A tale of two farms: livestock and urban agroecology in California’s Pomona Valley

Abstract

This article demonstrates how agroecology offers fertile ground for considering and theorizing the incorporation of livestock into sustainable, healthy, and more ethical urban, suburban, and peri-urban food systems in the US. Drawing on 8 years of participatory ethnographic research with farmers in the region, this article uses two cases to demonstrate how agroecological and food sovereignty frameworks can be used to theorize the development of urban, suburban, and peri-urban food systems that include livestock. I conclude by discussing challenges and barriers, which include municipal and county-level policymaking practices, especially land use decisions, and people’s beliefs about livestock.