Occupy the Farm
protest group against economic inequality
Occupy the Farm is an ongoing social movement that started with the 2012 occupation of the Gill Tract in Albany, California, in protest of planned commercial development of public land and in support of preserving the land for the creation of an open center for urban agroecology and food sovereignty.
The occupation began on 22 April 2012 and ended on 14 May 2012.
A second occupation was launched on 11 May 2013 on the south end of the Gill Tract, which was slated for privatization and construction of a parking lot, a chain grocery store, and an exclusive senior's home twice dissolved by UCPD. Eventually a community partnership with agroecology researchers at the College of Natural Resources for access to a portion of the Gill Tract was established.
Additional demonstrations were held in 2015 and 2016, and the development, including Sprouts Farmers Market, opened in 2017.
History
The Gill Tract is a piece of agricultural land north of Monroe St. bounded by Marin Ave., Jackson St., and San Pablo Avenue, in Albany, California, administered by the University of California, Berkeley. The agricultural field has been the last open parcel of class I soil, soil that has "slight limitations that restrict [its] use", in the urban East Bay. The Gill Tract has been used by the University of California as an open-air laboratory for research and teaching since 1945, mostly for conducting plant genetics research using corn.
The original agricultural area was around 100 acres (40 ha); all but one-tenth of that has already been developed. Beginning in 1944, much of the nearby land was converted into federally owned housing for dock workers at the nearby shipyards.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7075898. Authority coordinates are 37.885, -122.300. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016.
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