Below is an open letter from Occupy the Farm in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay. It is followed by a series of stories about their action . . .
29 April 2012
Open Letter from Occupy the Farm to Albany Residents and the East Bay Community
As you read this letter, East Bay families and farmers continue to seed, weed, and water at Occupy The Farm. Public events over this weekend have included workshops by members of the community and the opening of the “Ladybug Patch” children’s area. For most Albany residents this is the first time they have ever been invited onto, or set foot upon this land.
We are writing you to correct the misinformation circulated by the University Administration in their recent open letter.
The University administration’s position does NOT represent the position of the entire university community. For example, there are 8 faculty members within the College of Natural Resources that are actively supporting the idea of turning the Gill Tract into an urban farm. These faculty’s interest in the Gill Tract stems from their affiliation with Berkeley’s new Diversified Farming Systems Center, whose mission is closely aligned with Occupy the Farm’s mission to promote “sustainable agriculture to meet local needs.” Building on the long history of the parcel as a home for Miguel Altieri’s agroecological research, the Gill Tract could potentially become a center for community outreach, agroecology, and urban farming – thereby meeting the growing interests of the university in socially and ecologically sustainable farming, and the needs of the local East Bay community.
We are well aware of the history of this land and the debates about its future. We encourage everyone to examine the University’s 2004 Master Plan, which clearly indicates that the historic agricultural field we have planted is intended to be developed. This field used to belong to the College of Natural resources, but has long since been transferred to Capital Projects, the development arm of the University of California. The UC allows researchers use of the field, but as long as this master plan remains in effect the clock is ticking, and the planned redevelopment will displace all researchers from this land as well.
We are acutely aware that our presence on this land presents challenges for the researchers who have been using this land as well as for the neighbors living around it. Our inability to provide advance notice for this action has certainly compounded this inconvenience. We recognize that it will take time and hard work to solidify good relationships with our neighbors, and we are humbled by the grace we have been shown by nearby residents, the UC Village, and the Ocean View Elementary School, and grateful to those who have allowed us to open lines of communication. We are hopeful that dialogue with the researchers can lead to a mutually acceptable resolution that reconciles the needs of those using the land for research with the long term goal of preserving this land as farmland for future generations.
The UC’s letter clearly exposes how out of touch it is with the Albany community. The UC claims to have been “actively participating in a collaborative, five-year-long community engagement process.” After five years of this supposed “collaboration” and “community engagement”, the same letter acknowledges that most Albany residents “are studying the details of the project for the first time as the result of media interest in the protest.” Albany community members have not been aware of this proposal because the UC has not engaged in a sufficiently open and participatory process. As Ulan McKnight, an Albany resident, says, “The process included no real collaboration. The University may have ‘listened’ to the community, but ignored their proposals and suggestions.”
Despite more than a decade of requests by many members of the community that the land be used for agriculture in service of the public interest, the UC continues to offer the land up for non-agricultural uses. In 1997, the UC walked away from the table during the final stages of deliberating a proposal for the Gill Tract drafted by a coalition of UC professors, residents, and more than 30 local non-profits known as the Bay Area Coalition for Urban Agriculture (BACUA). These negotiations were abandoned with no explanation. Mara Duncan, an Albany resident for 16 years, says, “Long before the Whole Foods proposal, 1200 people in the community signed a petition asking to make the Gill Tract a community farm. When the Whole Foods proposal came, they sold us out. The UC and the City Council totally shut out all voices supporting an urban farm.”
Dan Siegel, our legal counsel, points out that the UC is not only violating the public trust, it may also be violating the law. According to Siegel, “Since the Gill Tract represents one of the few remaining agricultural spaces in northern Alameda County, preserving it as a productive farm is consistent with public policy and the public interest.” Siegel cites several statutes, including California Civic Code 815, which “declares that the preservation of land in its natural, scenic, agricultural, historical, forested, or open space condition is among the most important environmental assets of California.”
Our goal is to prevent development of agricultural land, and to allow the community to be engaged with the land. Support for The Farm is building because it represents an important hope for urban agriculture and community in the East Bay. Please join us in protecting our most valuable community resource. Farmland is for Farming.
April 23, 2012 by Common Dreams
‘Whole Food, Not Whole Foods’: Renegade Farmers Reclaim Land on Earth Day
To prevent the sale for private development, citizens plant community garden
Bay area residents on Sunday, in order to prevent development of a chain grocery store, reclaimed 10 acres of land owned by the University of California-Berkeley and planted a community garden.
An Occupy the Farm protester rototills a patch of land owned by UC Berkeley at Buchanan and Jackson streets in Albany. (Kevin Johnson / The Chronicle)The protesters-cum-gardeners, several dozen of them in all, broke the lock on a chain-linked fence about mid-day and got to work digging beds, roto-tilling soil, and planting carrots, broccoli, and other vegetables. The plan is to build a sustainable community garden and stave off any attempt by UC Berkeley to sell the land for private development. Gopal Dayaneni, one of the 20 or so core organizers of the action, told the San Jose Mercury News that the group was committed to growing both the farm and its community of farmers. Volunteers had about 10,000 starts — small bulbs or seedlings — and dug dozens of rows. Some people brought chickens, and the group even brought in a large tank for watering.
“This is the last, best agricultural soil in the East Bay, and we want it to be preserved for community farming and sustainable urban agriculture, not chopped up and sold off in pieces by the university,” said Dayaneni, a 43-year-old Oakland resident and father of two who said he’s long been active in environmental and ecological issues in the East Bay.
Police were on the scene throughout the day, but no arrests were reported. The ‘renegade farmers’ were pitching tents at the end of the day, but said they had no plans to permanently occupy the land. “Our goal is not to live here, our goal is to create a working urban agro-ecological farm,” Anya Kamenskaya, a spokesperson for the group, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
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A tussle between preservationists and UC Berkeley over a decadelong development project in Albany erupted into a pitchfork protest Sunday, when activists planted a renegade farm on a plot of land known as the Gill Tract in an effort to keep it agriculturally pristine.
Timing their action to Earth Day, about 200 members of Occupy the Farm to Take Back the Gill Tract broke a lock on a gate, rototilled the soil and planted carrot, broccoli and corn seedlings on part of the 10-acre site at Marin and San Pablo avenues. The Albany tract is owned by UC Berkeley, which has plans for further housing and commercial development nearby.
Police were on hand not long after the activists broke in at mid-afternoon and informed them they were breaking the law, but no arrests were made.
By early evening, there was no police presence visible at the site, located near a busy street corner just east of Highway 80. Most of the activists had departed, but 50 or 60 planned to camp out at the site and had begun erecting tents.
Anya Kamenskaya, a spokeswoman for the group, said police officers told them they might return, but it was unclear if they would try to evict them.
“We think it is the height of irony that a upscale national chain grocery store would be building on arable land where food can be grown here for the community.”–Anya Kamensksaya, renegade farmer
“Our goal is not to live here, our goal is to create a working urban agro-ecological farm,” Kamenskaya said.
There was no immediate comment on the situation from UC Berkeley representatives. […]
“I wouldn’t call this property damage, I’d call it property enrichment,” said Lesley Haddock, a UC Berkeley sophomore who was part of the farm-in. “Basically what we did was pull out weeds. We’re not trying to protect it as is, but to turn it into a community hub for agriculture.”
She said Occupy the Farm was not linked to the Occupy Oakland protests, but “was philosophically inspired by it.” The movement, she added, was done in solidarity with the Brazilian Movimiento Sin Tierra (Landless Workers Movement) and La Via Campesina (the International Day of Peasant’s Struggles).
The activists erected signs, including one that read “Whole food, not Whole Foods,” a reference to the grocery chain that is a possible tenant at the site.
“We think it is the height of irony that a upscale national chain grocery store would be building on arable land where food can be grown here for the community,” Kamenskaya said.
* * *
The group said it hopes the university will commit to using the remaining land for public farming, rather than selling it off. The new farm, Dayaneni said, is a work in progress, but the group hopes to build on Sunday’s efforts and make it a source of “healthy, local, yummy, tasty food for people who need it.”
A live online video stream from Ustream user BellaEiko on Sunday showed dozens of protesters milling about the tract around 4 p.m., some of them gardening. A few minutes earlier, the stream showed University of California police officers telling protesters that they were trespassing and subject to arrest.
Neither Cal spokesman Dan Mogulof nor university police immediately returned phone calls Sunday afternoon asking for comment. Albany police referred all questions to university police.
Dayaneni said the group has been cordial with police and is planning to camp out to protect its hard work.
“Occupy the Farm is committed to farming; that’s the purpose of it,” he said. “If (police) want to tell us to leave, we’ll keep farming, and they’ll have to make a decision what to do.”