http://www.foodfirst.org/en/Gill+Tract+2012
How to turn the “occupy the UC Gill Tract” conflict into an
opportunity for resolving key food, environmental and social problems
affecting our Bay Area urban communities?
By Miguel A. Altieri, Professor of Agroecology, College of Natural Resources, UC Berkeley And
Claudia J. Carr, Associate Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley
Dozens of advocates of community urban farming took over UC’s Gill
Tract on Earth Day, April 22, establishing a camp and planting about two
acres of vegetable crops. Their goal is to prevent development of this
five-acre piece of land that represents one the few remaining
agricultural spaces with the best ("class-one") soil in the East Bay.
This effort would allow the community to be engaged with the land,
arguing that preserving it as a productive farm is consistent with
public policy and the public interest. Such preservation would also
honor the history of the Gill Tract, which has housed researchers who,
since the 1940’s, conducted research on biological pest control,
protecting California agriculture from exotic pests without the use of
chemical pesticides.
To many people, the actions taken by the farm advocates are
consistent with the University’s education and public mission as a Land
Grant institution with a Cooperative Extension function, (the latter
established in the Smith-Lever Act of 1914), to promote community
involvement and initiatives in agriculture. Their actions are also
consistent with California public policy as set forth in section 815, to
preserve and protect open space, particularly agricultural land that
has historical significance - such as the Gill Tract.
The UC Berkeley administration counters that the land being occupied
is currently, and for the foreseeable future, being used as an open-air
laboratory by the students and faculty of the College of Natural
Resources for agricultural research. They argue that this use is part of
a larger quest to provide a hungry planet with more abundant food,
which will be impeded if the protest continues. (In fact, this is a poor
argument, since hunger is not primarily related to production, but much
more to poverty and lack of access to land). Although UC's comments
about not developing the five acres may be technically correct, they may
be perceived as misleading for at least three reasons:
(i) since its purchase in 1928 ( or, perhaps, its bequest to UC by
the Gill family farm with the condition that it should be used forever
as an agricultural research station), UC has parceled, sold off, and
developed about 90% of the 104 acre plot. Can a land grant University
divert agricultural land to commercial or recreational uses? Does such
diversion contradict the land grant mission of a public University?
(ii) UC has transferred the land from the College of Natural Resources
to UCB Capital Projects, its commercial arm which specializes in
“development projects”; and
(iii) the 2004 Master Plan, jointly worked out with the Albany City
Council and Planning Commission, clearly states that the land has been
re-designated from "academic reserve" to "recreation and open space"
which may mean baseball and soccer fields, parks, or any number of
recreational designations.
Does such redesignation guarantee the preservation of the land for an
urban agriculture center? This is an idea that several professors,
students, 45 non profit organizations and community members, organized
under the Bay Area Coalition for Urban Agriculture (BACUA), presented in
the form of a proposal to the University in February 2000. The proposal
was for the creation of the world's first university center on
sustainable urban agriculture and food systems. The purposes of the
Center were to be to promote research, education, extension and outreach
in the various environmental and socioeconomic dimensions of urban
farming and sustainable food systems. This proposal was ignored by the
University, and so was a later one, presented in 2005 by Urban Roots, to
create the Village Creek Farm and Gardens, a farm that would provide
Bay Area students from preschool to community college and university
with an educational resource par excellence. Urban Roots argued at the
time that a Center for Urban Agriculture at the Gill Tract offered UC
Berkeley the opportunity to join other organizations and community
members in teaching students and future urban dwellers these skills and
the benefits of locally produced food. From these facts, it can be
concluded that until now, the University has shown little or no interest
in requests for community involvement and benefit from the
exceptionally high quality lands at the Gill Tract.
Last week UC asserted in a statement: “We are passionate advocates of
metropolitan agriculture projects that are well planned, sustainable
and considerate of all members of our community. Representatives of the
university are more than willing to meet with any interested community
members to discuss proposals for metropolitan, sustainable agriculture.”
The community group’s current action presents a golden opportunity for
all within UC, including the newly created faculty and student based
Center for Diversified Farming Systems, as well as non-profit
organizations working on food justice and urban agriculture and
community members, to revive the previous ideas for creating a Center
for sustainable urban farming.
Why is this important as we start the second decade of the new Millennium?
The rapid urbanization that is taking place in the Bay Area goes hand
in hand with a rapid increase in urban poverty and food insecurity, a
situation aggravated by the economic crisis affecting California. Half a
million people are at risk of hunger every month. About 38 percent of
them are children, especially in summer, because low-income children who
normally receive free or reduced lunches during the school year no
longer have these meals. As a result, parents struggle to find the extra
funds needed to provide healthy, nutritious meals for their children,
even in the face of high unemployment. Many low-income urban residents
in the Bay Area reside in “food deserts,” i.e. in areas having limited
access to affordable and nutritious food, particularly in lower income
neighborhoods and communities.
Urban agriculture plays a key role in enhancing urban food security,
since the costs of supplying and distributing food from rural to urban
areas, or to import food for the cities, are rising continuously, thus
increasing urban food insecurity. Take Oakland as an example: in that
city publicly owned land with productive potential totals 1,201 acres.
Food production with agroecological methods at these sites could
potentially produce as much as 15 to 20 percent of Oakland’s fruit and
vegetable needs. But to realize this potential, UC Berkeley first needs
to recognize the potential of urban agriculture to help solve problems
of hunger and unemployment, and then launch a major research, education
and extension program on urban agriculture that should involve local
governments, urban farmers and the whole community in participatory
ways, so as to address the real needs of the poor and hungry. The
benefits of urban agriculture go beyond producing food: they extend to
the promotion of local economic development, poverty alleviation and
social inclusion of the poor — and of women, in particular. Urban
agriculture also contributes to the urban ecosystem by greening the
city, productively reusing urban wastes, conserving pollinators and
wildlife, and saving energy involved in the transport of food (in
addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions!).
Let us transform the conflict potentially unfolding into a positive
dialogue that will lead the University to continue carrying out its
major mission of working with communities to serve the needs of the
people of California. What could be more important than doing this
around the issue of local food production?
Etiquetas: Altieri, eng, Gill Tract, UC Berkeley, University of California
