University Shuts Down Food Gardens
Last Updated (Wednesday, 02 June 2010 23:24) Written by Food Not Lawns Thursday, 25 March 2010 03:47
One day after a collective of students occupied a piece of the lawn at The University of Victoria it was taken back by the campus administration with the assistance of the Saanich Police. One student was arrested and released with a charge of "assault by trespass". Students had taken the land and built food producing gardens in an act of frustration after fifteen years of talks with the university had yielded nothing with regards to urban agriculture on campus. University student Joyce Lyell says "after fifteen years of having UVic administration turn down every one of our campus agriculture and garden proposals, we took action on our own. With the bulldozing of our gardens, it is now more obvious than ever that UVic values lawns over sustainable food, and values control of students over student choice and ingenuity”.
Victoria Indymedia made this report on the day of the action: