Pierce College Farm

I am the grandson of a farm laborer who once milked cows on 92nd Street in South-Central Los Angeles (Watts). I am of Jewish, Spanish and Lakota descent. Pierce College gave me the opportunity to pursue my chosen career of agriculture. I was able to compete with those who grew up on large farms and ranches and who went directly to four-year universities. What gave me this ability was the hands-on experience I obtained while working on the farm at Pierce.

There are less than 10,000 black farmers left in America. A civil rights action team and the office of the inspector general of Congress have validated discrimination by the Department of Agriculture against black American farmers during a recent $2.5-billion lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C..

It now appears that the Los Angeles Community College District will, by its vote March 10, be creating a situation in which this discrimination will intensify due to lack of opportunities for quality, hands-on education for minority and female students.

No longer will inner-city children, primarily minority students, be able to compete with students from rural areas in production agriculture and veterinary medicine. Both of these fields demand extensive hands-on experience prior to applying to graduate schools. Most inner-city children of color going into these fields have transferred from community colleges, picking up needed skills and course work.

The proposed golf course development will leave the agriculture / veterinary programs at Pierce with a “new” building equipped with inhumane animal-keeping facilities. The developer and proposed manager of these new facilities has little to no hands-on experience working with livestock and no formal or practical experience, degree or credential in educating future farmers or veterinarians.

So why are the college and district so interested in this proposal? Money! The developer’s money has become of greater importance than the destruction of a unique natural resource, quality hands-on education, wants and needs of the community and general ethics.

I am appealing to our elected officials to end this bitter fight over this unique and precious community resource. Please initiate state action to take over control of the Pierce farm and assign it state preserve status. I have assurances from agriculture and veterinary industry leaders that with our recently created C.W. Pierce Endowment and proper management, we can quite easily create a completely self-supporting, demonstrative and hands-on working farm once preserve status is initiated. (No one wants to pump in millions of dollars to land that will be developed.)

Time is running out. Please help us before we lose this precious resource.

LELAND S. SHAPIRO, Director, Pre-Veterinary Sciences, Pierce College, Woodland Hills