Farm Protesters Land Seized by UC Berkeley
The newly established farm on UC Berkeley-owned Gill Tract will
soon be empty. At the time of this writing, it is surrounded by riot
police from at least 8 different UC Campus police forces. Nine have been
arrested. This is the end to a standoff that began on Friday, when the
police blocked farmers from entering or leaving, forcing supporters to
toss food and water over the fence. In addition, the UC has filed suit
against 14 individuals and 150 additional unnamed persons.
The farm began with a celebration of life, the planet and the
people’s right help determine the fate of a place owned by a
state-supported institution. Three weeks ago on, Earth Day, a group of
200 volunteers occupied the Gill Tract. The multi-generational crew
planted two acres of vegetables, including a children’s garden, and
began to offer workshops on sustainable agriculture and food
sovereignty. A small encampment sprang up, but organizers insisted it be
limited only to those doing the everyday work of maintaining the farm.
The land in question is a 10-acre parcel that comprises the last
remaining class 1 agricultural soil in the East Bay. Despite years of
community action favoring the creation of a research site specializing
in urban and organic agriculture, the land is slated to be sold for
development.
Even as the occupation phase ends, the farm represents a
cross-pollination between the food movement’s embrace of sustainable and
urban agriculture and the occupy movement’s emphasis on direct action
and democratic control of resources.
This occupation is a direct confrontation with a university that,
according to the occupiers, has long ignored its public mandate in the
pursuit of profit. It is an attempt to seize a piece of land that is
publicly owned in name only, and use it for the public good. It is an
exercise in land reform, demanding that “farmland is for farming,” and
insisting that because farming this land is the right thing to do, the
occupiers have every right to do it. It remains to be seen whether some
kind of agreement might allow the farming to continue once the
occupation has ended. The land is currently used by UC researchers. Some
explore agroecology while others conduct basic research on gene
mutations that, if successful, will likely aid the development of GMO
crops. But the tract is large enough that the occupy farm could remain while that research is conducted.
Occupy the farm is one of a handful of efforts that can reenergize a
food movement that has become satisfied with its own success. Supporters
of the food movement have become content to “vote with our dollars” in
favor of local and organic alternatives, for small farms and farmers
markets. But for all the good they do, these vibrant alternatives have
not confronted the system head on. No farmers market places limits on
the power of corporate agribusiness. No community sponsored agriculture
program interferes with industrial farming’s ability to exert its
influence on the way that agriculture is governed. Alternatives build
power, but they cannot seize power from the systems that currently hold
it.
Occupy the Farm represents a new way forward for the food movement,
one that moves beyond support for alternatives to confront an important
player in the industrial food system. It’s a chance to vote, not with
our dollars, but with our voices, for the kind of agriculture we want to
create and the kind of society we want to be.
Here are some actions that Occupy the Farm has asked for in support:
Sign the online petition: Show
the UC Berkeley administration that you support the vision of Occupy
the Farm – and call on them to stop police action so that the farmers
may continue to farm! Click here for the petition.
If you are an organization or group that wants to support: Endorse the collective letter of support, being signed by organizations, alliances and groups nation-wide. To sign on, please email occupythefarmletter@gmail.com.
Take more land, wherever you live: Wherever
community needs are not being fulfilled and traditional avenues of
change have failed, take space at the required scale to meet these
needs. Occupy. Make Productive. Contest the Title.
Stay updated:
–Twitter: @OccupyFarm
–Facebook: Occupy the Farm –Sign up for text message alerts if you’re local: Text “gilltractfarm” to 41411.
–Email list: send a message to GillTractFarm@riseup.net with “listserve” in the subject line to be added to the email list.
–Twitter: @OccupyFarm
–Facebook: Occupy the Farm –Sign up for text message alerts if you’re local: Text “gilltractfarm” to 41411.
–Email list: send a message to GillTractFarm@riseup.net with “listserve” in the subject line to be added to the email list.
Donate to the Farm: Click here to find a link to their online donations page, as well as a current list of needed materials.
Learn more: www.OccupyTheFarm.org
© 2012 Civil Eats
No comments:
Post a Comment