Albany, CA: Occupy the Farm March to Stop Development of Historic Gill Tract Farmland

by Susan Park / Occupy the Farm

On July 16th, 2015, farmers and neighbors of the historic Gill Tract Farm marched on the streets of the City of Albany to protect the Farm from looming development by UC Berkeley to build a Sprouts Supermarket, and to highlight the projected public health impacts of the development.

For three years, the commercial development project slated to pave the southern 7 acres of the historic Gill Tract Farm has been held off by a lawsuit. On June 16th, the courts ruled to allow the polluting, privatizing, paving project to move forward.

Farmers began with a rally at the corner of Monroe Street and San Pablo Avenue at 4pm, next to the 7 acres in question. A series of speakers addressed the many issues at hand.

Around 5pm, protesters began their planned direct action, using creativity and art as some of the tactics, donning dust masks featuring “6500”, highlighting the number of cars the development project will bring to the neighborhood each day. They marched west on Monroe Steet, then on Jackson Street and held the intersection at Buchanan Street. The banners read “Public Land for Public Heath” with an image of a tree and bees, and “UC Puts Corporate Wealth Over People’s Health.”

Several farmers pushed sculptures of Sprouts delivery trucks with smoke coming out of them, to draw attention to the diesel fumes the project will bring an area already in the top 21% for diesel pollution.

After holding the intersection, they marched east on Buchanan Street and then south on San Pablo Avenue, circling around Gill Tract. The march was stalled for a bit when an irate driver drove furiously through the protest hitting and injuring two farmers. Despite the aggression, farmers remained peaceful and no arrests were made.

The farmers contend that Sprouts is about to pave over a rare natural resource – healthy soil for growing food in an urban area, and that the Gill Tract is public farmland. They want food to be grown locally and made accessible for vulnerable populations rather than shipped from thousands of miles away and sold in a chain grocery store. They highlight the hypocrisy of Sprouts greenwashing itself by using “farmers market” as part of its name, while intending to destroy historic farmland for its newest store. Even though Sprouts touts itself as a natural food store, much of the produce it carries is not organic nor local.

Farmers also point out that the 20 acre Gill Tract plays an important role in filtering air pollutants, mitigating climate change, and providing habitat for wildlife. The public health impacts of the University clearcut of 53 trees on the South side in February will be compounded if the soil and greenspace is paved over.

Quotes:

“I have been involved in the EIR process since the beginning scoping meeting in 2007. For years, community members have consistently spoken up at planning and zoning and city council meetings, saying that if there is to be building on the land at all, we want a less environmentally impactful, alternative, local grocery. The city found there were overriding considerations that allowed them to adopt the proposed project despite traffic and noise pollution impacts that could not be mitigated. The city did not follow the CEQA law in rejecting the alternatives to the project. I hope that the court will see that.”

– Ed Fields, local Albany resident

“As a student parent living the University Village next to this development, I want my son to be able to grow up in a healthier environment, and I am upset that my University would not consider community desires for a less polluting option for this land. The are putting profit above student and community well being.”

– Suzanne Klein, UC Berkeley student, University Village resident