News

What is Happening to the Farm!?!?

Get informed, and find out how you can help.

What is the farm?

The Farm was started ten years ago when Pomona College Students started a small garden in an area formerly used as a waste pit. Since then, the Farm has grown through spontaneous and creative student and community input. The farm is a uniquely free space where students can come to garden, learn about plants, and just enjoy the landscape. Today, there are many varieties of herbs, veggies, flowers, and perennial fruit trees surrounding an earth dome built by students last year. This past year, the EA department took over the management of the Farm, making it an official part of the college curriculum. This semester, a new experimental plot of land was added south of the track to be used as a laboratory for a new EA class, Farms and Gardens.

How does Pomona's new master plan threaten the farm?

This semester, after several meetings between students, faculty, and administration in which we agreed to slightly retract the Farm boundary to avoid interference with the surrounding oaks (which do not like irrigation), the Farm community found out from President Oxtoby that the new master plan for Pomona would actually get rid of the majority of the existing Farm., leaving the original landscaping within a 20-foot radius of the dome.. The plan involves relocating several athletic fields very near the Farm, including a soccer field which would cut off the Farm's western edge. The plan proposes replanting oaks displaced by the fields into the area of the Farm, thus making the Farm part of the oak woodland environment of the Wash, in exchange for the addition of new experimental plot. Students were shocked to find there had been a misunderstanding, and called a meeting with President Oxtoby in which he agreed to postpone voting on this proposal with the trustees until May, to allow for further dialogue.

What is wrong with this plan?

The Farm community has several grievances. In brief:

  • The Farm has always been a grassroots effort. Students should at the very least have a voice in planning its future.
  • The mission of the Farm has been to create a functioning ecosystem with healthy, organic soils and a thriving biotic (and human) community in order to serve as a model of sustainable agriculture. Though the many fruit trees may perhaps be relocated, the Farm ecosystem and the rich soils of the Farm, a 10-year project, are not transplantable and will have to be recreated from scratch.
  • The 20-foot radius is an arbitrary boundary which does not take into account the physical landscape of the Farm
  • The existing Farm is the product of a dynamic history of creativity, initiative, and hard work. This history has created a unique and magical space and has fostered an ever-growing community which for whom it is a refuge and an inspiration. Relocating the Farm will erase the 10-years of history and energy that have created this space.
  • The dome was recently built by student and community labor and alumni donations to be integrated as a sustainable structure into the landscape of the Farm.
  • The Farm is not just a hang-out.. It is a unique place where people from the colleges and community come together to put education to a practical and productive application. There are countless people who value the Farm, not only those who work there, and anyone can see that to destroy the product of so much love and devotion, without seeking a reasonable alternative, is extremely disheartening.
  • Though we are grateful for the new land being offered, its soils are not yet ready to support the robust plant growth of the existing Farm and it will be a long time before it does. But…..

We think we can find an alternative that works for everyone!

Our Proposal:

Students are working to prepare an alternative proposal to the master plan which addresses the administration's concerns about Farm management and the health of the oak trees. The proposal will explain our reasons for valuing the current space and offer alternative boundaries. We believe that, if oaks must be relocated, they can be replanted in the area of the hammer throw field which is designated to become part of the new farm, creating an oak grove between the existing Farm and the land. This way, the oak woodland can be recreated and the Farm can remain in its original state. We have done extensive research to come up with a sensible and well-informed proposal, and we hope that the administration will be open for discussion.

What you can do:

  • Visit the Farm and find out what it's all about! (come by anytime, or attend our Farm Tours, work parties, and upcoming Farm Festival)
  • Join our e-mail list to stay updated and get involved. E-mail carrie.fields@pomona.edu
  • Sign our new petition to tell President Oxtoby that you support our efforts to create an alternative proposal and that you believe the Farm should be preserved. Or contact him yourself. Ask your parents, friends, and professors to express their support. [Sample Statement of Support][Farm Info Flyer]
  • Submit your personal reflections on the Farm to the Farm Anthology, which will be presented to President Oxtoby with the proposal. Email Rachel.alexander@pomona.edu

Photos

Click here for the photo gallery

>>read the guidelines for participation<<

>>read about the Farm Steering Committee<<

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