Prime farmland in Ontario, Calif., is being overtaken by warehouses
East of Los Angeles, giant warehouses and distribution centers are replacing farms in an area known as the Inland Empire. The logistics industry is changing what was once an agricultural landscape.
By Gloria Hillard
NPR
Apr 15, 2022
Excerpt:
There’s a land rush going on in the part of California, east of Los Angeles, known as the Inland Empire. And it’s fueled by online shopping. The logistics industry is changing what was once an agricultural landscape into an industrial one. Gloria Hillard reports.
GLORIA HILLARD, BYLINE: At the end of a small dirt road, visitors to Randy Bekendam’s farm are greeted by two cows, the color of butterscotch. The 69-year-old has been leasing and farming this land for more than 15 years. His jeans and cowboy hat are well-worn.
RANDY BEKENDAM: So the chickens are in the orchard to keep the weeds down. They’re also fertilizing the orchard. So it’s a beautiful synergy.
HILLARD: Residents of the city of Ontario come here to buy organic fruits and vegetables. School teachers and parents bring kids here to see the animals and how things grow, like the long, even rows of broccoli and beets.
BEKENDAM: Right now, we’re transitioning from cool weather crops into some warmer weather crops.
HILLARD: And, Bekendam says, transitioning away from what once was agriculture for as far as the eye can see to a different picture. To show me, we get into his truck and drive a few minutes away.
BEKENDAM: Just a line of warehouse. I mean, it continues. No view. There’s no vista. There’s nothing. And all of it’s prime farmland.
HILLARD: A line of 18 wheelers Dosey Doe at every four-way stop.
SUSAN PHILLIPS: I don’t think anybody realizes what the cumulative impact is going to be.
HILLARD: Susan Phillips is the director of the environmental conservancy at nearby Pitzer College.
PHILLIPS: It just worsens climate. It worsens pollution. It makes things hotter. There’s so many detrimental effects to it that it is a tremendous worry that we’ve invested so heavily in that infrastructure.
