Residents living anywhere in the vicinity of East Los Angeles, Southeast Los Angeles, Vernon, and surrounding areas are well acquainted with the potent and disgusting smells affecting the air quality in these areas. It’s an off-putting smell that welcomes neighbors with their morning cafecito, ruins a relaxing porch time with your parents, or messes up your vibe when flying through the 710 and feeling like you’re on top of the world because there is no traffic. It hits right as folks arrive home to open their windows for fresh air after a hot day, only to be met with the exact opposite, a smell of death?
Growing up in East L.A., my má would say, “Estan quemando los muertos.” (“They’re cremating dead bodies.”) I’d shrug my shoulders and accept this rumor because we lived adjacent to the Evergreen, Calgary, and Serbian Cemeteries. My dad would often scoff and correct her, “No, son las fabricas de Farmer John.” (“No, it's the Farmer John plant.”)
We never really knew the smell's origin, but one thing is certain. The putrid smell has become normalized and hits throughout the year, affecting most during our hot summers, when many Los Angeles residents hope to reduce their air conditioner-hiked electricity bills escape to the outdoors to enjoy the fresh air.
East Los Angeles Resident, Alejandro Valdivia, calls it environmental racism. Valdivia grew up in the Cypress Park and Echo Park area. After going to college out of state and joining the U.S. Coast Guard, he’s proud to have returned to Los Angeles in 2017 and purchased his first home in East L.A.
“I started noticing the smell when I first moved to East LA. Maybe it's a local restaurant, a deli, carnicería?…and I went down a black hole of research and information.” On this quest for information, Valdivia found information about Vernon's five major meat processing plants: Baker Commodities, Coast Packing Co., Legacy By-Products LLC, Darling Ingredients, and Smithfield Packaged Meats Corp., known as Farmer John.