Episode Description:
“Trust that you can do the Math and that you have the tenacity and that nature will give you way more opportunities than you even need.” —Jamiah Hargins
Imagine a world where water conservation isn't just a choice, but a critical strategy to survival.
Water isn't just slipping through our fingers—it's vanishing before our eyes. Yet, our current consumption patterns are writing a dangerous narrative for future generations. Hence, the silent crisis of water conservation demands immediate, innovative solutions that reimagine how we interact with this precious resource.
Jamiah Hargins is a visionary urban farmer and social entrepreneur who founded Crop Swap LA, a nonprofit revolutionizing food production in unused urban spaces. With a mission-driven approach, he has developed groundbreaking strategies for community-based agriculture and water management.
Tune in as Justine and Jamiah talk about water conservation, community-driven food independence, entrepreneurial resilience, organic gardening techniques, local food distribution, and innovative strategies for creating sustainable, resilient food systems.
Meet Jamiah:
Jamiah Hargins is the founder of Crop Swap LA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to growing food on unused urban spaces and promoting food independence. With a mission to transform local food systems, he has developed innovative approaches to urban agriculture, water conservation, and community-driven food production. Over the past seven years, Crop Swap LA has impacted approximately 1,000 people monthly, growing food across 10 different locations in Los Angeles.
An experienced social entrepreneur, Jamiah has previously launched multiple ventures and is passionate about creating sustainable, regenerative solutions to food insecurity. His work focuses on empowering communities to grow their own food, implement water recycling systems, and reduce dependency on traditional agricultural supply chains. Jamiah is also developing educational resources to help other communities replicate Crop Swap's model across the United States.
Connect with NextGen Purpose:
Episode Highlights:
02:54 Empowering Community Leaders
06:50 Water Conservation and Rainwater Capture
17:44 Expanding the Movement
26:05 Community and Mentorship
29:49 Crop Swap: Impact and Future Plans
35:22 Upcoming Events and Campaigns
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jamiah Hargins: (00:03):
Wonderful. Thank you, Justine. Thanks for
having me.
Justine Reichman: (00:05):
Yeah, it's been a pleasure getting to know
you while we're organizing thispodcast. I'm really excited to
have you, be introduced to ourcommunity and the friends that
follow here, because I thinkwhat you're doing is really
interesting. And I think thathearing about this as you're
building this movement andcreating this movement. It is so
exciting to be able to share andgive people an opportunity to
join as well as be inspired tocreate their own initiatives. I
know you inspired me. I'malready doing Palm Hill farm
(00:28):
walk. I'm glad you submit toputting it together. So Jamaih,
if you would, for those folksthat maybe are not familiar with
you, if you could just give us ahigh level of what Crop Swap LA
is.
Jamiah Hargins: (00:38):
Sure. Thanks again. So Crop Swap LA is a
nonprofit that grows food onunused spaces. It could be front
yard, backyard. Could be anapartment building, maybe a
school or a church where we worktogether to find funding and
decide where the food is goingto go. And then our team creates
a regular circulation of thatfood, usually through a CSA
distribution. But we alsocollect fruit from fruit trees,
(00:58):
do workshops, train leaders inother areas, and do
installations at people's homesthat they can manage if they
want to. So we are all aboutgrowing food, being food
independent, and creatingopportunities for people.
Justine Reichman: (01:09):
I hear you saying this, and you're building
this platform or framework forpeople to be able to make
themselves more independent,have greater access to the food
if I'm hearing it right, is thatcorrect? So if I was, or if you
were talking to any one of ourguests that might say, how can I
implement this? Or what can I doin my neighborhood? What would
you say to them?
Jamiah Hargins: (01:26):
Well, the first thing is to know that even just
having the question means thatyou are the leader. You are the
one your neighborhood has beenwaiting on. You have the courage
to ask. You have the courage tolook for the opportunity, and
now you're in charge. That said,keep it to yourself first. The
best plan is to do the entireplan before anyone else knows.
Basically, I have a process thatI teach my mentees. I guess it's
(01:46):
a cohort of people across thecountry. Now, it's an initiative
called Crop Swap Your City. Soit's obviously (inaudible) here.
But if you're in Cincinnati, oryou're in Austin, you're in
Colorado Springs, Denver,wherever, then you have the
chance to be the leader there.Certainly, all I can do at this
distance is to guide you andhope that you do well. So we
have a monthly video call inorder to have a consultancy in a
way for all the cohort membersand what they're facing at this
(02:07):
moment. They may be right at thevery beginning just having a
concept. They may be where youare, where you have an idea, a
name and a community in mind.They may be further down the
road and already have anonprofit with some funding
coming, or already have abusiness with some operations
happening. And based on whatI've learned here and with my
team over the last seven years,I can guide at least a few steps
to see what's possible. It'sdifferent every time, but the
opportunities are endless.You've always got to start right
(02:29):
where you are. So in my case, Istarted with just crop swapping
with extra stuff from my gardenthat turned into a Farmers
Market and fruit treeharvesting, which then turned
into growing food on yards, andselling that on a CSA down the
road. It also turned into moreprojects being done and water
retention during fires andthings like that. So people are
calling us to hook up sprayersto their house to keep it wet
during a fire so you never knowwhere it's going to lead, but it
certainly is the beginning, andI'm here to help guide people
(02:51):
through it.
Justine Reichman: (02:52):
It's so inspiring. I think that it
really spearheads and empowerspeople to create change, both
for themselves and theircommunity, which I think is
great. And I'd love to know whatinspired you to go down this
path.
Jamiah Hargins: (03:08):
I was mostly inspired by having my first
daughter. I'm grateful I havetwo and a beautiful wife. But
the first daughter triggerssomething in every person, and I
want to say it triggerssomething different in a man.
Certainly, I was thinking aboutprotecting her, and I just
looked around Los Angeles tounderstand what the food
availability was? What's thefood price? What's in it? How
much I understood the food? Ijust didn't trust it so I
decided to go ahead and grow myown garden. I had very little
(03:30):
knowledge, very littleexperience. And like I said
earlier, I grew too much. And sothat turned into almost an
awareness and enlightenmentmoment where I said, wow, if I
can accidentally grow too muchfood, then I suddenly have the
ability to have somethingvaluable. I may not have gold or
have property at the time. I maynot even have a reputation at
the time, but I can createsomething that's useful as
someone else. So that triggeredall my entrepreneurial energies
(03:51):
that I'd always had and Ithought, well, if there's that
much abundance possible innature, and all I have to do is
keep trying at it. Theneventually, I'll figure this
out. So I encourage people tolook closely at your own life.
Do you have a partner, lover,lifestyle, a person you care
for, an elderly person, or acommunity that you love? The
core of the motivation that willget you to get over the risks
that are necessary for you to bea leader, and to really engage
(04:14):
in a meaningful way that'srelevant to that community that
way that sticks. Because wefound ways here in LA using
water, rain water capture waterretention and water recycling to
really engage the economics ofour operations, and make it
financially reasonable topeople. When their water is
being recycled, it costs a lotless for their own food. And of
course, in a city like this,it's a very important thing. So
just think about your localcontext, and you'll be more
(04:36):
advantageous in overcomingrisks.
Justine Reichman: (04:38):
That sort of really lays it out for people.
And as you're sitting there andexplaining it, and you're
talking about your city, LA, aswell as all of the state of
California has been known fordroughts, so being able to
recycle that water seems really,it sparks my interest. I'm like,
okay, so now tell me, how do Ido that? How do people do that?
Jamiah Hargins: (04:53):
Well, if you don't have experience in
landscaping, I think finding alocal mentor in landscaping is
essential. Showing them videosand what we've done here,
finding someone that's keen inirrigation and a little bit of
waterfalls, rainwater capture.It may be rare, and you may be
the only one in your town, butit's very easy to understand
once you get into it. There arevideos on YouTube on various
(05:14):
like landscaping platforms thatjust show you the process of how
it's done. Try not to get caughtin the weeds and intricacies,
but knowing that you probablydon't need a license for this
kind of thing, especially ifyou're using your own property.
But there are people who arelicensed on certain categories
of the work, like the electricaland the landscaping piece, the
plumbing, each of those arespecialty. So if you just try it
once or twice, you kind of getthe hang of it. I'm big on
mentorship. It's okay to payyour mentors. If you have money
(05:36):
at the time, work together aspartners in that way because
they're proud of their sporttoo. And no matter where you
live, you could be up in theMidwest or the Northeast, you
could be in Canada, rainwatercapture is always going to be
useful. In fact, rainwatercapture is something that has
been, I think, taken out of ourculture where we used to have
natural refrigerators out ofpots that have sand and two
layers of pots. Just keep itcool, keep it wet, and it stays
cool. We used to have streamsthat can come through our
(05:58):
kitchens, and that's the waterwe use to clean dishes, wash,
drink and so forth. Just naturalpassing by.
Justine Reichman: (06:03):
I also think that with global warming and the
changes that we're seeing aroundthe globe in terms of weather,
etcetera. Last year there was adrought in New York, and they
were told that they couldn'twater their logs, which is
really unusual. New York is notCalifornia, and I'm wondering
what you think that as wecontinue on this journey and see
the effects of global warming,this process could be very
(06:24):
useful for so many other peopleoutside of California to maybe
avoid some of that. So thequestion to you is, if we
thought about this, depending onhow many people, and even
looking at what you have nowbased on the number of people
that you have participating inthis, doing rain capture and
recycling the water, what kindof impact can you see on a local
level that we can then sort ofimagine what it would be like on
a global level?
Jamiah Hargins: (06:45):
Massive impact. Even locally, in Los Angeles,
there are 20,000 people livingin every one square mile, and
each person needs five gallonsof water each day in order to
live, to drink, to wash andclean. And right now, we're
getting our water in SouthernCalifornia from the Colorado
River Basin, way over inColorado, and from the Shasta
mountains, I think, on way upnorth in California. But
certainly not coming locally. Wehave no groundwater to tap into
like many places would. So we'rejust waiting on catastrophe.
(07:07):
We're waiting on one of thosepipes to break and for it to not
be fixed for six months. I thinkthat would change the whole
city. Most people would have toleave the city and create a
migration event to all the othersurrounding areas, and those who
remain here would just be introuble, frankly. So really,
this has a way to save LA byhaving multiple rainwater
reservoirs around Los Angeles.That's one of my goals, to have
multiple,and for that water tobe promised on a financial model
(07:30):
to other people in the case ofemergency. So my neighbors right
now got five around me. Each oneof them could have 500 gallons
of our water at my house ifthey're paying me to maintain
it, and that's something onarranging on our legal side. And
that's part of the piece of theleaders listening that you don't
want to announce anything untilyou file the legal figure it out
the financial model is, andwho's gonna run it in your team.
But we're putting somearrangements together that they
could sign and then pay us amonthly fee, say $50 a month in
(07:51):
perpetuity, in order to havethis water available in case of
emergency. Once this earthquakehits and our pipes break, then
they know they've got 500gallons here to use until they
choose to hit the road. We gotto think that way. Survivalist
is reality. But then once we doit here in LA, it's even more
important to other areas outsideLA that are used to having
water. Places like Wisconsin,naturally, the rest of us are
(08:12):
going through weird climatechanges. If they hit a drought
one day, then they'll suddenlysay, oh, my goodness. We need to
have rain water capture up here.Does anyone know how to do it?
Well, no. We've never had tothink about it. It's not a
desert. We'll suddenly be moreimportant to lead and guide them
in the right directions evenpeople down here.
Justine Reichman: (08:28):
Similar to what I was saying in New York,
how they had a drought lastyear, right? And we're gonna
continue to see this problemaround the world, around the
country as global warmingcontinues. I just find that so
inspiring. And as you're sittingthere and you're talking about
it, what does that look like?How are you housing it? What's
the most you can house?
Jamiah Hargins: (08:46):
At my house, we have 5000 gallons of potable
drinking water that stays freshdue to our aeration,
biofiltration and other filters.But that was going small. That
was a modest space. It's like a20 by 20 platform that you can
use the top of, but storedunderground. If we would have
gone massive, instead of 5000gallons, maybe 40,000 gallons.
Maybe 40,000 gallons. And thatmight even be modest. Each
property can have that and thenstill have an entertainment
(09:08):
space on it. A waterfall next toit that, the water is going down
through and efficientelectricity using solar panels
and timers on low cost energytiming. So 40,000 gallons, that
would probably enough for maybe15 families to last three
quarters of a year. That was allcosting just one house. The
expense of the installation, andthen the expense of the
(09:28):
electricity. I haven't done allthe math yet, but I do know that
it's a real cost that if citiessay, city leadership leans in
and says, okay, if the cost is$50,000 for that installation,
let's choose 100 families. Justgive them each $50,000 from our
tax base or from the policebudget, which is always infinite
and growing. Let's give themeach $50,000 and have it in
(09:50):
their properties that willensure that this area of 100
families like 20 square miles istaken care of, and not going to
flee in case of emergency.Because if people flee during
emergency, your tax base isgone. And the city is going to
go bankrupt. So it's almost ahuge liability for cities not to
lean into this. We're talking tothe mayor's office in LA
exploding to a number of mayor'soffices around LA, there's like
87 cities in LA County, and I'vespread this message. So
(10:12):
eventually, I think people aregoing to catch you into this.
Justine Reichman: (10:14):
I think so. I'm thinking about this
intellectually as you're saying,If I'm imagining all these
different homes that you've gotrelationships that they're
implementing this, I live in atown and I'm wondering, well,
perhaps there's land here forthe town to do it, for the town
to find the space, the land toinput this, to pay for it, and
then including in our taxes. Imean, we pay taxes they charge
more every year. Every year,we're getting new assessments
(10:36):
and all sorts of new things. Andthen you have the town managing
it, doing it, and it's not onsomebody else's property. Not
that it's bad idea to put onsomebody else property. I'm just
thinking of more urban settingswhere people may not have that
amount of space always to carveinto their garden or something.
And if we could find a space, isthat something you've
considered, or you thought aboutor explored?
Jamiah Hargins: (10:55):
Yeah, I'm open to that. Most towns have some
type of capture, some type ofreservoir, but the use is
different each time. It might berecycled water. It might be just
rain water. If it rains thereoften, sometimes it goes out to
the sea. It just depends. But Ido think it's wise. I think now,
the question becomes, who hasaccess to it in case of
emergency? I think individualswould have a hard time competing
(11:15):
against corporations who wouldclaim the need to use it on a
corporate level.
Justine Reichman: (11:20):
I think about it like that. You're framing it,
and your viewpoint is, I didn'tconsider that, which I could
imagine could be a really bigchallenge.
Jamiah Hargins: (11:30):
I probably can't name the exact
Corporation. But if CorporationX comes up and says, we need
10,000 gallons every day inorder to keep this thing
running, and we pay this muchtax money. Then the mayor will
feel pressured to allow them todo that. So our model on a
residential method allows for adecentralization of power and an
independent approach wherenobody can corrupt or intervene
on the agreement that we havewith say our neighbors, it would
(11:51):
stand up in court, and it'd bethe decisions of the landowners,
the water is their property.They're deciding who they want
to give it.
Justine Reichman: (12:00):
My mom had a house in Woodstock, and she had
(inaudible). We're going back tothat a little bit, except that
we're intentionally creating asolution where you could be more
community driven to support thatinitiative as we experience
global warming and the change inthe droughts. That's right. Wow.
So, okay, so this is, I lovewhat you're doing. I love how
you're expanding and how you'reexpanding into different cities,
(12:21):
and that takes a lot of strategyand forethought thinking in a
new way. And I'm wondering, asyou've done this and you've
built this all out, is it yourfirst? Let me restate, okay, is
this your first time being anentrepreneur?
Jamiah Hargins: (12:36):
I've tried a few times before. I had a cute
little dating app when I livedin New York City that would help
young people have a wing womanwhere they went out to meet
people, and then I had a conceptof a co-working space for
parents that would have anursery on site. And I've always
been an entrepreneur. As achild, I had a little lawn
mowing business. I was a paperboy, that's entrepreneurial, and
(12:57):
I just love writing businessplans. When I was in college, I
had a little translationbusiness, little things like
that. And I have an inventionthat I have yet to bring to
market,related to water andgrowing food, not growing food,
but growing plants off of yourtoilet.
Justine Reichman: (13:08):
Wow, tell me more about that.
Jamiah Hargins: (13:11):
It's called toiletries, and it's a product.
It hooks on the side of theclean tank, and uses that clean
water to grow in iridescent, orlike a nice smelling and nice
looking plant. I just haven'thad time to follow the trees. I
have all the intellectualproperty ready, I just haven't
had time. But those kinds ofthings, those inventions and
(13:33):
ideas come to mind. But whatreally ends up mattering is
beyond the idea stage of theimplementation, the operations,
and that's where Crop Swap LAhas been so amazing. The team
that we built does our farming,does our projects. The team on
our HR, finance and fundraisingsides, our board of directors,
that piece of it is really wherethe grit comes into play because
there are operational challengesor limitations, there's
(13:53):
personalities, there's adifferent environment. Every few
weeks of that you got to operatein, there's big scale things
like politics, subsidies, grantdecisions and all that I have to
operate within. Entrepreneurshipis a test of tenacity, and you
can show that even if you have asimple business. Say that you
just bought laundry mats and youjust bought five laundromats,
it's not even that simple. Youcan't sit back and just earn
that money. Everyday, some ofthose machines are gonna be
(14:13):
breaking. Your staff are gonnabe stealing coins, people's
gonna damage something or somecrisis nd you just gotta figure
out the systems to put in placeso that your mindset can be at
rest. Because right now, as muchwe've had a lot of success, I do
still wake up every morning atlike 3:30 and I just snap awake
and my brain is working on aboutsix or seven things at once in
bed. I just have to get up andwrite them down or start
working. One day, things will besettled enough that I'll be such
(14:34):
a good entrepreneur that thereare systems in place for others
to think about those things, toanticipate problems. But right
now, I'm still really essential.I'm still really essential to
the mission. Our teammates areso essential to this mission as
well. Each one of them, I needthem doing amazing things and
being confident so I'm gratefulfor who we have. We've had
involved over the last sevenyears to different phases. But
really, it's just thewillingness to take on risk and
the willingness to trust, andalmost the faith to keep going
(14:55):
despite seeing continualchallenges, and despite knowing
whether or not it's enough. Itold my wife this morning, I'm
just not sure if Crop Swap LA isenough to solve the problems
that our society is facing. Butthen you have to narrow into
your own mission and say toyourself, my job isn't to fix
politics at all. I'm not there.My job is not to fix our wars,
conflicts or issues. My job isto work on this problem, and
this is where my purpose andpassion would most likely most
(15:18):
be useful.
Justine Reichman: (15:19):
That's so important to highlight too
because people feel like they'renot being successful, or they're
not being sustainable, orthey're not being regenerative,
or they're not solving theproblem if they're not doing
everything. I know for myself,just thinking that way is so
overwhelming. So instead, Ifocus on my little narrow place,
and I stay in my lane. And if Ican't do the other stuff, that's
okay because I'm making myimpact here, and it changes the
(15:40):
narrative in my head so I canfeel successful. I'm having an
impact versus somebody else. I'mjust making it up, right? And
they want to compost, and theywant to not drink out of
plastic. They want to do allthese things and it just feels
like, oh, my God, I can't do allof that. I can't even figure it
all out, but I can do this. Soam I still being a good person
and supporting the environment.What impact am I having? Is it
as great as that? And I thinkthat that one thing we've got to
(16:02):
remember is everybody hasdifferent interests, different
values and knows how to dodifferent things. We lean into
what our overarching mission ofethos is, and we stay there.
We're going to make a muchgreater impact because we're
actually going to be successful,as opposed to being so
overwhelmed and not doinganything because it just seemed
too much.
Jamiah Hargins: (16:17):
And I think if you do narrow on what you're
doing and then try to replicateyourself in others, aka, inspire
others like, I'm really gladwe've had an effect to inspire
others to try something to doit. People see a very real human
in me. Someone who tries hardand is a normal guy wasn't
raised as a farmer or anything,and they themselves are normal
people too in different phases.So hopefully, they'll be
(16:38):
inspired to say, I can try. LikeJamiah, he just had
opportunities popping up, andmaybe I will too. That's what my
hope is, to replicate myself.
Justine Reichman: (16:45):
What would you say to somebody that might
be tuning in today that says,that sounds amazing. I want to
do that, but I'm not anentrepreneur. Do I need to be an
entrepreneur to do that? To beCrop Swap LA Cincinnati?
Jamiah Hargins: (16:56):
Yes. You do need to be an entrepreneur. But
because you're working withnature, which gives you infinite
seeds from a plant and gives youinfinite opportunities to try
again because you're doing that.You have a lot less risk than an
entrepreneur in a field thatdoesn't do that. So if you're
just trying to start a steelplant or something where there's
a certain amount of input and acertain amount of output, and
has to be the right ratio, andcan't make a big mistake, then
that's tricky. When you plantone seed and it works, and then
(17:16):
it goes to see, suddenly, youhave 1000 seeds of that same
plant, and you have 1000opportunities to do something
else, and you can keep goingwith the next season, the next
season, next season. Plus,people always need to eat so
you'll always find anopportunity to try again if you
fail. And there's really nofailing at this, you just have
to find the right scale to matchthe economics. And that's
something that takes time. Butbecause it's an in demand field,
and because the food system isworsening, it's going to be more
(17:37):
successful. Even without youreffort, people are naturally
going to see you succeed. Sothere's good will involved, and
you've got good leadership andexamples between those before me
and then me. And then now,you're hearing this today. I'd
say by all means, trust that youcan do the math, and that you
can have the tenacity, and thatnature will give you way more
opportunities than you evenneed.
Justine Reichman: (17:56):
And the other thing I also remember that I
just want to add is, I believeyou've also fostered a community
for support and mentorshipthat's integral to this. And as
a result, those new founders orpeople that want to do this in
their community have access tothat. What does that look like?
Jamiah Hargins: (18:09):
Now, there's about 10 people involved in our
Crop Swap Your City initiative.They signed up initially to to
join. It's about $300 one timefee. You can come as often as
you want forever. And when yousign online, it's a one hour
meeting each month. So it's notmuch time, but we get right to
it. We get right to it where Iask people where they are in
their process. They presenttheir problems and challenges,
and I immediately give them thefeedback. So all of them are
learning from each other, andwe're all learning about their
(18:30):
situations. Like one woman outof Dallas, she has a daycare in
her home so I proposed to herthat she asked each parent.
Right now, there's 20 parents,20 children attending. They're
asking them each for an extra$100, and that'll pay for a
$2,000 installation of a gardenin your backyard, and promise
them that they'll be the firstgroup to have regular bags each,
I don't know, month or so. Andyou could create lettuces out of
that, and just make sure thatyou increase the retention of
(18:50):
that family in being a nurserymember. They'll be happy to
continue coming knowing thatthey'll also get vegetables out
of it. That's just one creativeway to leverage existing
opportunities. We talk throughthose. And then other people,
they may just see fruit trees intheir neighborhood so I'll guide
them on what it takes to createa fruit tree harvesting program
and a regular paid distributionsystem to others, or start a
Farmers Market or corner market,or pay or get paid by market to
(19:12):
sell to local markets.Oftentimes, exotic fruit that
tastes way better than the storemay cost a lot less, and they'll
be happy to see it. So theopportunities are there that
we've talked through. And forme, that really helps me to
replicate myself as I mentionedearlier. And this can replicate
our mission across fields. Sowhat we're doing is we're
copywriting. We're writingmanuals that are going to be
part of the curriculum. I'll beteaching later on and guide
people on some of the criticalsteps of, say fruit tree
(19:33):
harvesting, or say gardening onfront yards, or creating water
recycling systems, all of that.Each one could be a book on its
own. But we have to take thetime to do it right, to make
sure that the information iscomplete and disseminated
properly. And then at thatpoint, we think people who don't
even attend our meetings wouldbe able to pick it up nd give it
a try.
Justine Reichman: (19:51):
What role, if any, does organic or
regenerative play in your planas you're educating and
conveying what these people cando, and how they can integrate
this into their community?
Jamiah Hargins: (20:00):
I think when we look at our grocery stores,
almost none of them areregenerative. Even some of the
good ones, like Trader Joe's,they've admitted to me that
they've seen less and lessorganic fruit on their own
shelves. Even though they're agood place, they just have
trouble putting it on theshelves. And so all of our
methodology across population isorganic and has regenerative
features to it, from the styleand choice of our fertilizers,
style and choice of ourpesticides. Because you do still
need pesticides, but they can beorganic pesticides or plant
(20:22):
based. All the seeds being nonGMO, all the delivery methods
being hyper local, efficient andlight on the environment. All
the materials chosen being notplastic, and various other
pieces that help augment theefficiency of the system, which
is the real problem of big ag.It's highly inefficient. It's
designed to make money. Andthere are multiple people
involved, maybe 20 or 30, beforeyou get your food. We're saying
(20:42):
that there should be maybe twoor three people involved before
you get your food. Or if youwant to get involved, maybe two
people. So we show that, andwe've been doing this now for
seven years in different forms,and it's just really showing
people that there's analternative method, that there's
hope, that there's a better way.That we don't have to be
enslaved by a food system thathurts us and the environment and
costs too much. But instead, wecan just opt out of it. I'm not
(21:03):
trying to close down the grocerysystem. I think there are
moments when it's useful, but Ithink we can opt out of needing
something and a dependency onanything like that, and regain
our independence, our ownpersonal power and our personal
rights to grow food and havehealthy options.
Justine Reichman: (21:16):
As you've built this over the last seven
years, can you give me apercentage of how many people in
the LA Community you'veconverted that are now doing
this versus going to the grocerystore?
Jamiah Hargins: (21:25):
Right now, we estimate that there are about
1000 people involved in ourcirculation of those receiving
food, growing food, contributingfruits, receiving fruits,
contributing to our workshops orcoming on school tours. We
probably affect about 1000people every month. And right
now, we're growing food on 10different locations between
schools, churches, apartmentbuildings and residential spots.
And our teammates are 16 peopledoing that so we're all really
(21:48):
dedicated and hard working. It'shard for any of us to take
vacations, but that's becausefood keeps growing and the need
continues to be there. In termsof location, we're probably
around 20,000 people that knowabout us in Los Angeles. We've
been all over the news. But infact, some people just see me
and walk up to my truck. Andsomebody mistook my brother for
me the other day. I thought thatwas really funny. But we never
know how many people we impact.But we do know that once they
(22:11):
are impacted, it is anirreversible impact. Once you
drive by my home, all this foodgrowing outside, kids look at it
and they point to dad and mom onthe commute to school and they
say, Mommy, Daddy, we shouldhave a garden too. And then all
of a sudden, it's in theirheads, and there's no going
back.
Justine Reichman: (22:23):
Wow. That's amazing. I can imagine it
passing by being inspired,wanting to have that in your
own. We have a little ediblegarden in our yard. In our
garden, we have kale and lemons,and we've got limes, and we have
basil. We have an urban gardenon the first tier of the garden.
And then on the second tier, wehave vegetables, and we've got
fruits all around. But it's new,and it takes time to build. And
as you're building Crop Swap LA,how many more people do you hope
(22:47):
to touch in the next three tofive years? And how many more
people do you hope to convert tothis?
Jamiah Hargins: (22:56):
We're estimating, we'll be able to
build 10 more micro farms ornano farms each year. And a
micro farm is one that capturesrecycles water. A nano farm is a
simpler version that we also doover farm, and redistribute most
of the food. So we think about10 a year. We should have about
60 locations five years fromnow. Right now, we have 10, and
we're shooting to 80 peopleevery Sunday. So if you multiply
(23:18):
that by five, then that's about400 families that should get
food from us each week.
Justine Reichman: (23:22):
Wow, that's amazing. I wonder how and what
impact that will have on the waythat grocery stores are set up.
Jamiah Hargins: (23:31):
I think right now, we haven't had any pressure
negative from grocery stores.We've had some interest in the
smaller ones to partner with us.I hesitate, though, because I
don't truly think the businessmodel of the grocery store is
efficient. I think based on thescience of the plants. When you
harvest it, it's gotphytonutrients in it for about
24 hours, and phytonutrients areonly active based on the sun and
that 24 hour period. And thatmakes the other nutrients easier
to digest in your body, easierto ingest. So without those
(23:52):
phytonutrients, it's harder forthose other nutrients go in your
body. It's almost like you'renot eating anything at all. So
when you think about the healthand the benefit the buyer gets,
they're better benefited fromour food that's dropped on their
door in the morning it washarvested, and they would be
from the lettuce in the grocerystores three weeks earlier.
Justine Reichman: (24:06):
Even the fruits and vegetables that come
from Mexico or somewhere else.We're talking about carbon
footprint, and we're talkingabout eating local and
supporting the localenvironment, and just building
that community around what weshould be eating in that moment.
So many reasons to get on boardto do this. I think it's self
fulfilling. I think it's betterfor us, and it's better for the
planet too. And it's healthier.And I think that there's a lot
(24:29):
of positive impact that you'rehaving on a local level, but
also a global level by inspiringothers and replicating this
platform. It's really great. Itmade me think about it in a new
way, and it made me think aboutcollaboration, community and
bringing people together. Butyou don't go to the store
together. Generally, that's nota thing. Like, oh, hey guys, you
do meet and go to the FarmersMarket.
Jamiah Hargins: (24:50):
Yeah. Lots of community, lots of stories
shared between people about, oh,my grandma had this type of line
when I was a child. Oh, lots ofmemories, lots of recollections.
Something that they rememberfrom their childhood, and lots
of learning and enlightenment.When children see something
happening, they say, oh, that'show tomatoes made. I\t's just so
much more enriching doing itthis way that we we wouldn't
(25:10):
want anything else for ourcommunity. We have a big garden
walk coming up here in ourLeimert Park area Los Angeles,
and I'm excited to introducethis to more people because our
gardens are edible, and othergardens may not be. They may be
just like succulents and thingsfor pollinators, but ours is for
the human pollinators, and weneed to eat. I'm just thrilled
about the community that'sforming around us and the
example that we can be for therest of the world.
Justine Reichman: (25:30):
I think that's amazing. I know that you
have some exciting things comingup, and I'd love for you to
share a little bit about that.
Jamiah Hargins: (25:35):
Well, April is Earth Month, and so Crop Swap LA
is launching its nextfundraising campaign around a
few key events. We have a big TVspot happening on NBC. I was
invited onto the Kelly Clarksonshow, so that'll be happening
April 2nd on TV, if people wantto see that. We also have the
Leimert Park Walk, which ishappening on April 14, and
that's exciting. We also arelaunching a new school garden at
(25:58):
a school for the deaf. I won'tsay their name right now, but
I'm just excited that they'llhave that kind of experience. I
just think about somebody who isdeaf and all the other
sensational experiences oftouching a plant, smelling a
plant, tasting a plant, there'sso many great benefits that will
come from it. Right now, we havea veteran, a disabled veteran,
on our team who works at mydaughter's school garden that we
that we put in, and she's makinga lot of headway. So there's
just so many levels of impactthat could occur that we're just
(26:19):
happy to be sharing all throughthe month of April.
Justine Reichman: (26:21):
Awesome. Jamiah, thank you so much for
joining us today, for sharingyour story with our community.
My friends, everyone that tunesin each week to Essential
Ingredients, it's really aninspiration. It's a real
inspiration to hear about thisas an entrepreneur and what
you're building, and the impactyou're having. And equally, the
opportunity for other peoplethat are entrepreneurial to see
the resources that they haveavailable to them to be able to
do this themselves as well whilecreating such an amazing impact
(26:42):
for our health, our wellness andthe planet. It's a real give
back. And as my mom used to say,it's like a triple win. I
support you, and I can't wait toexplore the idea of the Palm
Hill Farm Walk.
Jamiah Hargins: (26:54):
I love that, Justine. I hope it goes so well.
You let me know if you ever needadvice, but I'm so grateful
today.
Justine Reichman: (26:59):
You totally inspired me, and we just want to
do it on a couple blocks on ourhill. People just put out their
leftovers, and they can gocertain times. We'll see. I'll
keep you posted, and I'll pickyour brain for insight. I'll
send you a photo of our ediblegarden as well. If you guys have
any questions or want to learnmore about this, Jamiah, tell
(27:20):
them how can they best get intouch with you?
Jamiah Hargins: (27:22):
The best way is, our website is
cropswapla.org. Or if you're onInstagram, I'm Brown Super Dad
on Instagram. Or if you're usingTikTok, I'm Captain Plant It.
It's a coloring book, andactually haven't announced it
yet. It's behind me on the wallhere, but I'll be announcing
that through April as well.People can buy that coloring
book that rhymes ,and it's abouta superhero carrot teaches
neighborhood how grow food.
Justine Reichman: (27:43):
Awesome, and I'm at the edge of my seat
waiting for toiletries. Thanksagain for tuning in and sharing
what you're working on, and theimpact after having with our
community.
Jamiah Hargins: (27:53):
Thank you, Justine. Thank you everyone.
Wonderful. Thank you, Justine. Thanks for
having me.
Justine Reichman: (00:05):
Yeah, it's been a pleasure getting to know
you while we're organizing thispodcast. I'm really excited to
have you, be introduced to ourcommunity and the friends that
follow here, because I thinkwhat you're doing is really
interesting. And I think thathearing about this as you're
building this movement andcreating this movement. It is so
exciting to be able to share andgive people an opportunity to
join as well as be inspired tocreate their own initiatives. I
know you inspired me. I'malready doing Palm Hill farm
(00:28):
walk. I'm glad you submit toputting it together. So Jamaih,
if you would, for those folksthat maybe are not familiar with
you, if you could just give us ahigh level of what Crop Swap LA
is.
Jamiah Hargins: (00:38):
Sure. Thanks again. So Crop Swap LA is a
nonprofit that grows food onunused spaces. It could be front
yard, backyard. Could be anapartment building, maybe a
school or a church where we worktogether to find funding and
decide where the food is goingto go. And then our team creates
a regular circulation of thatfood, usually through a CSA
distribution. But we alsocollect fruit from fruit trees,
(00:58):
do workshops, train leaders inother areas, and do
installations at people's homesthat they can manage if they
want to. So we are all aboutgrowing food, being food
independent, and creatingopportunities for people.
Justine Reichman: (01:09):
I hear you saying this, and you're building
this platform or framework forpeople to be able to make
themselves more independent,have greater access to the food
if I'm hearing it right, is thatcorrect? So if I was, or if you
were talking to any one of ourguests that might say, how can I
implement this? Or what can I doin my neighborhood? What would
you say to them?
Jamiah Hargins: (01:26):
Well, the first thing is to know that even just
having the question means thatyou are the leader. You are the
one your neighborhood has beenwaiting on. You have the courage
to ask. You have the courage tolook for the opportunity, and
now you're in charge. That said,keep it to yourself first. The
best plan is to do the entireplan before anyone else knows.
Basically, I have a process thatI teach my mentees. I guess it's
(01:46):
a cohort of people across thecountry. Now, it's an initiative
called Crop Swap Your City. Soit's obviously (inaudible) here.
But if you're in Cincinnati, oryou're in Austin, you're in
Colorado Springs, Denver,wherever, then you have the
chance to be the leader there.Certainly, all I can do at this
distance is to guide you andhope that you do well. So we
have a monthly video call inorder to have a consultancy in a
way for all the cohort membersand what they're facing at this
(02:07):
moment. They may be right at thevery beginning just having a
concept. They may be where youare, where you have an idea, a
name and a community in mind.They may be further down the
road and already have anonprofit with some funding
coming, or already have abusiness with some operations
happening. And based on whatI've learned here and with my
team over the last seven years,I can guide at least a few steps
to see what's possible. It'sdifferent every time, but the
opportunities are endless.You've always got to start right
(02:29):
where you are. So in my case, Istarted with just crop swapping
with extra stuff from my gardenthat turned into a Farmers
Market and fruit treeharvesting, which then turned
into growing food on yards, andselling that on a CSA down the
road. It also turned into moreprojects being done and water
retention during fires andthings like that. So people are
calling us to hook up sprayersto their house to keep it wet
during a fire so you never knowwhere it's going to lead, but it
certainly is the beginning, andI'm here to help guide people
(02:51):
through it.
Justine Reichman: (02:52):
It's so inspiring. I think that it
really spearheads and empowerspeople to create change, both
for themselves and theircommunity, which I think is
great. And I'd love to know whatinspired you to go down this
path.
Jamiah Hargins: (03:08):
I was mostly inspired by having my first
daughter. I'm grateful I havetwo and a beautiful wife. But
the first daughter triggerssomething in every person, and I
want to say it triggerssomething different in a man.
Certainly, I was thinking aboutprotecting her, and I just
looked around Los Angeles tounderstand what the food
availability was? What's thefood price? What's in it? How
much I understood the food? Ijust didn't trust it so I
decided to go ahead and grow myown garden. I had very little
(03:30):
knowledge, very littleexperience. And like I said
earlier, I grew too much. And sothat turned into almost an
awareness and enlightenmentmoment where I said, wow, if I
can accidentally grow too muchfood, then I suddenly have the
ability to have somethingvaluable. I may not have gold or
have property at the time. I maynot even have a reputation at
the time, but I can createsomething that's useful as
someone else. So that triggeredall my entrepreneurial energies
(03:51):
that I'd always had and Ithought, well, if there's that
much abundance possible innature, and all I have to do is
keep trying at it. Theneventually, I'll figure this
out. So I encourage people tolook closely at your own life.
Do you have a partner, lover,lifestyle, a person you care
for, an elderly person, or acommunity that you love? The
core of the motivation that willget you to get over the risks
that are necessary for you to bea leader, and to really engage
(04:14):
in a meaningful way that'srelevant to that community that
way that sticks. Because wefound ways here in LA using
water, rain water capture waterretention and water recycling to
really engage the economics ofour operations, and make it
financially reasonable topeople. When their water is
being recycled, it costs a lotless for their own food. And of
course, in a city like this,it's a very important thing. So
just think about your localcontext, and you'll be more
(04:36):
advantageous in overcomingrisks.
Justine Reichman: (04:38):
That sort of really lays it out for people.
And as you're sitting there andexplaining it, and you're
talking about your city, LA, aswell as all of the state of
California has been known fordroughts, so being able to
recycle that water seems really,it sparks my interest. I'm like,
okay, so now tell me, how do Ido that? How do people do that?
Jamiah Hargins: (04:53):
Well, if you don't have experience in
landscaping, I think finding alocal mentor in landscaping is
essential. Showing them videosand what we've done here,
finding someone that's keen inirrigation and a little bit of
waterfalls, rainwater capture.It may be rare, and you may be
the only one in your town, butit's very easy to understand
once you get into it. There arevideos on YouTube on various
(05:14):
like landscaping platforms thatjust show you the process of how
it's done. Try not to get caughtin the weeds and intricacies,
but knowing that you probablydon't need a license for this
kind of thing, especially ifyou're using your own property.
But there are people who arelicensed on certain categories
of the work, like the electricaland the landscaping piece, the
plumbing, each of those arespecialty. So if you just try it
once or twice, you kind of getthe hang of it. I'm big on
mentorship. It's okay to payyour mentors. If you have money
(05:36):
at the time, work together aspartners in that way because
they're proud of their sporttoo. And no matter where you
live, you could be up in theMidwest or the Northeast, you
could be in Canada, rainwatercapture is always going to be
useful. In fact, rainwatercapture is something that has
been, I think, taken out of ourculture where we used to have
natural refrigerators out ofpots that have sand and two
layers of pots. Just keep itcool, keep it wet, and it stays
cool. We used to have streamsthat can come through our
(05:58):
kitchens, and that's the waterwe use to clean dishes, wash,
drink and so forth. Just naturalpassing by.
Justine Reichman: (06:03):
I also think that with global warming and the
changes that we're seeing aroundthe globe in terms of weather,
etcetera. Last year there was adrought in New York, and they
were told that they couldn'twater their logs, which is
really unusual. New York is notCalifornia, and I'm wondering
what you think that as wecontinue on this journey and see
the effects of global warming,this process could be very
(06:24):
useful for so many other peopleoutside of California to maybe
avoid some of that. So thequestion to you is, if we
thought about this, depending onhow many people, and even
looking at what you have nowbased on the number of people
that you have participating inthis, doing rain capture and
recycling the water, what kindof impact can you see on a local
level that we can then sort ofimagine what it would be like on
a global level?
Jamiah Hargins: (06:45):
Massive impact. Even locally, in Los Angeles,
there are 20,000 people livingin every one square mile, and
each person needs five gallonsof water each day in order to
live, to drink, to wash andclean. And right now, we're
getting our water in SouthernCalifornia from the Colorado
River Basin, way over inColorado, and from the Shasta
mountains, I think, on way upnorth in California. But
certainly not coming locally. Wehave no groundwater to tap into
like many places would. So we'rejust waiting on catastrophe.
(07:07):
We're waiting on one of thosepipes to break and for it to not
be fixed for six months. I thinkthat would change the whole
city. Most people would have toleave the city and create a
migration event to all the othersurrounding areas, and those who
remain here would just be introuble, frankly. So really,
this has a way to save LA byhaving multiple rainwater
reservoirs around Los Angeles.That's one of my goals, to have
multiple,and for that water tobe promised on a financial model
(07:30):
to other people in the case ofemergency. So my neighbors right
now got five around me. Each oneof them could have 500 gallons
of our water at my house ifthey're paying me to maintain
it, and that's something onarranging on our legal side. And
that's part of the piece of theleaders listening that you don't
want to announce anything untilyou file the legal figure it out
the financial model is, andwho's gonna run it in your team.
But we're putting somearrangements together that they
could sign and then pay us amonthly fee, say $50 a month in
(07:51):
perpetuity, in order to havethis water available in case of
emergency. Once this earthquakehits and our pipes break, then
they know they've got 500gallons here to use until they
choose to hit the road. We gotto think that way. Survivalist
is reality. But then once we doit here in LA, it's even more
important to other areas outsideLA that are used to having
water. Places like Wisconsin,naturally, the rest of us are
(08:12):
going through weird climatechanges. If they hit a drought
one day, then they'll suddenlysay, oh, my goodness. We need to
have rain water capture up here.Does anyone know how to do it?
Well, no. We've never had tothink about it. It's not a
desert. We'll suddenly be moreimportant to lead and guide them
in the right directions evenpeople down here.
Justine Reichman: (08:28):
Similar to what I was saying in New York,
how they had a drought lastyear, right? And we're gonna
continue to see this problemaround the world, around the
country as global warmingcontinues. I just find that so
inspiring. And as you're sittingthere and you're talking about
it, what does that look like?How are you housing it? What's
the most you can house?
Jamiah Hargins: (08:46):
At my house, we have 5000 gallons of potable
drinking water that stays freshdue to our aeration,
biofiltration and other filters.But that was going small. That
was a modest space. It's like a20 by 20 platform that you can
use the top of, but storedunderground. If we would have
gone massive, instead of 5000gallons, maybe 40,000 gallons.
Maybe 40,000 gallons. And thatmight even be modest. Each
property can have that and thenstill have an entertainment
(09:08):
space on it. A waterfall next toit that, the water is going down
through and efficientelectricity using solar panels
and timers on low cost energytiming. So 40,000 gallons, that
would probably enough for maybe15 families to last three
quarters of a year. That was allcosting just one house. The
expense of the installation, andthen the expense of the
(09:28):
electricity. I haven't done allthe math yet, but I do know that
it's a real cost that if citiessay, city leadership leans in
and says, okay, if the cost is$50,000 for that installation,
let's choose 100 families. Justgive them each $50,000 from our
tax base or from the policebudget, which is always infinite
and growing. Let's give themeach $50,000 and have it in
(09:50):
their properties that willensure that this area of 100
families like 20 square miles istaken care of, and not going to
flee in case of emergency.Because if people flee during
emergency, your tax base isgone. And the city is going to
go bankrupt. So it's almost ahuge liability for cities not to
lean into this. We're talking tothe mayor's office in LA
exploding to a number of mayor'soffices around LA, there's like
87 cities in LA County, and I'vespread this message. So
(10:12):
eventually, I think people aregoing to catch you into this.
Justine Reichman: (10:14):
I think so. I'm thinking about this
intellectually as you're saying,If I'm imagining all these
different homes that you've gotrelationships that they're
implementing this, I live in atown and I'm wondering, well,
perhaps there's land here forthe town to do it, for the town
to find the space, the land toinput this, to pay for it, and
then including in our taxes. Imean, we pay taxes they charge
more every year. Every year,we're getting new assessments
(10:36):
and all sorts of new things. Andthen you have the town managing
it, doing it, and it's not onsomebody else's property. Not
that it's bad idea to put onsomebody else property. I'm just
thinking of more urban settingswhere people may not have that
amount of space always to carveinto their garden or something.
And if we could find a space, isthat something you've
considered, or you thought aboutor explored?
Jamiah Hargins: (10:55):
Yeah, I'm open to that. Most towns have some
type of capture, some type ofreservoir, but the use is
different each time. It might berecycled water. It might be just
rain water. If it rains thereoften, sometimes it goes out to
the sea. It just depends. But Ido think it's wise. I think now,
the question becomes, who hasaccess to it in case of
emergency? I think individualswould have a hard time competing
(11:15):
against corporations who wouldclaim the need to use it on a
corporate level.
Justine Reichman: (11:20):
I think about it like that. You're framing it,
and your viewpoint is, I didn'tconsider that, which I could
imagine could be a really bigchallenge.
Jamiah Hargins: (11:30):
I probably can't name the exact
Corporation. But if CorporationX comes up and says, we need
10,000 gallons every day inorder to keep this thing
running, and we pay this muchtax money. Then the mayor will
feel pressured to allow them todo that. So our model on a
residential method allows for adecentralization of power and an
independent approach wherenobody can corrupt or intervene
on the agreement that we havewith say our neighbors, it would
(11:51):
stand up in court, and it'd bethe decisions of the landowners,
the water is their property.They're deciding who they want
to give it.
Justine Reichman: (12:00):
My mom had a house in Woodstock, and she had
(inaudible). We're going back tothat a little bit, except that
we're intentionally creating asolution where you could be more
community driven to support thatinitiative as we experience
global warming and the change inthe droughts. That's right. Wow.
So, okay, so this is, I lovewhat you're doing. I love how
you're expanding and how you'reexpanding into different cities,
(12:21):
and that takes a lot of strategyand forethought thinking in a
new way. And I'm wondering, asyou've done this and you've
built this all out, is it yourfirst? Let me restate, okay, is
this your first time being anentrepreneur?
Jamiah Hargins: (12:36):
I've tried a few times before. I had a cute
little dating app when I livedin New York City that would help
young people have a wing womanwhere they went out to meet
people, and then I had a conceptof a co-working space for
parents that would have anursery on site. And I've always
been an entrepreneur. As achild, I had a little lawn
mowing business. I was a paperboy, that's entrepreneurial, and
(12:57):
I just love writing businessplans. When I was in college, I
had a little translationbusiness, little things like
that. And I have an inventionthat I have yet to bring to
market,related to water andgrowing food, not growing food,
but growing plants off of yourtoilet.
Justine Reichman: (13:08):
Wow, tell me more about that.
Jamiah Hargins: (13:11):
It's called toiletries, and it's a product.
It hooks on the side of theclean tank, and uses that clean
water to grow in iridescent, orlike a nice smelling and nice
looking plant. I just haven'thad time to follow the trees. I
have all the intellectualproperty ready, I just haven't
had time. But those kinds ofthings, those inventions and
(13:33):
ideas come to mind. But whatreally ends up mattering is
beyond the idea stage of theimplementation, the operations,
and that's where Crop Swap LAhas been so amazing. The team
that we built does our farming,does our projects. The team on
our HR, finance and fundraisingsides, our board of directors,
that piece of it is really wherethe grit comes into play because
there are operational challengesor limitations, there's
(13:53):
personalities, there's adifferent environment. Every few
weeks of that you got to operatein, there's big scale things
like politics, subsidies, grantdecisions and all that I have to
operate within. Entrepreneurshipis a test of tenacity, and you
can show that even if you have asimple business. Say that you
just bought laundry mats and youjust bought five laundromats,
it's not even that simple. Youcan't sit back and just earn
that money. Everyday, some ofthose machines are gonna be
(14:13):
breaking. Your staff are gonnabe stealing coins, people's
gonna damage something or somecrisis nd you just gotta figure
out the systems to put in placeso that your mindset can be at
rest. Because right now, as muchwe've had a lot of success, I do
still wake up every morning atlike 3:30 and I just snap awake
and my brain is working on aboutsix or seven things at once in
bed. I just have to get up andwrite them down or start
working. One day, things will besettled enough that I'll be such
(14:34):
a good entrepreneur that thereare systems in place for others
to think about those things, toanticipate problems. But right
now, I'm still really essential.I'm still really essential to
the mission. Our teammates areso essential to this mission as
well. Each one of them, I needthem doing amazing things and
being confident so I'm gratefulfor who we have. We've had
involved over the last sevenyears to different phases. But
really, it's just thewillingness to take on risk and
the willingness to trust, andalmost the faith to keep going
(14:55):
despite seeing continualchallenges, and despite knowing
whether or not it's enough. Itold my wife this morning, I'm
just not sure if Crop Swap LA isenough to solve the problems
that our society is facing. Butthen you have to narrow into
your own mission and say toyourself, my job isn't to fix
politics at all. I'm not there.My job is not to fix our wars,
conflicts or issues. My job isto work on this problem, and
this is where my purpose andpassion would most likely most
(15:18):
be useful.
Justine Reichman: (15:19):
That's so important to highlight too
because people feel like they'renot being successful, or they're
not being sustainable, orthey're not being regenerative,
or they're not solving theproblem if they're not doing
everything. I know for myself,just thinking that way is so
overwhelming. So instead, Ifocus on my little narrow place,
and I stay in my lane. And if Ican't do the other stuff, that's
okay because I'm making myimpact here, and it changes the
(15:40):
narrative in my head so I canfeel successful. I'm having an
impact versus somebody else. I'mjust making it up, right? And
they want to compost, and theywant to not drink out of
plastic. They want to do allthese things and it just feels
like, oh, my God, I can't do allof that. I can't even figure it
all out, but I can do this. Soam I still being a good person
and supporting the environment.What impact am I having? Is it
as great as that? And I thinkthat that one thing we've got to
(16:02):
remember is everybody hasdifferent interests, different
values and knows how to dodifferent things. We lean into
what our overarching mission ofethos is, and we stay there.
We're going to make a muchgreater impact because we're
actually going to be successful,as opposed to being so
overwhelmed and not doinganything because it just seemed
too much.
Jamiah Hargins: (16:17):
And I think if you do narrow on what you're
doing and then try to replicateyourself in others, aka, inspire
others like, I'm really gladwe've had an effect to inspire
others to try something to doit. People see a very real human
in me. Someone who tries hardand is a normal guy wasn't
raised as a farmer or anything,and they themselves are normal
people too in different phases.So hopefully, they'll be
(16:38):
inspired to say, I can try. LikeJamiah, he just had
opportunities popping up, andmaybe I will too. That's what my
hope is, to replicate myself.
Justine Reichman: (16:45):
What would you say to somebody that might
be tuning in today that says,that sounds amazing. I want to
do that, but I'm not anentrepreneur. Do I need to be an
entrepreneur to do that? To beCrop Swap LA Cincinnati?
Jamiah Hargins: (16:56):
Yes. You do need to be an entrepreneur. But
because you're working withnature, which gives you infinite
seeds from a plant and gives youinfinite opportunities to try
again because you're doing that.You have a lot less risk than an
entrepreneur in a field thatdoesn't do that. So if you're
just trying to start a steelplant or something where there's
a certain amount of input and acertain amount of output, and
has to be the right ratio, andcan't make a big mistake, then
that's tricky. When you plantone seed and it works, and then
(17:16):
it goes to see, suddenly, youhave 1000 seeds of that same
plant, and you have 1000opportunities to do something
else, and you can keep goingwith the next season, the next
season, next season. Plus,people always need to eat so
you'll always find anopportunity to try again if you
fail. And there's really nofailing at this, you just have
to find the right scale to matchthe economics. And that's
something that takes time. Butbecause it's an in demand field,
and because the food system isworsening, it's going to be more
(17:37):
successful. Even without youreffort, people are naturally
going to see you succeed. Sothere's good will involved, and
you've got good leadership andexamples between those before me
and then me. And then now,you're hearing this today. I'd
say by all means, trust that youcan do the math, and that you
can have the tenacity, and thatnature will give you way more
opportunities than you evenneed.
Justine Reichman: (17:56):
And the other thing I also remember that I
just want to add is, I believeyou've also fostered a community
for support and mentorshipthat's integral to this. And as
a result, those new founders orpeople that want to do this in
their community have access tothat. What does that look like?
Jamiah Hargins: (18:09):
Now, there's about 10 people involved in our
Crop Swap Your City initiative.They signed up initially to to
join. It's about $300 one timefee. You can come as often as
you want forever. And when yousign online, it's a one hour
meeting each month. So it's notmuch time, but we get right to
it. We get right to it where Iask people where they are in
their process. They presenttheir problems and challenges,
and I immediately give them thefeedback. So all of them are
learning from each other, andwe're all learning about their
(18:30):
situations. Like one woman outof Dallas, she has a daycare in
her home so I proposed to herthat she asked each parent.
Right now, there's 20 parents,20 children attending. They're
asking them each for an extra$100, and that'll pay for a
$2,000 installation of a gardenin your backyard, and promise
them that they'll be the firstgroup to have regular bags each,
I don't know, month or so. Andyou could create lettuces out of
that, and just make sure thatyou increase the retention of
(18:50):
that family in being a nurserymember. They'll be happy to
continue coming knowing thatthey'll also get vegetables out
of it. That's just one creativeway to leverage existing
opportunities. We talk throughthose. And then other people,
they may just see fruit trees intheir neighborhood so I'll guide
them on what it takes to createa fruit tree harvesting program
and a regular paid distributionsystem to others, or start a
Farmers Market or corner market,or pay or get paid by market to
(19:12):
sell to local markets.Oftentimes, exotic fruit that
tastes way better than the storemay cost a lot less, and they'll
be happy to see it. So theopportunities are there that
we've talked through. And forme, that really helps me to
replicate myself as I mentionedearlier. And this can replicate
our mission across fields. Sowhat we're doing is we're
copywriting. We're writingmanuals that are going to be
part of the curriculum. I'll beteaching later on and guide
people on some of the criticalsteps of, say fruit tree
(19:33):
harvesting, or say gardening onfront yards, or creating water
recycling systems, all of that.Each one could be a book on its
own. But we have to take thetime to do it right, to make
sure that the information iscomplete and disseminated
properly. And then at thatpoint, we think people who don't
even attend our meetings wouldbe able to pick it up nd give it
a try.
Justine Reichman: (19:51):
What role, if any, does organic or
regenerative play in your planas you're educating and
conveying what these people cando, and how they can integrate
this into their community?
Jamiah Hargins: (20:00):
I think when we look at our grocery stores,
almost none of them areregenerative. Even some of the
good ones, like Trader Joe's,they've admitted to me that
they've seen less and lessorganic fruit on their own
shelves. Even though they're agood place, they just have
trouble putting it on theshelves. And so all of our
methodology across population isorganic and has regenerative
features to it, from the styleand choice of our fertilizers,
style and choice of ourpesticides. Because you do still
need pesticides, but they can beorganic pesticides or plant
(20:22):
based. All the seeds being nonGMO, all the delivery methods
being hyper local, efficient andlight on the environment. All
the materials chosen being notplastic, and various other
pieces that help augment theefficiency of the system, which
is the real problem of big ag.It's highly inefficient. It's
designed to make money. Andthere are multiple people
involved, maybe 20 or 30, beforeyou get your food. We're saying
(20:42):
that there should be maybe twoor three people involved before
you get your food. Or if youwant to get involved, maybe two
people. So we show that, andwe've been doing this now for
seven years in different forms,and it's just really showing
people that there's analternative method, that there's
hope, that there's a better way.That we don't have to be
enslaved by a food system thathurts us and the environment and
costs too much. But instead, wecan just opt out of it. I'm not
(21:03):
trying to close down the grocerysystem. I think there are
moments when it's useful, but Ithink we can opt out of needing
something and a dependency onanything like that, and regain
our independence, our ownpersonal power and our personal
rights to grow food and havehealthy options.
Justine Reichman: (21:16):
As you've built this over the last seven
years, can you give me apercentage of how many people in
the LA Community you'veconverted that are now doing
this versus going to the grocerystore?
Jamiah Hargins: (21:25):
Right now, we estimate that there are about
1000 people involved in ourcirculation of those receiving
food, growing food, contributingfruits, receiving fruits,
contributing to our workshops orcoming on school tours. We
probably affect about 1000people every month. And right
now, we're growing food on 10different locations between
schools, churches, apartmentbuildings and residential spots.
And our teammates are 16 peopledoing that so we're all really
(21:48):
dedicated and hard working. It'shard for any of us to take
vacations, but that's becausefood keeps growing and the need
continues to be there. In termsof location, we're probably
around 20,000 people that knowabout us in Los Angeles. We've
been all over the news. But infact, some people just see me
and walk up to my truck. Andsomebody mistook my brother for
me the other day. I thought thatwas really funny. But we never
know how many people we impact.But we do know that once they
(22:11):
are impacted, it is anirreversible impact. Once you
drive by my home, all this foodgrowing outside, kids look at it
and they point to dad and mom onthe commute to school and they
say, Mommy, Daddy, we shouldhave a garden too. And then all
of a sudden, it's in theirheads, and there's no going
back.
Justine Reichman: (22:23):
Wow. That's amazing. I can imagine it
passing by being inspired,wanting to have that in your
own. We have a little ediblegarden in our yard. In our
garden, we have kale and lemons,and we've got limes, and we have
basil. We have an urban gardenon the first tier of the garden.
And then on the second tier, wehave vegetables, and we've got
fruits all around. But it's new,and it takes time to build. And
as you're building Crop Swap LA,how many more people do you hope
(22:47):
to touch in the next three tofive years? And how many more
people do you hope to convert tothis?
Jamiah Hargins: (22:56):
We're estimating, we'll be able to
build 10 more micro farms ornano farms each year. And a
micro farm is one that capturesrecycles water. A nano farm is a
simpler version that we also doover farm, and redistribute most
of the food. So we think about10 a year. We should have about
60 locations five years fromnow. Right now, we have 10, and
we're shooting to 80 peopleevery Sunday. So if you multiply
(23:18):
that by five, then that's about400 families that should get
food from us each week.
Justine Reichman: (23:22):
Wow, that's amazing. I wonder how and what
impact that will have on the waythat grocery stores are set up.
Jamiah Hargins: (23:31):
I think right now, we haven't had any pressure
negative from grocery stores.We've had some interest in the
smaller ones to partner with us.I hesitate, though, because I
don't truly think the businessmodel of the grocery store is
efficient. I think based on thescience of the plants. When you
harvest it, it's gotphytonutrients in it for about
24 hours, and phytonutrients areonly active based on the sun and
that 24 hour period. And thatmakes the other nutrients easier
to digest in your body, easierto ingest. So without those
(23:52):
phytonutrients, it's harder forthose other nutrients go in your
body. It's almost like you'renot eating anything at all. So
when you think about the healthand the benefit the buyer gets,
they're better benefited fromour food that's dropped on their
door in the morning it washarvested, and they would be
from the lettuce in the grocerystores three weeks earlier.
Justine Reichman: (24:06):
Even the fruits and vegetables that come
from Mexico or somewhere else.We're talking about carbon
footprint, and we're talkingabout eating local and
supporting the localenvironment, and just building
that community around what weshould be eating in that moment.
So many reasons to get on boardto do this. I think it's self
fulfilling. I think it's betterfor us, and it's better for the
planet too. And it's healthier.And I think that there's a lot
(24:29):
of positive impact that you'rehaving on a local level, but
also a global level by inspiringothers and replicating this
platform. It's really great. Itmade me think about it in a new
way, and it made me think aboutcollaboration, community and
bringing people together. Butyou don't go to the store
together. Generally, that's nota thing. Like, oh, hey guys, you
do meet and go to the FarmersMarket.
Jamiah Hargins: (24:50):
Yeah. Lots of community, lots of stories
shared between people about, oh,my grandma had this type of line
when I was a child. Oh, lots ofmemories, lots of recollections.
Something that they rememberfrom their childhood, and lots
of learning and enlightenment.When children see something
happening, they say, oh, that'show tomatoes made. I\t's just so
much more enriching doing itthis way that we we wouldn't
(25:10):
want anything else for ourcommunity. We have a big garden
walk coming up here in ourLeimert Park area Los Angeles,
and I'm excited to introducethis to more people because our
gardens are edible, and othergardens may not be. They may be
just like succulents and thingsfor pollinators, but ours is for
the human pollinators, and weneed to eat. I'm just thrilled
about the community that'sforming around us and the
example that we can be for therest of the world.
Justine Reichman: (25:30):
I think that's amazing. I know that you
have some exciting things comingup, and I'd love for you to
share a little bit about that.
Jamiah Hargins: (25:35):
Well, April is Earth Month, and so Crop Swap LA
is launching its nextfundraising campaign around a
few key events. We have a big TVspot happening on NBC. I was
invited onto the Kelly Clarksonshow, so that'll be happening
April 2nd on TV, if people wantto see that. We also have the
Leimert Park Walk, which ishappening on April 14, and
that's exciting. We also arelaunching a new school garden at
(25:58):
a school for the deaf. I won'tsay their name right now, but
I'm just excited that they'llhave that kind of experience. I
just think about somebody who isdeaf and all the other
sensational experiences oftouching a plant, smelling a
plant, tasting a plant, there'sso many great benefits that will
come from it. Right now, we havea veteran, a disabled veteran,
on our team who works at mydaughter's school garden that we
that we put in, and she's makinga lot of headway. So there's
just so many levels of impactthat could occur that we're just
(26:19):
happy to be sharing all throughthe month of April.
Justine Reichman: (26:21):
Awesome. Jamiah, thank you so much for
joining us today, for sharingyour story with our community.
My friends, everyone that tunesin each week to Essential
Ingredients, it's really aninspiration. It's a real
inspiration to hear about thisas an entrepreneur and what
you're building, and the impactyou're having. And equally, the
opportunity for other peoplethat are entrepreneurial to see
the resources that they haveavailable to them to be able to
do this themselves as well whilecreating such an amazing impact
(26:42):
for our health, our wellness andthe planet. It's a real give
back. And as my mom used to say,it's like a triple win. I
support you, and I can't wait toexplore the idea of the Palm
Hill Farm Walk.
Jamiah Hargins: (26:54):
I love that, Justine. I hope it goes so well.
You let me know if you ever needadvice, but I'm so grateful
today.
Justine Reichman: (26:59):
You totally inspired me, and we just want to
do it on a couple blocks on ourhill. People just put out their
leftovers, and they can gocertain times. We'll see. I'll
keep you posted, and I'll pickyour brain for insight. I'll
send you a photo of our ediblegarden as well. If you guys have
any questions or want to learnmore about this, Jamiah, tell
(27:20):
them how can they best get intouch with you?
Jamiah Hargins: (27:22):
The best way is, our website is
cropswapla.org. Or if you're onInstagram, I'm Brown Super Dad
on Instagram. Or if you're usingTikTok, I'm Captain Plant It.
It's a coloring book, andactually haven't announced it
yet. It's behind me on the wallhere, but I'll be announcing
that through April as well.People can buy that coloring
book that rhymes ,and it's abouta superhero carrot teaches
neighborhood how grow food.
Justine Reichman: (27:43):
Awesome, and I'm at the edge of my seat
waiting for toiletries. Thanksagain for tuning in and sharing
what you're working on, and theimpact after having with our
community.
Jamiah Hargins: (27:53):
Thank you, Justine. Thank you everyone.
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