completed photos on Flickr

2013/05/18 OccupyTheFarm Re-Occupy the Gill Tract Farm by Daniel Arauz

For complete article please visit:

occupythefarm.org/category/c27-statements/

"On Saturday, May 11th, Occupy the Farm peacefully marched onto the Gill Tract to challenge the UC’s renewed plans for private, commercial development of this public agricultural resource, replacing 5-foot high weeds with thousands of squash, kale, basil, corn, lettuce and tomato plants, and even flowers.

Rather than recognizing this as an opportunity to position itself on the cutting edge of urban agriculture and participatory research, the University raided the farm on Monday, May 13, at 4:30 a.m. and violently arrested four peaceful farmers, three of whom were held for more than 60 hours before being released without charge. The University then ploughed over the farm that morning, destroying thousands of starts that, if nurtured, would have provided sustenance to local communities.

“This land has been vacant for years,” said an Occupy the Farm member, Matthew McHale, “the UC only destroyed the crops because it’s afraid that if the community sees what an amazing asset this would be as a community farm, they would refuse to let it be paved over.”

In protest of the UC’s actions, more than eighty farmers and community members re-converged on Monday afternoon for a rally, then marched back onto the farm to replant the field and recover some of the starts they had planted over the weekend. The University plowed the farm again Tuesday morning.

Since Occupy the Farm first planted on the Gill tract in April 2012, the group has organized at least 10 public forums focused on the Gill Tract as an asset to community-driven participatory research. The UC Berkeley administration has consistently failed to attend, despite being invited repeatedly. Students on campus however, support turning the land into an urban farm; last Spring the Associated Students of the University of California Senate unanimously passed a resolution in support of Occupy the Farm."

Complete by Dougster 1

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Hopefully this can wasn`t anywhere close to the Aqua Net hair spray can when it came time to work on the beehive hairdo!

Found in an abandoned farmhouse.

North Carolina

22-09_294-57 Interchange Project_Complete_07 by Illinois Tollway