been growing organic produce in his yard
for decades. Long Beach Organic, an organization he created, celebrates its
10th anniversary this year.

      Take a tour of Moore's yard in Belmont Shore, and he'll show you the
possibilities.

      Out front, he points to three types of guava. Elsewhere, there are
loquats, passion fruit, kiwi and Concord grape vines, Philippine banana
trees and edible cactus. Moore breaks off a sprig of allspice and invites a
visitor to smell.

      Overhead, the canopy is layered in such a way that food can be grown
year-round. And all of it is fertilized by recycled green waste and
moistened by recycled water.

      For 10 years, Moore has been doing what he can to help with the
greening of Long Beach through his organization. Building gardens

      The goal is "to build a green patchwork quilt' of gardens in Long
Beach.

      Or as L.B. Organic's executive director Greg Jocz calls it, "an edible
landscape.'

      Some of the panels of the quilt are in place. Long Beach Organic
currently oversees four community gardens around town, as well as a
demonstration garden behind its office and nursery on Gladys Avenue.

      The organization also has helped eight local schools set up and
maintain organic gardens, according to Jocz. It also holds six workshops per
year, sells fruit trees and other items from its nursery, which is open by
appointment, produces a quarterly newsletter called Organic Times and hosts
monthly volunteer workdays at its Wild Oats Garden.

      Plans for the future include a search for a program director as L.B.
Organic looks to increase its stake in the community foods movement. L.B.
Organic also is setting up a youth market garden from the Wild Oats garden
and looking to create partnerships with other local nonprofits.

      It would like to become involved in offering healthy foods for
school-lunch programs. A paradox

      Like a latter day Walt Whitman character, Moore is a paradox who
embraces seemingly far-flung and irreconcilable ideals.

      "I embody the contradictions of my family,' he says.

      On one hand, as an heir to local oilman Will J. Reid, founder of
Hancock Oil, he owes his comfortable lifestyle to petroleum.

      He says no one, his forebears included, could have foreseen the
dominant role petroleum would take in society.

      "We're the first generation capable of grasping our effect on the
future,' Moore says.

      He adds that Reid was also a well-known conservationist and the Will
J. Reid Fund sponsors numerous philanthropic groups, including L.B. Organic.

      Again, paradoxically, one of the sites where Reid found oil is now
L.B. Organic's most flourishing garden.

      Leased mostly by Asian immigrants, the land is divided into 50,
20-by-20-foot plots, each tended by a different family. Tenants pay only for
water, and the waiting list is substantial. What was once wasteland is now a
fragrant, flourishing horn of plenty with sugar cane, banana trees, radish,
lettuce, taro and various Cambodian spices.

      "Each garden is its own masterpiece,' Moore says. He then pulls back a
flap from a small homemade greenhouse and a rush of hot moist air bursts
forth as if packaged straight from the hills of Cambodia. Use empty lots

      While driving to another community garden, Moore passes several
homeless men lolling near 14th Street and Pine Avenue.

      "Let me show you something,' Moore says, pointing out a number of
empty lots in the area. "They don't have to live next to a Dumpster. We
could easily have three lots full of food. And it wouldn't be charity. They
could actually grow it.'

      At the garden at Pacific Avenue and Sixth Street a profusion of
multicolored flowers grow from the plots of ground. The garden at First
Avenue and Elm Street blooms like an oasis surrounded by concrete. Inside
the small fenced plot, an artichoke bush is heavy with produce; large
sunflowers and cactus are in bloom. In a small plot maintained by
Constellation Middle School, beans and carrots are planted.

      The poster child for the future, however, may be the Wild Oats garden,
a one-acre patch on 10th Street between Loma and Grand avenues.

      Donated by the Wild Oats grocery chain, the former Pacific Rail
right-of-way land will be used as both a park and community garden. This is
the kind of partnership that Moore and Jocz hope will become more common in
the future.

      Moore insists an "organic' future is not a wild dream but an almost
inevitable outcome. He says the age of oil is ending and that an affordable
alternative has not been found.

      "The bubble's about to burst, and I don't think I'm being an alarmist
in saying so,' Moore says. As a result, he says, the concept of organic
gardening "is more than a do-gooder mentality.' It's a sensible way to
approach the future.

      Futurists can rationally discuss the need for self-sufficiency, Moore
said.

      And as the world turns toward an uncertain future, Moore and Long
Beach Organic will continue to try to add panels to their "green patchwork
quilt.'




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