'Occupy the Farm' Activists Leave Gill Tract, No Arrests

Updated: 4:30 p.m. 

Occupy the Farm activists returned to the Gill Tract Saturday morning, breaching a locked gate, and working in the field for two to three hours. They picked about six wheelbarrows of produce, and left the site around 1:30 p.m., according to organizer Effie Rawlings.

Rawlings said the group picked beets, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, beans, chamomile and some herbs. She said much of it was donated to Food Not Bombs, a group that cooks meals and delivers them to the needy, in places such as People’s Park in Berkeley. Some produce also went to People’s Grocery and Phat Beets Produce, food justice organizations, both in Oakland.

Rawlings said there were no arrests. “The interactions with the police were totally friendly,” she said.

“We didn’t touch at all,” she added.

UC spokesman Dan Mogulof confirmed that the activists left voluntarily Saturday afternoon, and that there were "no arrests, no confrontations, no damage to research crops."

He also confirmed that they broke a lock to enter. Mogulof said the university is not considering taking any action against those who entered the tract. "Two important things," he said. "They didn't stay and they didn't damage the research."

The Gill Tract has been used for several decades for both genetics research and studies in sustainable agriculture. The farming activists , planting vegetables for public use. The university asked the activists to leave, so university scientists could plant their annual research crops.

Rawlings said the university feared the activists would return and destroy the researchers’ crops. “We hope we gained some trust,” Rawlings said.

At 9 a.m. Saturday about 50 people gathered on Jackson Street outside the gate to Gill Tract. They socialized quietly in small groups over coffee, donuts and cigarettes.  Those in attendance ranged from small kids with parents, to 20-somethings, to those with white hair.  

At about 9:50 a.m., Anya Kamenskaya, an organizer with the farm group, called out: “Who’s ready to do some weeding?” The group cheered, the padlocked gate was slid open and most of those present marched into the field chanting.
(Asked later how the padlock was opened, one activist said, giggling, “It just dissolved.”)

About four University of California, Berkeley, police officers stood by watching, but made no arrests. One protester, dressed as an eggplant in a purple tunic, with a green leafy mask over his face, videotaped himself asking an officer why she was “running license plates”—taking numbers from cars parked nearby—and why she wouldn’t respond to him or make eye contact. That was followed by a man offering roses from a bouquet to the officers.

Inside the field, about half the activists got down on their knees and started working in the fields. Before long a wheelbarrow filled up with green veggies.

Two loads of beets were carried out to the sidewalk. Rawlings said a small amount of food went to activists and neighbors, and that the group plans to bring cucumbers to Monday’s Albany City Council meeting for a pickling demonstration.

Members of the City Council and university officials had organized a weeding and harvesting event at the Gill Tract for Saturday, . Kamenskaya said her group found out about the city-sponsored event by chance.

“We’re here to protest the fact that the Albany City Council and UC Berkeley organized a behind-closed-doors, exclusive weeding and harvesting event,” she said.

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ORIGINAL STORY: 11:12 a.m.

Just before 10 a.m., urban farming activists with Occupy the Farm apparently cut a lock on a gate into the Gill Tract, marched back into a university-owned research field and began harvesting and weeding the crops they planted earlier this year. 

Approximately 40 to 50 urban farming activists and supporters gathered at 9 a.m. on Jackson Street, then marched back into the Gill Tract just before 10.

One activist and independent media member confirmed that members of Occupy the Farm cut the lock into the field. 

Activists walked into the Gill Tract chanting, then proceeded to weed, and pick beets, cucumbers and squash. 

Anya Kamenskaya, an Occupy the Farm spokeswoman, said the group plans to donate the produce to Foods Not Bombs.

As of 11 a.m., activists appeared to be steering clear of corn research crops inside the Gill Tract. 

It's the first time since University of California, Berkeley, police regained control over the land on May 14 that activists have returned en masse to farm it. 

In a statement released to the media, Occupy the Farm reps said "the City and UC’s attempts to exclude the public are unacceptable, and ... today’s action will not be the last, unless the access to land and decision making process becomes public."

A general assembly is planned by the activists to take place at noon. 

Click the "Keep me posted" button below for an update when we publish future stories on this topic. Read more on Albany Patch about the Gill Tract. 

If there's something in this article you think , or if something else is amiss, call editor Emilie Raguso at 510-459-8325 or email her at albany@patch.com.