Little City Gardens

There is a very interesting and inspiring farm project/land occupation which has been happening in Albany for the past few weeks. A group of farmers took over a piece of farm land at San Pablo and Marin which is owned by U.C. Berkeley and has been a subject of debate between the university, faculty, students and community members for many years.  Read this article by our friend Antonio for more context and analysis. Land reclamation and occupation is a tool that is being used across the world not only to protest but to take hold of an alternative to land consolidation and the disintegrating basis for community food sovereignty. I find it compelling that even in a U.S. city where these troubling trends do not reach us with as devastating effects as they reach people in other countries, there is a critical mass of citizens/farmers/protesters who are willing to organize, stand up, and risk arrest to speak about food justice and equitable access to food and arable land. The occupation of the Gill tract has lasted successfully for at least two weeks. In that time a vast field of cover crop was tilled under, beds where dug and crops planted. The first day of the occupation, hundreds of people were out working to realize the vision. I was there helping out the first day and I heard someone say it was like “a farm on steroids” which does speak to how quickly it went from a field to a farm.  This week the UC police have made a larger presence at the farm, and yesterday efforts to shut down the farm were escalated. The farmers are currently calling for support from the general public.