Chris' analysis of the LA Times editorial reveals an interesting reversal of the agriculture's role as described in LIE OF THE LAND. The South-Central farmers formed an independent movement to bring farming into the city. They both shaped and benefitted from the landscape of the once empty lot. However, Mitchell's research shows that agriculture has been used to enforce the near-enslavement of workers throughout California's history. The workers rarely enjoyed the fruits of their labor, even though they were constantly surrounded by them. The South Central farm was an uplifting response to this history, but, as happens so frequently in Mitchell's narrative, the famers' labor was not enough to give them ownership of the land.

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