The greatest accomplishments often flourish from the smallest, most radical beginnings. A continued protest on University of California research land in Albany presents an opportune moment for productive change in the local community.
Occupy demonstrators set up an encampment Sunday on a UC Berkeley-administered research plot in Albany known as the Gill Tract. Some of the occupiers stand to protest the construction of a Whole Foods supermarket, a senior housing facility and a parking lot on the land, while others remain in an attempt to reclaim the land for use as an urban farm. Although the protesters’ disregard for research is troublesome, their objective to establish a community farming project on the land is an admirable and attainable goal.
If the occupiers can bring forth a plan to the UC Berkeley administration that would provide for a viable and truly sustainable local farm on the Gill Tract, the campus should seriously consider working with movement leaders to make it happen. Such a project would not be an unreasonable use for the land and could provide a continued educational experience for UC Berkeley students and community members alike. However, the onus for success is laid first upon the occupying demonstrators and then on administrators to meet them halfway.
Leaders from the Bay Area locavore and urban farming community ought to lend themselves to the Gill Tract occupiers’ efforts. Indeed, the region is a focal point for the food justice movement. It is natural for prominent food activist leaders to converge and help try to make the dream of a farm on UC land in Albany a lasting reality.
But in order for such efforts to succeed, the occupation must focus around a vision. Yes, Whole Foods’ business model, which entails selling healthful foods for exorbitant prices, is regrettable. But occupying the Gill Tract is not going to stop the supermarket from being erected — especially because the occupation is not taking place on land where any new construction will occur.
Moreover, though the damage was already done to some research, protesters should refrain from disrupting any more of the campus’s biotech and farming projects there. The Gill Tract occupation presents a unique case wherein a real, productive conclusion to demonstration is realistic. When controversies over a Panda Express in the Bear’s Lair Food Court were in the news years ago, naysayers insisted a locally focused grocery store would never materialize. Now, the Berkeley Student Food Collective stands across from the campus’ Southside. Neither UC Berkeley nor the occupiers should squander this opportunity to make another impossible idea possible.
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Senior Editorial Board = a pack of spineless wimps pandering to the kook fringe.
If I take someone’s MacBook from the library and prove that I can be more productive with it than the original owner, then should he seriously consider working with me to share his MacBook?
Yeah, fuck property rights. COMMUNISM, WOO HOO!
Wow, a new low for the Daily Cal.
I am surprised and disappointed that this paper would condone an illegal action (and please let’s not split hairs about the definition of “legal” by comparing this the the civil rights movement). It is directly interfering with ongoing research on this particular plot of land, which is not slated for conversion to a Whole Foods (that is a vacant lot to the south), but is used for publicly funded research into basic questions of plant biology as well as applied work to further sustainable agriculture. That should be more than “troublesome” for you, unless you believe the ends justifies the means.
I don’t think the DailyCal is advocating in letting occupiers do as they wish. Rather, they are inviting the administration to consider the goal of having an “urban farm” cohabiting with the research plots on the Gill Tract. There’s no reason why the UC shouldn’t try to provide benefits to the immediate community in addition to the longer-term benefits brought by research.
Go buy, rent or lease your own land if you want an “urban farm”, asshole. Just because you and your idiot friends think it’s a great idea doesn’t give you the right to just march in and take that land for your own use.
The ends does not justify the means, but just because a group of people used means you condemn, doesn’t automatically mean the ends aren’t worthwhile.
biotech research is not necessary
Based on what, your opinion? Not that I would expect you to offer a detailed argument to support your position. All you do is post your silly one-liners, then run off like a little coward because you’re incapable of debating and supporting your point.
The opinion is backed up by evidence. For example, if you took a look at the Gill Tract from Earth Day April 22, and onwards, and look at the photographic and video as the farm has progressed, you can notice general dilapidation transformed to productive land.
Agricultural research does not mean “fill the land to capacity with amber waves of grain.” Control groups are needed to do comparisons, and some groups may be intentionally stressed to simulate hostile environmental conditions.
How many bong hits did you take to come up with THAT gem?
Tell that to the millions of third world people who are alive today only because of genetically modified crops which flourish in their respective countries’ harsh environments.