Occupiers Return 3rd Time – UC Says Patience Running Out

About 30 urban-farming advocates with Occupy the Farm took up weekend residence late Saturday afternoon at the same UC Berkeley lot in Albany that they occupied the past two weekends.

They planned to spend the night and hold workshops Sunday and then depart, said group spokeswoman Lesley Haddock.

Haddock said the group plans to keep returning about once every two weeks and will hold community workshops on the property but does not intend to continue planting crops. The crops they planted on the previous weekends were plowed under by UC afterward.

UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof told Patch that the university is not willing to refrain from taking action indefinitely.

"If this persists, we will be prepared sometime in the not too distant future to take steps to secure our property rights," he said. "At some point patience does run out."

UC has proposed using the lot – at the northwest corner of San Pablo Avenue and Monroe Street next to University Village – for commercial development, to be anchored by a Sprouts Farmers Market. The plan also calls for senior housing and more retail in another vacant lot across Monroe from the occupied lot. The Albany City Council in July approved UC-sponsored commercial and senior housing development on the two lots. 

UC police, following the procedure they adopted during the past two weekend encampments, told the occupiers Saturday that they were trespassing and warned them of possible arrest. Two officers stood nearby after members of the group began arriving at the planned gathering time of 5 p.m.

A group of about 10 or so counter-protesters from Albany gathered on the sidewalk, a couple with signs saying, "No to Occupy." Anti-Occupy protesters also demonstrated at the occupations on the previous two weekends.

Some members of the Occupy group and some members of the anti-Occupy group debated on the sidewalk over whether the property belongs to UC or to the people of California and whether UC as a land-grant university should use it to promote agriculture. 

The Occupy group strung up a banner saying, "Food Not Lawns / Overgrow Monsanto." A press release from Occupy noted that the gathering in Albany followed daytime marches against Monsanto, a target of protesters because it develops genetically modified crops, pesticides and herbicides.

Saturday's gathering included singing, music by a trio playing banjo, bass and drums, a stilt-walker and a juggler. Haddock said the evening's activities also would include story-telling.

On May 11, nearly 100 Occupy the Farm activists marched from Albany City Hall to the plot. They planted crop seedlings and established a camp in which some stayed overnight for two nights. UC police, who used a bullhorn to issue periodic warnings of possible arrest,  evicted them with four arrests on the following Monday morning.

About 50 Occupy members and supporters returned the following Saturday, May 18, and planted seeds. Some camped overnight on Saturday night, and the group left voluntarily Sunday evening. 

Occupy the Farm staged a three-week occupation and crop-planting a year ago on the Gill Tract agricultural research field, which is near the site occupied the past two weekends. They were evicted by campus authorities.