Are you looking for a place in the city to sink your hands into rich, dark soil? Do you want to learn to grow your own food, herbs or flowers? Do you believe that sustainable agriculture is a vital component to a healthy world? Try the Student Organic Garden (SOG) or the Gill Tract.
Two blocks from campus, at Virginia and Walnut, the SOG is an oasis of life in the midst of concrete. The garden has served as an urban agricultural classroom for thousands of students in its 35-year history, and to this day remains student-managed with no university funding. Various community service projects have been facilitated at the garden, including projects for youth employment and food production for homeless shelters. The university also uses the site to teach ESPM 117 - Urban Garden Ecosystems, as well as the student-run "Introduction to Organic Gardening" DeCal.
The Gill Tract is the largest area of urban agricultural land remaining in the Bay Area, located on San Pablo at the Berkeley/Albany border. The Gill Tract was once the hub of flourishing research activity by the former Division of Biological Control. Research focused on integrated or ecologically-based pest management, which uses an understanding of ecological relations between "pests" and their naturally occurring predators as a means of managing pest populations in agriculture. By avoiding the use of harmful chemical pesticides, these solutions are not only environmentally friendly but also more appropriate for smaller farmers due to their low cost.
Over the years, there has been a continuous struggle against the University to keep the SOG and Gill Tract alive. In the mid 1980s, students lost half of the SOG, their solar greenhouse, and were banned from keeping animals on the site. In 1999 the University Planning Department covertly handed the garden over to the East Bay Municipal Utilities District for the construction of a large pumping station. In response, the students organized a difficult but ultimately successful campaign to save the remainder of the garden from extinction.
Similarly, as the influence of agrochemical corporations on the University grew in the 1970s, research agendas shifted away from integrated pest management and moved towards a capital-intensive agro-industrial production model. This shift happened at the expense of the needs of small farmers, the environment and the public - those whom the original Gill Tract land-grant was intended to serve. Faculty that did not acquiesce to this new agenda were slowly forced out the University, while the Division of Biological Control has been entirely eliminated. But the struggle to maintain both resources for the public good continues. The SOG collective works to preserve and promote the garden, and is as active as ever. Those who contribute to the garden become farmers, teachers, landscape architects, permaculturists, and community gardeners. All students are invited to work in the garden and to help us keep it growing for the next generation!
While most of its greenhouses and laboratories have been long abandoned, research in sustainable agricultural practices continues today at the Gill Tract, albeit on a greatly reduced scale. A handful of students in ESPM 118 carry out sustainable agriculture research at the Gill Tract each fall, but the majority of the land has now been planted with monocultural corn to research plant genetics. Recently, the University has been considering plans to develop the Gill Tract, including leasing it for commercial development. At a time when sustainable agricultural practices are becoming more important and popular than ever, the University is choosing to abandon this once flourishing educational resource in favor of profit.
See plants.berkeley.edu for more info! Open garden hours at the SOG are Sundays 1-5pm. If you love to garden, you should also check out the volunteer gardens in People's Park.