Not sure how I missed this one, but have you heard about Occupy the Farm?
As part of a spin off on the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, protesters are occupying a piece of land owned by the University of California-Berkeley. Supposedly, the occupiers believe the school is going to develop the land and they want to put a stop to it. Instead, the occupiers want to turn the land into an oasis for urban agriculture (all 9 acres of it…) to feed the poorest parts of town.
How to accomplish the task? Take over the property! The occupiers have been planting seeds in order to cultivate the land into so-called sustainable agriculture and thwart the university’s plans.
The university let it go on for a few days, but they’ve had enough (and the students need to get in there for some experiments/planting). The police are not allowing anyone onto the property any more, but the occupiers are unconvinced.
But I do agree with a statement issued by the university:
“We take issue with the protesters’ approach to property rights. By their logic they should be able to seize what they want if, in their minds, they have a better idea of how to use it.”
We’ve seen this attitude in places like NYC, where protesters trashed the park, broke into small businesses, and scared away customers.
The university is public property (er, sorta). I wonder what would happen if the occupiers thought they had a better idea of how to operate a farm and took over an actual farm.
I can guess what would happen on our farm….
Maybe they were upset that the university wasn’t listening to them and hadn’t considered their proposal for urban agriculture. Maybe the university really has ignored them for the last 15 years.
So what?
It isn’t their property. They don’t own it. Voice your opinion if you want, but you don’t get to take over someone’s land.But seriously, this whole “I know better than you” attitude is so representative of the environmentalist’s agenda. They know better than farmers, even if they’ve never been on a farm, and we need to bend over and let them run the show.
Since when has this attitude become acceptable?
