Save the Farm (lots of pictures)

[Tindalos]

There was a rally yesterday to save the university farm. It's worked by student volunteers, who grow a lot of their own food and supply various food banks and homeless shelters. The university wants to sell some of the land and build more condos on it. To raise awareness of the issue and protest the university's plans, students arranged a protest march across campus. The rally was opened by a representative of the Musqueam, who technically have rights to the land the university is built on, and a number of other speakers, including J.B. MacKinnon, author of the 100-mile diet books (wiki link) who relied on the farm for local produce. David Suzuki was also there, but I missed his speech. Then, everyone trekked across campus to the farm.

The Save our Farm standard bearers:





The Carnival Band provides a festive air:





Here we are being good citizens, obeying traffic laws and crossing with the lights. Most of the roads were closed for the march and police apologized for not being able to close this one too. One of the main access roads has been blocked off for a crime scene investigation and most of the traffic is being rerouted along here. I don't know how many people were there, but it looked quite a few.





The chants really got louder once the march entered this construction site: No more condos! Save the Farm!









Down with concrete! Up with Trees!







Save our chickens!







Save our bees!

[Celebration]

1. oh my gosh I LOVE THE ROOSTER!!

That rooster pic is fabulous. Overall, a great cause and I definitely felt as if I was there participating.

Nice job!

:thumbsup:

[Tindalos]

3. The rooster had serious attitude

He made it clear that if you mess with his chickens, he'll mess you up. I wish I'd taken some grain to feed them, but maybe the farmers would object.

It was a very good rally, very festive, and had an atmosphere of fun despite the underlying seriousness. I'm not sure if it will achieve anything. The Board of Governors has made it abundantly clear that they don't care what students think about other issues. This is only one land-use "battle" currently underway.

[Blue_In_AK]

2. These are great...

It looks like a fun time was had by all. :)

[Tindalos]

4. Thanks

It was a lot of fun. There were several bands playing. One walked along with the parade and another played at the entrance to the farm. People were dancing and joking the whole way - and it was a very long walk. Thankfully they had shuttles to get people back to campus. Overall, it was extremely well organized and I was very impressed by how smoothly everything went.

[Tindalos]

5. Follow-up Report:

Apparently the unofficial count for the rally was 1800



Great Farm Trek Makes UBC History

“Save the pigs! Don’t harm the farm!” was the phrase that could be heard throughout campus as students, faculty, politicians and other supporters from off-campus marched in support of the UBC Farm at today’s Great Farm Trek.

Unofficial numbers count that about 1800 people gathered under sunny skies to show their support for the agricultural landmark on campus, whose future is in the hands of UBC’s Board of Governors (BoG). Celebrations began around 3:30pm when people began to assemble around the Grassy Knoll dressed in costumes, bearing signs, and playing instruments.

<snip>

“It’s so important that we understand that in this day and age of climate change you can’t anymore get your food from South America, and from Asia. We’ve got to start getting it locally,” Lehan said. “And here we have the most wonderful thing in the earth: we’ve got a local, organic, sustainable food system in an urban setting.”


http://www.ubyssey.ca/?p=7988


More at the link.

[Mira]

6. This was a great way to experience it with you. Wonderful job, and I was saying

out loud:
"Oh my God, I love the rooster", when I saw the commentary to the same effect abounding.
Very nice reporting, and the rooster is simply stellar.