Around 4:30 a.m., UCPD issued a 10-minute warning to the protesters — who had been occupying and farming a southern portion of a university property, known as the Gill Tract, since Saturday afternoon — to vacate the property or face arrest.

One protester, a UC Berkeley affiliate, was arrested for trespassing and resisting an officer, according to UCPD spokesperson Lt. Eric Tejada. Tejada said the protester was registered in the student directory but could not confirm whether this person is an active student.

The rest of the protesters moved off of the land willingly, and the university allowed the protesters to keep coming back to the land to collect their belongings, according to Claire Holmes, campus associate vice chancellor of public affairs.

Around 9:20 a.m., a tractor was brought in to remove the crops occupiers planted over the weekend, and two more individuals were arrested for trespassing and refusing to follow police orders. A fourth person was arrested around 10 a.m, Tejada said.

Occupy the Farm made a public announcement Sunday morning that they planned to break down their tents early Monday morning and continue to farm throughout the day, said Occupy the Farm spokesperson Matthew McHale.

“The UC’s use of police intervention was completely unnecessary and unreasonable, especially after we publicly declared we were leaving later today,” McHale said.

University officials took action this morning because they wanted to choose a time when they felt they could vacate the lot as safely as possible and with the least amount of disruption to the community, Holmes said.

Currently, Occupy the Farm protesters are in close proximity to the property and have called for a public reconvergence at 5 p.m. to decide what to do next, said  Lesley Haddock, a demonstrator and a UC Berkeley junior.

According to Holmes, police are still near the tract to monitor the situation, and there will be police present throughout the day.

Contact Megan Messerly at mmesserly@dailycal.org

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The group assembled to oppose recent proposals to develop the southern portion of an Albany plot of land known as the Gill Tract, owned by the Regents of the University of California. The proposals suggest developing the lot into a senior housing complex and a national chain grocery store, Sprouts Farmers Market.

Occupy the Farm activists said they would rather see the land developed into a urban farm that could be used to educate the community and to conduct research on how to improve soil quality.

“This piece of land is unparalleled in terms of being an agricultural resource,” said Matthew McHale, an Occupy the Farm spokesperson. “We envision not only a resource for growing food but for community resilience.”

Around 1 p.m., Occupy the Farm activists congregated in front of Albany City Hall before marching south on San Pablo Avenue to the portion of the Gill Tract north of Monroe Street. The group walked behind a banner that read “Sprout Farms Not Grocery Stores.”

Several cars met the group at the property, bringing truckloads of dirt, an assortment of plants as well as some chickens and goats. The group tilled the soil and planted hundreds of plants, including lemon cucumbers, mustard greens and Yukon Gold potatoes, into the afternoon.

Saturday’s movement is the first major effort to cultivate the Gill Tract since last spring, when the group assembled farther north on the property to protest the development of the same senior housing facility and a different grocery store, Whole Foods Market. In September, Whole Foods canceled its plans to build on the Gill Tract, citing project delays.

Urban-farm activists continued to break into the property throughout the summer and into the fall to care for their crops, arguing that the land should be accessible to the community because it is owned by a public university.

The northern portion of the tract farmed last spring is a Class 1 agricultural land, and it is extremely nutrient-rich and conducive to farming. In September, it was placed under the purview of the UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources and is currently prepared and ready for planting, according to Claire Holmes, campus associate vice chancellor of public affairs.

This spring, farmers hope to prove that the southern plot of land, which was once host to military barracks, is also agriculturally viable.

Some community members and Albany city officials, however, believe the land would be better be served with commercial development that would bring economic growth to the area.

“We could bring life to San Pablo,” said Albany Mayor Peggy Thomsen.

Campus officials issued a statement Thursday urging city residents to prepare for an occupation, noting that they would closely monitor the situation. UCPD was at the tract on Saturday and advised the group several times that the property is closed to the public, but no action was taken.

Last May, three weeks after the initial occupation began, nine Occupy the Farm protesters were arrested — two who remained on the Gill Tract and seven who were outside the entrances to the encampment. Charges were never filed against the protesters.

Some Albany community members staged a counterprotest on Saturday, riding bicycles around the Gill Tract and carrying signs with the name “Occupy the Farm” struck out.

Albany resident and counterprotester Preston Jordan sees Occupy the Farm’s actions as an attempt to circumvent a democratic system that is already working.

“There are issues throughout history that call for civil disobedience,” Jordan said. “But I don’t think this calls for that.”

Occupy the Farm activists set up an encampment Saturday night on the property, and six tents were still standing as of 10 a.m. Sunday morning.

In the immediate future, the group plans to continue planting, cleaning up the land and being “good stewards,” McHale said.

“Farming is about the long game — setting down roots,” McHale said. “Putting plants in the ground is hope. It is inherently oriented toward the future.”

Megan Messerly covers city government. Contact her at mmesserly@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @meganmesserly.

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At a Nov. 19 meeting, the council voted to rescind a controversial agreement between the university and the city, allowing the project — which has been in the works since 2007 — to continue without it.

As a result, the University Village Mixed Use Project — which would develop land near the intersection of San Pablo Avenue and Monroe Street in Albany — will not need to be put up to a vote in a special election, which could take months.

The agreement would have formalized multiple community-oriented plans for the plot, like providing priority housing to Albany residents in the senior housing complex.

“The University is disappointed that the development agreement which included mutual benefits both the community and the University was challenged by a referendum,” said Kevin Hufferd, project manager and the UC director of property development, in an email.

The community group Keep Albany Local crafted a petition signed by more than 1,400 Albany voters criticizing the project’s development and lack of public outreach and calling for a referendum of a July 9 City Council decision passing it.

The petition campaign followed months of protest by the Occupy the Farm movement, members of which broke into the UC-owned land and planted crops to start an urban farm on another portion of it, arguing that the new complex may damage the soil and increase air pollution by drawing more traffic to the area.

The Whole Foods Market that was previously slated to occupy a large portion of the retail space pulled out of the project in September due to delays caused by the referendum as well as a lawsuit against the city, according to a UC press release.

While it tries to identify a replacement grocery store operator, the university plans to move forward with the senior housing complex right away.

“The major determining factor for the timing and nature of the development of the project will be local economic conditions,” according to a recent staff report by Jeff Bond, Albany’s community development director.

Although the development agreement was rescinded, the university still plans on meeting some of the provisions it outlined in the agreement, such as labor provisions for all workers, continuing to provide a field for the Albany Little League and covering all relocation costs if necessary, according to Hufferd.

“We (will) continue to try to balance the difference points of view expressed by the community as we move forward with the project under the guidelines approved by the city,” Hufferd said in the email.

Afsana Afzal is the lead academics and administration reporter. Contact her at aafzal@dailycal.org.

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According to Krystof Lopaur, a member of the Occupy the Farm movement, campus workers arrived on the Gill Tract last Wednesday and cleared a “large portion” of the land excluding the crops planted by the protesters but returned Friday to remove the crops the protesters planted.

In an open letter released by the campus Nov. 16, UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources Dean Keith Gilless outlined the campus’s intention to turn over the soil and clear the remaining plants this winter to make room for cover crops that would add nutrients to the land. According to the letter, the clearing of crops last week is part of the campus’s plan to use all of the farmland for the “investigation of food systems and food security issues.”

Despite Gilless’ claim in his letter that the campus gave Occupy the Farm members “advance notice” of its intentions to clear the tract, Lopaur said that members of the movement were unaware of the operation beforehand.

Occupy the Farm activists took over a portion of the Gill Tract in April and planted crops there in protest of the campus’s plans to develop another part of the land into a housing and retail center. Protesters continued to break into the property throughout the summer and into the fall to tend to the crops, arguing that the land should be accessible to the community as an urban farm.

“We’re going to continue having meetings with the community, and we’re going to continue organizing people,” Lopaur said. “These projects are not contingent on whether the UC is going to destroy our crops.”

Occupy the Farm will release a response to the removal of its crops and Gilless’ open letter on Monday.

The campus could not immediately be reached for comment.

Justin Abraham covers academics and administration. Contact him at jabraham@dailycal.org.

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Second, the idea that Occupy the Farm lacks the ideological strength of Occupy is belied by years of the university’s privatization agenda. Our regents are composed of multiple members of the 1 percent, whose values drive efforts to sell off our public assets like the Gill Tract. Again, no matter your personal view on trespass, Occupy the Farm brought this situation into stark relief.

In the end, actions speak louder than words. Words from College of Natural Resources Dean Keith Gilless do not constitute a democratic process, while Occupy the Farm’s action to host a series of community meetings on our campus shows their commitment to collaboration and authentic intent to reach out and listen to others. I’d hope you could see the obvious truth that the university acted maliciously at worst or was misguided at best and quit blaming the situation on the occupiers.

We will be having our second community forum on Thursday, Nov. 8 from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at A PLACE for Sustainable Living, 1121 64th Street, Oakland, CA 94608.

— Antonio Roman-Alcala,
UC Berkeley student, founder of the San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance

Contact the opinion desk at opinion@dailycal.org.

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While Occupy the Farm’s intent to create an urban garden at the Gill Tract is admirable, the movement must be willing to cooperate with the campus. A garden at the tract would be a useful addition to the community and would provide worthwhile educational opportunities for UC Berkeley students and others.
But community forums about the future of the tract, which Occupy the Farm organizers initiated last week, should focus on how the space can be used in conjuction with the campus. Further occupations of the tract would not be beneficial; breaking into the tract and interfering with research there would continue to cause contention between protesters and campus officials.

Though Occupy the Farm previously refused to end its encampment in order to engage in discussions with campus officials, it must be more open moving forward. Occupy the Farm, the campus and Albany community members should work together to craft a vision for the tract that benefits all stakeholders — not only the interests of a small group of protesters.
The campus already indicated that it is still receptive to suggestions from Occupy the Farm members — Keith Gilless, dean of the College of Natural Resources who was given administrative authority over the tract, said that “broad consultation is important for what the future of the Gill Tract will be.”

Yet while the campus and Occupy the Farm protesters should collaborate as much as possible regarding the Gill Tract, both parties should also take care not to allow the tract to become what People’s Park is today. Similar to protesters at the Gill Tract, activists in the 1960s and ‘70s wanted the park to be accessible to everyone. Now, though the park remains true to that principle in theory, in practice it is only used by a select group. The Gill Tract can avoid a similar fate if those who are trying to determine its future produce a sustainable solution that all groups can respect.

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Representatives from urban agriculture organizations and members of the Berkeley, Albany and campus communities discussed issues relating to farming, education, research and access to the UC-owned tract in Albany, which protesters first occupied in April.

Occupy the Farm organizers said Wednesday’s meeting — which is expected to be the first in a series of forums — allowed community members to address the movement’s future involvement with the tract.

“The purpose of this meeting is to be a spark of a future series of meetings that will have the community as a whole coming together in the next four to five months to create a vision for what we want to see happen,” said Stefanie Rawlings, an Occupy the Farm organizer and UC Berkeley alumna.

At the meeting, organizers and community members spent about two hours addressing topics ranging from adopting alternative farming methods to using the land for an educational purpose other than research. They subsequently formed working groups that planned to further investigate these issues after the meeting.

Since the tract was first occupied in April, protesters have pushed for it to be publicly accessible and not limited to use by campus-based researchers. This has been a main point of disagreement between Occupy the Farm and UC Berkeley since the movement began, said Antonio Roman-Alcala, one of the movement’s organizers and the Wednesday forum’s moderator.

In September, the campus transferred administrative authority of the Gill Tract to the College of Natural Resources, which oversees the research being conducted there. J. Keith Gilless, dean of the college, said he is open to community input regarding the future use of the land.

“I do think that the broad consultation is important for what the future of the Gill Tract will be,” he said.
UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof said the campus has invited the protesters to work more collaboratively with the CNR but has had those entreaties rejected “every step of the way.”

Protesters first began occupying the tract to protest the commercial development of another section of the land but shifted to advocating for it to be used as an urban farm. When the protesters refused to leave, the campus filed a lawsuit in May alleging that the occupation prevented research from being conducted. The suit was dropped in June.

Since then, protesters have continued to break into the tract to tend to the crops they planted there, resulting in a tense relationship with some faculty members who have open-air laboratories at the tract.

Justin Abraham covers academics and administration. Contact him jabraham@dailycal.org.

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By gaining the authority to oversee the agricultural support services and growing grounds on the Gill Tract for the next 10 years, J. Keith Gilless, the college’s dean, said the college is currently moving forward with coordinating activities that deal with urban agriculture, food policy, food justice and sustainable food systems at the tract, which has been the site of protests by members of Occupy the Farm, who have planted and harvested crops on a portion of the land since April.

“I do think, given that the authority over the tract has been transferred to me for the next 10 years, that I can reasonably invest time and effort into trying to come up with a way that our existing research activities on the site can co-exist with an effort that is more aligned with urban agriculture and community gardening,” Gilless said.

At the meeting, Gilless also announced the appointment of Kathryn DeMaster as the college’s first assistant professor of agriculture, society and food security. When she starts in January, DeMaster will play an integral role in developing the tract to support local farm systems, according to an open letter to the Albany community and City Council by Gilless dated Sept. 18.

Plans for which types of projects will be developed on the tract are still tentative, Gilless said, but he added that he wants to create facilities to help faculty and students who are interested in the nexus of food systems, urban agriculture, regional food safety, food justice and food policy have research, instructional and outreach opportunities.

However, Corey Scher, a member of the Occupy the Farm movement, said that there is no room for interaction with a college with which the movement has had a rocky relationship.

Protesters first began farming on the land in April after they got word of proposed construction plans that included a senior housing complex, mixed retail center and a Whole Foods market. The area that was occupied is not the particular section of the land  where the University Village Mixed Use Project is set to be built.

Since then, researchers have contended that  protesters’ repeated break-ins to the tract to harvest crops have adversely affected their work, leading the university to file a lawsuit against the protesters in May. Although the lawsuit was dropped in July, researchers and protesters continue to disagree over the appropriate use of the land. Whole Foods cancelled its plans to build a store on the UC-owned land after years of delays for the proposed marketplace, according to a statement released by Whole Foods spokesperson Jennifer Marples Friday.

Campus officials said Friday that they are beginning the process of finding a new retail grocery store for the location.

As a public land-grant university, Scher said, the university should facilitate public access to the land and let others besides researchers use it as a public resource.

However, in the letter, Gilless said that the tract is “not ‘fallow land’ in-between growing seasons” but rather remains an active research area.

He added that the college will consider input from members of Occupy the Farm as plans for how to develop the land become more concrete.

“Even as we analyze other options to preserve our values and rights, we have not abandoned the hope that these individuals will turn from occupation and unilateral action to give collaboration and cooperation through a democratic process a chance,” the letters states.

Contact Shannon at scarroll@dailycal.org.

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Protesters began occupying a portion of UC land at the Gill Tract during the spring in response to the construction plans, which would have also built a senior housing complex and a mixed retail center.

The lease termination comes as the result of years of delays for the proposed marketplace and because the terms of the lease had not been met, according to a statement released by Whole Foods spokesperson Jennifer Marples Friday.

In a separate statement Assistant Vice Chancellor of Real Estate Services Robert Hatheway said the chain’s decision comes after a number of new lawsuits were filed against the City of Albany looking to cancel or delay the project.

“While we regret the loss of the project’s anchor retail tenant, we understand the firm’s frustration over further delays that come on the heels of five, long years of extensive community meetings related to development of the vacant parcel on the corner of San Pablo Avenue and Monroe Street,” he said in the statement.

Hatheway said the university is beginning the process of finding a new retail grocery store for the location.

“In addition to providing a much needed grocery store, the project will offer increased tax dollars for the city, and revenue for the campus to offer rent subsidies for low-income UC Berkeley students and their families living in Albany Village,” Hatheway said in the statement.

Contact Andy Nguyen at anguyen@dailycal.org.

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