While getting your groceries is usually a bore, a band of Los Angeles-based artists decided to make getting your fruits and veggies a fun experience. Best of all, it’s free.
The Fallen Fruit project is a work in progress for a group of Angelenos tired of seeing decorative shrubbery adorn the streets of L.A. without a purpose. Instead, they are encouraging people to petition their city governments to plant trees that “provide shade, clean air and feed people,” according to the Fallen Fruit Web site.
The juxtaposition of the materialism of downtown L.A.’s tall urban buildings, the pretentious lifestyle associated with Hollywood and an environmentally friendly project to spread fruit trees hardly complement each other, but a revival of community spirit and anti-consumerism is just what a place like Los Angeles needs.
This is an interesting alternative to buying produce at chic grocery stores that capitalize on peoples interest in ensuring their food and the people who picked it are treated with care.
Instead, the fruit is growing in your neighborhood where you can see it. You pick the fruit you eat, not someone who is underpaid and worked to the bone.
According to the Web site, fruit grown on city property is up for grabs by the public and not the property of the owner, making this project something all people living in Los Angeles area can enjoy, including the plethora of homeless people abundant in our city.
While driving down Sunset Boulevard you can pluck some figs or bananas, or while in Hollywood in general you can pick up such exotic fruits as loquats and persimmons and your more common variety of lemons, avocados and peaches (all of which sell at premium prices at the local grocery store). Even olives thrive within the confines of urban L.A.
This response to capitalism and consumerism will surely also affect the agri-business industry, which hurts small farmers and is known for underpaying its workers. It also can only promote a feeling of community in the notoriously disjointed greater Los Angeles area. Instead of quarreling with your neighbor (if you even know them), you can work together to create something that benefits everyone in the community, and make it a more pleasant place to visit.
But there’s one pitfall: Parking your car under a tree that is heavily laden with fruit may cause damage to your car, staining it with fruit juice or, with a powerful peach, even hurt the windshield of your car. But that is easily remedied – park your car somewhere else.
This project has the potential to be an effective remedy to materialism. The location and permanence of these trees can encourage people to only take what they need instead of engaging in the usual gorging and hoarding we are so often mistakenly associated with.
Let’s take pride in our communities and beautify our neighborhoods while feeding the people in our community. It’s important in renovating the image of our cities.