Blog 5 - Interview 1 Reflection

This photo mirroring the idea of self-reflecting in mentorship thus far is why I snapped its semi-portrait of the work I employ myself with around three times a week at the Arroyo Food Co-op...the apron I wear symbolizes my willingness to convey the message of the store to act as a liaison to local/quality ingredients provided by local urban farmers/kosher enterprises with similar ideals

Analyzing my interview with Joy Lam – manager and mentor at the ARROYO FOOD CO-OP…

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?

• Up until now, the most important thing I have learnt from partaking in a mentorship analyzing the sales aspect of urban farming and its lucrative tendencies was understanding how novel and convenient of an idea the trend indeed seemed to be.  My topic, unpacking organic and locally sourced goods onto shelves feeding both mouths and consumerism, seemed so relevant to the successes of the Arroyo Food Co-op that I right away assumed that it was inherently very economical, and only needed a farmer to tend its physical appearances in the ground.  After interviewing Joy Lam this past Tuesday though, I have learned an important lesson: that urban farming needs to be communicated in order to fully reach its potential in supporting livelihoods and a community.  In many urban cases, urban farming is seen as a mere ‘hippie’ movement towards “becoming one with the Earth as if humans are not already”.  The truth to the matter, is that humanity is as natural as any other organism on Earth, and, like other organisms, has a niche to compliment.  It is in this sense that farmers must convey to the general population the true definition of urban farming, and how it shall re-connect humans to this idealistic niche we have abused thus far with over-consumption of natural resources and speeding up the rate of organismal extinction.  In doing so, we as a society will come to reap environmental benefits through replacing barren yards with booming ecosystems and economical ones that will provide income and job profiles to individuals and communities.  This true sense of the term I have been researching is an abstract idea to many, and is many a time not related to how it can provide to real issues we face today, like food security and overpopulation of our world.  Through my first interview during my senior project, Joy revealed to me the effort that must go into relating people in the Pasadena/Altadena areas - where the store is located - with how urban farming and its liaison through the store best fits their interests.  She let me know the struggles she has had to face while running the store to this end, all of which were inflicted through a weakening supply of money.  As she said herself, the Co-op is burning its last reserve funds, stalling its growth and possible migration to another location for more publicity.  Even though the Co-op has plenty of members who pay an annual membership fee so they could shop for deals in its aisles, Joy cites how they do not treat the store as their neighborhood market that they can rely on for sustenance.  In retrospect, the public is not convinced that movements like the one for urban farming don’t have an expiration date.  They are likened to seasonal trends - sure to max out on novelty and not very realistic.  Joy uproots this notion by telling me the efforts of urban farmers and their vendors alike, and how realistic the experience urban farming provides truly is.  In fact, though she attended USC, she considers working at the Arroyo Food Co-op as her trade, with no pay needed.  I believe she is how each consumer should behave, trying to make an often un-sustainable business sustainable despite the unpredictable odds stacked against her.  My senior project spreading the word for these unsung revolutionaries only but helps the movement progress.
• In future interviews, I plan to ask more personal questions.  For example, I asked Joy how the financial state of her store was, but I didn’t ask what her source of strength was in upkeeping her hope for better times.  I also neglected to ask her about her sacrifice in choosing a career path that doesn’t match her career interest.  This change in direction will allow me to better tap into public opinion of urban farming, especially since this perspective changes from profession to profession.  I do like how I didn’t ask the questions given on the interview contract verbatim, but instead had a conversation incorporating all points I needed and wanted to address.    

2. Did I get additional resources and contacts?  What is the most useful?  Why?

• Joy started out the interview with asking me how I define ‘urban farming’.  I told her its vision is turning grayspace into green space, and how this transition from asphalt to tilled soil could benefit a community’s living and sustainability.  Joy then showed how she was disappointed with how people think so idealistically of urban farming as ‘garden-picking’, as she believes this perception hides the human element.  Indeed, urban farming needs to be established in order to be made a living from, as shown in how the store only accepts produce from homegrown farmers who have been licenced and regulated by the city.  The best way to find such vendors is through hunting them down at a farmer’s market, as she chuckles.  In this way, Joy told me to look at how the idea behind urban farming was born out of necessity in America, with the poor setting up community-based gardens from which to pick inexpensive produce during the Great Depression (especially during when the Dust Bowl hit the midwest and left he prices of fruits and vegetables inflated).  These humble origins of a  food revolution deemed ‘hipster’ are what must be remembered as we make the notion of self-sufficiency through locally sourced food more relevant to an everyday life habit for us all.  In this way, urban farming will gather the devotion, not only the interest, of a community and beyond.  Joy, in addition to this advice is seeing a necessary improvement to urban farming, also gave me a contact to an urban farmer in Altadena who owns his own backyard farm plot by the name of the Urban Homestead.  He is new to the business and so relates to my primitive exposure to the idea, except he is willing to devote a career to making it part of his personal life.  The next step that is most useful to me as I explore the implications of urban farming, as Joy hinted at, is to see firsthand the source of produce sold in the store.  Only then can I understand how my thesis affects a livelihood, the environment (and how this is a large selling point currently), and how its complexity behaves as the next step in the evolution of food production.  The step will be useful in retrieving a second mentorship as a farmhand on a actual urban farm to see the inspiration for this idea.
• Link to contact’s website (could be sueful as another interview): http://urbanhomestead.org
• Possible location of second mentor:

http://sarvodayafarms.com

3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me?

• The interviewee is my primary mentor as of now and has been able to provide me with insight into how the idea of urban farming is in the process of being sold to the public.  By managing both the social media aspect and online catalog of the Arroyo Food Co-op store, she is frontrunner in the management of the store, supervising its daily purchases, political game, and business savviness.  By being honest in what she has experienced in regards to urban farming through the store, I have been able to use her wealth of information to define urban farming as something a bit less dreamlike and capable of being more institutional to society.  This hope for a more logical humanitarian duty for the movement in a community, in addition to its conservation bound premise, is tirelessly being made a possibility by backstage artists like Joy, who know the true interests of humanity in an idea lies in pocketbook interests and self-gain.  Joy’s struggles in helping to make this hope a reality, thus giving urban farming a lasting impression on the economy and harmony of civilization, made me realize the strain a transition to a different form of food security could have on livelihoods before any sort of potential is realized.  My next goal is to understand how urban farming has survived this long through its green roots backing and desirable idealisms.  Joy also opened my eyes to how a person with a set of interests in something so mainstream to many  - research at USC - can be convinced of an idea based on research behind its benefits.  Humans were programmed to care; first we must be shown why to care according to our human nature before urban farming can take root.

PROOFS (audio of interview):

Link to interview audio (including pauses for helping guests to the store)in its entirety:

(Soundcloud): https://soundcloud.com/robert-machuca-1/interview-one/s-JBYTg

This is a scanned copy of the interview verification form signed by my mentor Joy Lam to assure the viewer of the page that interview one of my senior project has been completed, with good reason!