People don’t look at me and think that I’m a farmer.
But I’m urban, I’m from Westside Compton.
Did you know Compton is the earthworm capital of the country.
And who said that we can’t have our chains on, and have our songs on,
and grow food; who made these rules?
They say God made dirt and dirt don’t hurt, right?
That’s right.
I’m still out here in the field, growing the food, feeding people.
We don’t Look Fly no matter what we do.
I am Temu Asyr Martin Bay, an indigenous Aboriginal Asiatic to this land.
I’m an urban agriculturalist, a fashion designer, a chef, author
and an advocate for social and food justice within LA County, Compton,
and overall, the United States of America.
I became interested in food justice because growing up
in what is considered a food desert I wanted to address the problem head-on.
Good morning, Dr. Ross.
Hey, Temu, how you doing?
I’m doing phenomenal, the definition of a food desert is a city
that doesn’t have enough natural foods to feed the scale of people.
-Peaches? -Peaches, yes.
They’re good.
On average, 60,000 people are able to share a grocery store.
In our community, we have over 200,000 people
and we only have three grocery stores.
The highest quality strawberry, you can get fresh picked, organic, right here.
Now, remember, this part right here has more nutrition than kale.
I remember, I remember you told me.
Dr. Ross is a [Indecipherable] [00:01:46].
That’s an African word that means ‘pillar in the community.’
He is someone that we go to for wisdom, for knowledge, for insight.
The work that we do to address hunger and food waste is the foundation element,
which is the education of how to feed yourself.
Step one, you can grow food anywhere.
You can grow food anywhere.
We teach it free.
We want to empower you with the information.
Secondary to that,
is putting things in place to be able to create a community aspect
to where now we can work together to feed ourselves and feed each other.
Step three from that is putting things in place and building bridges
with actual agricultural businesses, so that way we can employ ourselves,
sustain ourselves, and then we can now have a full grid.
[Indecipherable] [00:02:40].
Yes, it’s not a glamorous job.
We’re not going to all become multi trillionaires,
but this is a way to sustain ourselves long-term,
which will create a healthier community as well.
Oh, that’s nice to inhale.
If we eating better and we feeling better and we making money,
naturally we’re going to be able to create more peace.
Take some kale.
When the pandemic hit,
I had just become the Director of the Compton Community Garden.
One of the main reasons we learned how to grow food
was because we want to be ready for a natural disaster.
Compton kale salad on the way.
When the natural disaster happened, and we were actually ready
and we were prepared, it was surprising but also not surprising.
I’ll show you some fresh pick.
Rosemary, that’ll be fly.
And from that work, we were able to stay open.
We were able to continue to feed people.
We created a show called ‘Hood and Healthy,’
where we taught the viewer how to navigate a food desert,
how to eat healthier, and even how to eat food that we grow.
And from that work, people watched our classes all over the country.
You know what I like about Too Good, is that
we [Indecipherable] [00:03:56] the same issue, ultimately.
Now, we serve it.
How has the garden impacted your life [Indecipherable] [00:04:14].
It kind of opened up that door for me, of like the possibilities
that I can grow my foot at home, make my foot at home,
do everything at home, like I don’t really need to rely on stores
or things like that, you know.
Justin, what’s your experience of getting your hands in the soil?
Throughout the years of me being here, it did become a healing space for me.
With me being diabetic and learning how to grow my own organic food,
it’s a big boost to my health as well.
I feel bad looking at the news when they try to push scarcity
and I just kind of giggle like, we literally teach people
how to feed a family of three out of a 4 x 8 bed, and it’s like,
what are you talking about shortages?
Like, we have dirt, you [Indecipherable] [00:04:55].
So, we’ve got to push education and push that knowledge,
and that’s what we’re all here to do.
I want this garden to be an idea that all municipalities
can do with the vacant lots within that area.
Let’s get field trips with kids coming here, picking stuff from the garden,
so that once they start doing that, they learn how fast food
becomes a treat and not an everyday thing.
My ultimate life purpose from my vantage point
is to teach us how to grow food, and then to teach us how to create infrastructure
to be able to build a civilization.
So, that way we can all come together and feed ourselves, empower ourselves,
to stay in ourselves and build our own economy.