Planting Justice

USA

Planting Justice, an organization in East Oakland, California, provides urban farming jobs and economic security for former inmates, and supports local gardening projects to increase food sovereignty in a community with little access to healthy food options. With thirty employees, about half of whom are transitioning back into society after incarceration, the organization operates an organic nursery business with more than 1,100 varieties of fruit trees, and an edible landscaping business installing gardens, chicken coops, beehives, rain barrels and graywater reuse systems throughout the Bay Area. The income from these businesses goes towards the creation of gardens in low-income areas and the development of school gardening and nutrition programs. Planting Justice is in the process of transferring ownership of its nursery land to the local Ohlone community, through the indigenous women-owned Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. The Planting Justice website and this New York Times article detail the organization’s diverse programs and impacts, past and present.