How L.A.’s New “Farmers Field” Football Stadium Could Boost Urban Agriculture

The Disneyland of urban farming

By Alissa Walker
Good
Feb. 2, 2011

Excerpt:

No, Los Angeles still doesn’t have a football team, but a football stadium planned for its downtown just inched closer to reality. Yesterday, Mayor Villaraigosa, development company AEG, and Farmers Insurance announced the $700 million naming rights for a new stadium and convention center complex planned near existing Staples Center. In a few years our NFL team may be playing on Farmers Field.

There are obvious financial benefits, of course, to selling the naming rights so early for a project that has not been approved, for a team that does not exist (the stadium design hasn’t even been decided yet). But I think there’s another benefit to the name Farmers Field. It’s the perfect opportunity for Los Angeles to show its commitment to urban agriculture.

The name Farmers Field is actually incredibly appropriate for L.A. Agriculture is the business that L.A. was built on—the Farmers Insurance company started here in 1928 to provide lower premiums to L.A. farmers and ranchers. Up until the 1950s most of the country’s produce was grown right here in Los Angeles County. People moved here with dreams of planting one of the citrus orchards that used to blanket the L.A. basin. The agricultural theme evoking L.A. history can carry through the stadium design with a massive grove of orange trees surrounding the stadium. They can be juiced for pre-game mimosas, provide shade for tailgaters, and help feed hungry downtown residents.

Read the complete article here.