Farmer Uses His Land to Feed Needy

Who better to feed the hungry than the farmers who make a business of bringing forth nature’s bounty?

The question is not really a rhetorical one for A. G. Kawamura, a young farmer who is using his family’s 34-year-old agricultural business to provide fresh produce for Orange County’s neediest residents.

As president of Western Marketing, an Irvine-based company that leases more than 700 acres of farmland, the 35-year-old Kawamura has been able to pursue two ambitions: working with the land and helping to alleviate world hunger.

Kawamura’s way is direct and practical: After the farm’s crops of beans, celery, cabbage, squash and strawberries are harvested, representatives of local community groups are allowed onto the land to pick whatever leftover produce they can.

The activity, called gleaning, is an ancient method of feeding the poor that has attracted renewed interest in recent years as more and more Americans suffer from hunger and malnutrition.

“It’s really obvious that there is not enough (government) money to fund human services,” said Kawamura, standing amid a field of beans and gleaners near Interstate 5 one recent morning. “One solution will have to be from businesspeople using their own resources. It doesn’t necessarily mean a huge outlay of money.”

A member of the Orange County Farm Bureau, Kawamura has sought to enlist the aid of others in the agricultural community to the cause of feeding the poor. He is a board member of the Centennial Farms Foundation, which through its two-acre farm on the Orange County Fairgrounds seeks to educate youngsters about agriculture.

Kawamura started utilizing his family’s farmland for gleaning about five years ago.

On some harvest days, there have been as many as 600 gleaners picking over fruits and vegetables that may be unsuitable for shipping but are still perfectly edible.

Kawamura says that many of the county’s agricultural producers are now involved in gleaning projects. Still, he estimates that gleaners capture only about 5% of the produce that could be gleaned.

The average gleaner can easily collect two to three pounds of food, which is enough to feed two to three adults, says Kawamura.

He believes that if more residents were aware of the problem of hunger in Orange County and of ways to alleviate it, more food would be available.

“Our real goal is to see hunger end,” he said thoughtfully. “If it can’t be done in an affluent area like Orange County, where else can it be done?”

Kawamura’s eyes were opened to the world’s harsher realities in college. His stint at UC Berkeley stoked his idealistic tendencies and led him to postpone a hoped-for writing career and enter the family farming business.

He says his family (father Genji (Gene) Kawamura was a farmer in Los Angeles County before moving south in the late 1950s) supports his altruism.

“I generally just do things and they hear about it later,” he says, laughing.

A.G. Kawamura, 35

Occupation: Farmer

Organization: Orange County; Harvest

Address: 17200 Jamboree Road, Suite U, Irvine, Calif. 92714. (714) 833-1846.