The Martlet

Dressed in black, armed with seeds and spades, guerilla gardeners have torn up turf around the globe. Now, Victoria’s Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter is bringing the practice to a lawn near you.

Guerilla gardening turns agriculture political: activists take over a derelict or unused space and transform it into a garden. It’s often done under the cover of night, to avoid confrontations with the law. SDS says it’s the perfect practice to reveal a sustainability flaw in UVic’s strategic plan.

Representative Matt Loewen says the university isn’t following up on Object 32 of that plan, published February 2007. It calls for UVic to “adopt management, planning and grounds management techniques that demonstrate [the university’s] commitment to environmental sustainability.”

“Under the green veneer, our university is highly unsustainable,” said Loewen. “Beyond the rhetoric, I haven’t seen any results. Why are we spending all of these resources manicuring lawns?  We can’t eat lawns. They are basically a monoculture, a biological wasteland. Why don’t we start planting food on some of that soil?”

Their project is still in planning. Loewen hopes SDS’ actions will inspire people to take a more active role in the university community.

“If we get on to guerilla gardening... we can start decreasing Victoria’s carbon footprint. We can start actually growing food here on campus to feed people on campus,” he said

Loewen said SDS is part of a network of students and community members interested in using guerilla gardening techniques to grow their own food.

SDS is also planning for the consequences of their actions. According to Loewen, there’s already a support network in place, ready to come to gardeners’ defense if their activities, which are technically classified as illegal vandalism and mischief, get them in trouble.

“The consequences could be just getting rid of the garden, but SDS would problematize that and publicize that and make it a big deal,” he said. “The university could suspend students, but the SDS wvould problematize that again. [The same will happen] if the university decides to dare to expel students for following their own policy for them.”         

The SDS is not alone in demanding agricultural space on campus. Campus Urban Agriculture Collective (CUAC) spokesperson Miranda Cross agreed in an email interview that UVic needs to step up its game.

“We feel that the Sustainability Action Plan is lacking in the area of urban agriculture, because there is no mention of food actually being grown on campus in enough quantity to start feeding the UVic community,” Cross wrote.

Although the CUAC is not involved with guerilla gardening, they are currently focusing on building relationships with activist groups and UVic, with the goal of creating a new garden in the family housing residences.

However, Cross voiced concerns that the planned garden will not meet the demand of students.

“It is intended for family use, and it is not in an accessible part of campus for the general community to use. It also will likely not be large enough to accommodate the demand we are seeing from students.”

UVic Director of Campus Planning and Sustainablity Neil Connelly begs to differ. He says that a garden in family housing would be ideal, as there would be year-round caretakers to look after it. He also made reference to the Campus Community Garden, located next to parking lot seven, as being an area where students, faculty and staff can grow and harvest their own food.

However, Connelly questioned the appropriateness of devoting campus lands to extensive farming.

“We’re not in the agricultural business,” he said. “We don’t have an agricultural school or agrarian interest in terms of how we look after food production.”

In addition to gardening on campus, he says that UVic has worked hard to establish relationships with suppliers on the Saanich peninsula who help supply university eateries with local food.

“We’re not an island in ourselves, we’re part of the broader community,” said Connelly. “With the things we do here, we can support greater initiatives, [such as] local farming in the community, without having that happening here on campus.”