During the Fall term of 2009, the UBC Geography department offered a student-directed-seminar on “Environmental Communications: Improving our Food System by Increasing Awareness”. Ben Amundson, a Global Resource Systems (GRS) student, initiated the seminar which covered issues of local food security and community building. Even though I did not need to take any courses this Fall semester to complete my Master degree, I had told Ben, back in the Spring of 2009, that if he went ahead with the course, I would join it.
Every single student in the class is a UBC Farm supporter, and we soon realized that the recent history of the UBC Farm had to be made available for incoming and current students who are not yet aware of what is going on. This is a systemic problem we are facing. Incoming students are bombarded with propaganda and marketing about UBC’s resources that does not provide much information on what the UBC Farm is, why it is important, how it can be incorporated by students in their own research, why it is being threatened, and what we can do about it.
In addition, there has been considerable student resistance to the official consultation processes imposed by the UBC administration. In particular, vociferous opposition emerged naturally among students, faculty and staff, after Campus and Community Planning (CCP), responsible for the official consultation process, presented predetermined plans to the community that did not include an option in which the UBC Farm was left untouched in its current 24 hectare size and location.
Back in 2008, I began collecting video footage on my spare time that documented the development of the student struggle against the preset CCP plans to reduce the size of the UBC Farm, to move it away, and to build towers over the site, getting rid of the important forest buffer that surrounds it. At one point, when I was an elected student representative at the CCP steering committee, we were forced to watch a presentation by a contractor hired by the administration in which he showed a model with 16 skyscrapers littering the current UBC Farm.
Students got together, collected 15 thousand signatures in support of the UBC Farm, and approached the Metro Vancouver Council, asking for their support. They received unanimous support from the wider Vancouver community to protect the Farm, maintaining its current size and location. Students want it expanded and expanding, but the university is arguing they need to come up with an huge amount of square footage in order to support its projections for an ever increasing student population.
We decided to conceive, together as a group, a video that would bring to students the basic facts about the UBC Farm from a students’ perspective. Andrea Morgan, former president of the Friends of the Farm AMS Club, agreed to participate and share her take on the most significant events that have taken place. Morgan has been deeply involved with the Farm throughout this struggle to secure it, and was one of the key organizers of the Great Farm Trek, which brought over 2000 people to the UBC Farm on April 7th 2009.
We have made available a 3 part, 14 minute long preview version of the movie, available now at youtube. We named it “Saving the UBC Farm: 24 Hectares and More!”:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTKRdzfe_go>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXVBEq1jqo>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50tpfspymAM>
We are looking for ways to improve the video and to refine it, keeping in mind incoming students and those who are looking for an introduction on the issue. The final version will be considerably longer and more detailed.
All critical remarks are welcome. If you would like to participate in any way, send us an email <cosmoartist@gmail.com>. We are looking forward to collect more student testimonies and to incorporate student art on this project (e.g., music, pictures, drawings, etc).
UBC Student Media 