By growing food, Occupy the Farm helps a movement grow up

“We don’t need corporations and we don’t need gene research to tell us how to farm. We’ve been doing it for thousands of years. We just have to remind each other how to do it.”

                                                                           Gopal Dayaneni, urban agriculture activist, Albany CA

Happy May everyone!  

I hope you are all well and growing!  I ran across an interesting article - summarized below.  I leave it to you to decide whether this action is something you would do yourself, agree with or not.  Just thinking about it is good.

Very best regards,

Why's Woman

On Earth Day, April 22/12, hundreds of urban agriculture advocates marched under the banner “Occupy the Farm” and took over a University of California (UC) agricultural testing station.  The 5 acre site is the last of 104 acres,  originally deeded to the University in the 1920s.  It is the last agriculturally zoned land in Albany, California, and has been been used for agriculture research for over 30 years.  For at least 15 years it has been the subject of the "What to do withs."  In 1997 a representation by 40 groups had submitted a detailed proposal for an urban farm, and since there have been other such proposals.  Currently, the UC has been entertaining a proposal to build over the site.  The Occupy group planted one acre of crops on the land, while UC officials turned off water to the site (figuring this would deter the watering in phase of planting).  The next day, half an inch of rain fell, during a late-season storm.  Gaia wins again!

for the full article, which talks more about the Occupy movement and has several useful links:  http://climate-connections.org/2012/05/02/by-growing-food-occupy-the-farm-helps-a-movement-grow-up/