USC's Nina Weithorn on Agroecology, Food Justice, and Landscape Architecture
Nina Weithorn's portrait by Rio Asch-Phoenix.
By Gail Kutac
Nina Weithorn (she/her) is a Master of Landscape Architecture student at the University of Southern California, with a background in agriculture and environmental science. She has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies with a minor in Social Work from New York University. Before beginning her MLA degree, Nina worked as a garden educator and collaborated on the establishment of food justice initiatives in Los Angeles, her hometown. She is passionate about soil remediation, agriculture, waste cycles, and community-based design. Nina plans to work at the intersection of agroecology, climate adaptation, and community engagement, developing frameworks to incorporate alternative food production models into landscape architecture.
GK: Why did you decide to study landscape architecture, and how did you choose USC?
NW: About eight years ago, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, and in my research of more natural and holistic healing modalities, I repeatedly found that food was at the crux of systemic bodily recovery—specifically, food grown without agricultural chemicals and in soils nourished with organic amendments. This led me down a path of working and volunteering at farms and acquiring agricultural and culinary knowledge.
In 2019, I moved back to my hometown of Los Angeles and got involved with various urban farming initiatives, began cultivating my own garden, and eventually started teaching workshops and advising people in my community on how to grow food in whatever space they had. I found myself almost obsessively drawing planting layouts and thinking about soil remediation, food production, and ecological restoration in Los Angeles on a larger scale. Applying to an MLA program felt like a natural next step.
I had become very cemented in LA and wanted to continue to engage with and discover the city's landscape — something that I felt the USC Masters of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism program would allow me to do. The program also has a significant focus on climate justice in the Southern California region, which felt deeply important for me to stay involved with during my studies.
Shamik Chandrachood, Leslie Dinkin, Jordan Brewington, and Kinah Hutson installing the sheet mulching experiment area at the Allensworth Agricultural Experiment Station (AAES). Photo by Rio Asch-Phoenix.
What was the most significant project that you worked on in school?
The most significant project I worked on in school was my thesis project, the Allensworth Agricultural Experiment Station (AAES). The AAES is a 4,000-square-foot site in Allensworth, CA that investigates holistic and community-based techniques for food-producing landscapes with a focus on promoting ecological health, repurposing materials in the organic waste stream, increasing food sovereignty in the community of Allensworth, and reigniting its radical agrarian history. The project is built in collaboration with the non-profit Allensworth Progressive Association (APA). We constructed a compost system for processing all of the food scraps from Allensworth Elementary School cafeteria and turning them into nutrient-rich compost that can be reapplied to the land.
Established in 1908, Allensworth was the first town in California to be founded and governed by Black Americans and was intended to be a "Tuskegee of the West," inspired by the university in Alabama established by Booker T. Washington, which provided vocational training for Black students with an emphasis on agriculture. The AAES is inspired by the Tuskegee Agricultural Experiment Station, a 10-acre farm run by George Washington Carver at the university from 1897-1943, which experimented with different organic farming processes and provided education on cost-effective and sustainable food production methods for Black farmers. This project also aims to go beyond the scientific and ecological aspects of soil rehabilitation for food production and engages in a larger conversation about BIPOC liberation on the land.
This project also has a personal connection for me as I recently discovered my maternal great-grandfather settled in Dos Palos, once a primarily Black farming community about two hours north of Allensworth, and established himself in the agricultural economy shortly after Allensworth was founded in the early 20th century. This project is ongoing, and in a time of increasing climate uncertainty exacerbated by industrial farming, I hope it can contribute to an alternative framework for food cultivation and soil regeneration in the Central Valley that highlights the contributions BIPOC communities have made to agriculture and honors the liberatory vision of Allensworth.
“This project [the AAES] also aims to go beyond the scientific and ecological aspects of soil rehabilitation for food production and engages in a larger conversation about BIPOC liberation on the land.”
What are some of the initiatives you’ve focused on in school and why?
One of the first initiatives I got involved with at USC was the Landscape Justice Initiative (LJI), a platform supporting work in environmental, spatial, and climate justice in Southern and Central California. I worked with Professor Alison Hirsch on her research on agricultural communities and ecological degradation in California’s Central Valley. Through LJI, I was introduced to the members of the Allensworth Progressive Association (APA), and was able to learn about the history of Allensworth and research alternative, regenerative models for food production that are feasible for or already in progress in the region. It felt very gratifying to tap into my pre-existing knowledge and experience with agriculture in the context of landscape architecture.
Additionally, I was heavily involved with Test Plot, an initiative focusing on community land care and establishing experimental native restoration gardens throughout California. During my time as a student, we set up two Test Plot gardens on the USC campus with the primary goal of finding comparable and more climate-appropriate replacements for many of the non-native and high-water-use existing species. Test Plot hosts frequent volunteer days at their sites throughout Los Angeles that involve planting, weeding, and various other garden maintenance activities. The sites function as small-scale ecosystem restoration interventions and as a mechanism to educate and expose community members to California native plants and wildlife.
When applying for and thinking about internships, what were you looking for in a company?
Before starting the USC MLA program, I pretty much exclusively had jobs that required me to be outside for the majority of the workday — pruning trees, planting vegetables, teaching garden workshops, etc. The amount of time spent inside, on my computer, during graduate school, while incredibly necessary for skill development, came as a bit of a shock to me, and I never stopped longing to get my hands in the dirt. When exploring firms for internships, finding an office that emphasizes fieldwork and deep and ongoing engagement with a site was also a priority. Luckily, I have found all that and more at Terremoto, where I’ve been an intern for a year and will soon start full-time.
Cass Marketos teaching a composting workshop during the AAES Earth Day community volunteer day. Photo by Lisa Todd.
Aerial image of the AAES during the Earth Day community volunteer day. Photo by Nina Weithorn.
Volunteers planning California-native species at the AAES. Photo by Kara Holekamp.
What do you hope to do in your career in general?
I feel that agriculture and food justice have historically been seen as outside of the purview of landscape architects, and I think these topics deserve a lot more recognition and engagement in our field. I want to continue to practice landscape architecture in alignment with agroecology — encouraging mutualistic relationships between soil, edible plants, wildlife, humans, materials, infrastructure, etc.
I hope this involves the incorporation of materials typically discarded in the organic waste stream, like food scraps and plant debris, back into the landscape for the purpose of soil remediation, normalizing the planting of climate and site-appropriate edible plants in public spaces, and deep engagement with communities to understand their existing and aspirational relationship to growing food. Especially at a time when our food systems are becoming increasingly unstable, I hope to create landscapes where food production is seamlessly integrated with more typical landscape architecture elements like recreation, habitat restoration, or water harvesting — designing spaces at the intersection of agriculture and landscape architecture.
“The field of landscape architecture is so vast and intersects with so many different topics and disciplines, so don’t be afraid to engage with something that feels a bit controversial or unorthodox as long as you approach it with humility and a willingness to learn.”
Who do you look up to? Both in terms of women in landscape architecture, and in general.
One of my biggest inspirations in the field of landscape architecture is Sara Zewde. I learned about her project Out of Time, which commemorates enslaved people at the Valongo Wharf in Rio de Janiero during my very first semester of my MLA program. Her deep site analysis, commitment to developing relationships with and prioritizing the desires of the local community, and overall place-based approach to design really spoke to me on a deep level. One aspect of her project that particularly resonated with me was her use of African plant species that were native to Brazil when the continents were connected millions of years ago — highlighting the connection between these two geographies and giving the design an additional level of depth and significance.
One of my other biggest inspirations is Leah Penniman, one of the founders of Soul Fire Farm and the author of Farming While Black. Two years ago, I had the opportunity to attend Soul Fire Farm’s week-long immersion program and learn directly from Penniman and her family. We spent the week learning agroecological soil building strategies, tending to livestock, planting seedings of plants with deep cultural roots in the African diaspora, like okra and eggplant, and discussing food justice and pathways to dismantling oppressive food systems. Penniman’s work addresses the connection between the climate crisis and racial justice and she advocates for actionable steps towards creating more equitable social and environmental systems. Her ways of thinking have informed many of the guiding principles I have been developing as a designer and plan to expand upon throughout my career.
The AAES site plan. Image by Nina Weithorn.
Agroecological methods and materials research for the AAES. Image by Nina Weithorn.
Finally, what advice would you give to those interested in studying landscape architecture, or those just starting their education?
As cliché as it sounds, I would say stay true to yourself and your interests. It became a running joke in my cohort that every single one of my studio projects had something to do with compost, but I’m passionate about soil remediation and closed-loop systems for waste, and found a way to make those elements a part of my designs. The field of landscape architecture is so vast and intersects with so many different topics and disciplines, so don’t be afraid to engage with something that feels a bit controversial or unorthodox as long as you approach it with humility and a willingness to learn.
The other piece of advice I would give is to really get to know the site you’re working on, its history, and everything that inhabits it — humans, animals, soil organisms, etc. I found that it takes much longer to truly get to know a landscape than one might think. Visit at different times of day, talk to people who are willing, document the plant life or found objects, make sketches and notes, and spend time just sitting and observing. I also found that this provided such a necessary break from working inside on the computer, but it is still incredibly productive and beneficial to the design process.