The university has leased land on the southern half of the site to the Sprouts grocery store chain to build a supermarket, despite years of opposition by Occupy the Farm and its allies. Now excavation is taking place in preparation for building the store, but Occupy the Farm continues to push for its vision of preserving the whole 20-acre site as agricultural land.
Occupy the Farm will hold a Stewardship Assembly and Potluck to share its vision for the site as an area for organic agriculture research, a farm providing food for local residents, an agricultural education program, and an urban food forest. UC graduate student Katie McNight describes that vision in a new video
Occupy the Farm is encouraging people to sign a petition urging UC Chancellor Janet Napolitano to stop the construction and preserve the whole Gill Tract for agriculture. They also invite interested members of the community to attend the Stewardship Assembly and Potluck.RSVP
Background
The Gill Tract is the last remaining 20 acres of an historic farm UC has owned for almost a century. Part of the land has historically been used for agricultural research. This included a famous Center for Biological Control, starting in 1945, which experimented with using plant ecology and insects for pest control, at a time when the toxic pesticide industry was beginning to take over most American agriculture. Later Professor Miguel Altieri and colleagues used the site to continue this research in natural pest management and eco-agriculture.
Since the 1990’s the university’s Capital Projects division, which manages its real estate, has been working on plans to use at least part of the Gill Tract to generate revenue for the university, to make up for some funding lost because of the erosion of support for public education. Continued opposition from Gill Tract neighbors, environmentalists, and advocates of urban agriculture stalled these plans for years, but construction finally began on the south side of the site earlier this year.
Occupy the Farm and its allies condemn the destruction of this valuable piece of fertile farmland in the middle of the city and continue to fight to preserve the whole 20-acre site for agriculture.
