“Occupy the Farm”

Since September 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement has been protesting against corruption, social inequality and corporate greed. The message has spread quickly and the movement continues unabated, even after the majority of activists were evicted from the public and private spaces they were occupying.

One of the offshoots of Occupy Wall Street is the Occupy Homes movement, which targets the houses of soon-to-be-evicted families. The activists join forces to prevent foreclosure proceedings and also organize protests against the banks, sometimes blocking the buildings’ entrances.

More recently, the Occupy the Farm movement, in Albany, Calif., organized the occupation of a six-acre plot of land, known as the Gill Tract, belonging to the Berkeley campus of the University of California.

Activists say that the university is about to sell the land, to be paved for the construction of stores and parking lots, and argue that it should be used for the sustainable production of food for the local community. However, the university states that this land is currently used for agricultural research, and that the planned urban construction will take place on another tract, further south, which has not been cultivated since World War II.

After three weeks of protests, the occupiers were evicted this month and nine people were arrested.