Los Angeles County - The Next Syria?
The Real Underlying Challenges For Los Angeles County (And More)
Relevant History:
In the 17 years I spent in Los Angeles County, 13 years of those were spent either in or right next door to Paramount, a city within Los Angeles County. Paramount is where some of the recent rumblings began; actually in a Home Depot located there.
I lived at the junction of Lakewood Boulevard and Rosecrans and Rosecrans strikes right through the heart of Paramount and Compton enroute to the Pacific Ocean (or close to it). These were wondered times for me as I spent 17 years total in an incredible Mexican family. Over these years I witnessed many incidences which were racially motivated against my family and I should state that I am stark white, being born and raised in the UK. One of the joys of my family was sharing wonderful food in many different kitchens over those years; hours spent in kitchens in fact.
One other really mind-blowing aspect of LA, for me, was how often most people ate out. We did this now and again, but spent many more hours in our kitchens, making tamales at Christmas for instance. So what is my main point here? My main point is food and it’s key impacts on the people of all races, colours and creeds of Los Angeles County; all almost 10,000,000 of them (yes that is 10 million).
Food The Real Flashpoint:
It turns out that only about 1% of the food consumed in Los Angeles County is sourced from within the region itself—meaning no more than that is produced locally. The overwhelming 99% of food eaten in the county is imported from outside LA County bls.gov+8pbssocal.org+8ph.lacou
Just think about this for a moment and repeating “99% of food eaten in the county is imported”. Anyone who has driven the many freeways of greater Los Angeles knows that they are clogged at most times of the day or night. If some notable disruption of the food-supply systems in Greater LA were to take place, imagine that civil unrest. In fact, it was this emerging discovery which largely led to my leaving my wonderful family, in search of deeper solutions to our tenuous food situation and I chose Permaculture for the path I took.
To unpack this a bit:
In the early to mid-20th century, LA County was a major agricultural hub, with nearly half the region’s food coming from within 50 miles. But that’s changed dramatically pbssocal.org.
Today, even though there's still agriculture in nearby counties (Riverside, Ventura, Kern, etc.), most of those food products are exported elsewhere rather than being consumed locally pbssocal.org+1lacountyfoodequityroundtable.org+1.
What lands on Angelenos’ plates mostly travels quite a distance — from other parts of California and across the U.S., even globally.
Why such a small local share?
The shift is driven by large-scale agriculture geared toward national and international markets, high land values in LA County, urban development, and a supply chain optimized for distribution beyond our region pbssocal.org.
Summary Estimate
Source % of Food Consumed Within Los Angeles County~1%Nearby CA counties (Ventura, etc.)Small % Rest of California & Other U.S. Majority (30–60%+)Imports from outside the U.S. Substantial, esp. fresh produce
As a rough estimate:
1% grown or produced here.
10–40% from regional California/U.S. sources.
40–60%+ from international or non-local sources—especially for produce and specialty items.
One great irony here is that bringing in security forces like The National Guard or even Marines etc would only subject them to food system challenges there. If we also add the fact that earthquakes are a clear and present danger and that climate-change effects are amplifying fire and flooding risks, food really is the most pressing flashpoint causation in place in LA County (in many other places too).
So what can be done?:
We created a very comprehensive plan here.
“Before getting into the details contained in this document, it is important to stress that all items detailed in here can be enabled by a reasonably capable technology person or team, at little cost.”
Conclusion:
As was ably demonstrated by events in Syria and in many ways “The Arab Spring”, food insecurity can cause major incidents very quickly and we should be planning ahead now to avoid such possibilities as detailed in our comprehensive plan.
