- Development & Aid - Economy & Trade - Human Rights - Global
Governance - Civil Society Monday, May 20, 2013 - With hoes,
shovels, some 15,000 seedlings and a bolt cutter to break the
locks that kept them out, students, community members and
participants from nearby Occupy movements have laid claim to an
undeveloped 10-acre parcel since Earth Day, Apr. 22, in Albany,
California. But Monday, some 100 university, city and county
police took back the land and arrested seven occupiers (see
sidebar). “We are reclaiming this land to grow healthy food to
meet the needs of local communities,” the occupiers say in a
statement on their website. “We envision a future of food
sovereignty, in which our…communities make use of available land
– occupying it where necessary – for sustainable agriculture to
meet local needs.” The parcel, owned by the University of
California, Berkeley and known as the Gill Tract, is located
about two miles from the campus. The university plans to sell a
portion of the tract to developers for