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WAYS FORWARD
From Great Farm Trek to Climate Strike: A reported history of student environmental organizing at UBC Words by Emma Livingstone Illustration by Shereen Lee
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n the south side of campus in Wesbrook Village, surrounded by ever-expanding housing developments, sits the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm. Now recognized as an important pillar in UBC’s sustainability and research initiatives, the future of the farm’s 24 hectares was facing uncertainty just 12 years ago. The 1997 Official Community Plan for the University Endowment Lands designated the land in Wesbrook Village — which is itself stolen, ancestral, traditional and unceded Musqueam land — as potential future housing developments. As the uncertainty of the farm’s existence heightened, UBC students began to organize under one clear message: save the farm. The AMS club, Friends of UBC Farm, increased pressure on university administration and the Board of Governors (BoG) in 2008. On October 28 of that year, they brought a stack of petitions totalling over 16,000 signatures supporting keeping the farm to then-UBC President Stephen Toope and then-VP External, Legal and Community Relations Stephen Owen.
The campaign expanded to draw support from the wider community, including Dr. David Suzuki, a former UBC professor in the department of zoology. The protests even encouraged Metro Vancouver to weigh in. On October 31, 2008, the Metro Vancouver Board voted in favour of sending a letter to UBC that supported keeping the farm. On December 1, 2008, the BoG issued a media release saying the farm would not be turned into market housing, so long as development plans in other areas kept UBC in line with the community plan. This momentum led to the Great Farm Trek on April 7, 2009, which organizer Matt Filipiak, a graduate student at the time, told The Ubyssey was “a celebration demonstration.” During the demonstration over 2,000 students, staff, faculty and community supporters marched from the Student Union Building to the UBC Farm to celebrate and appreciate the farm’s significance on campus. Student movements for sustainability and environmental initiatives continue today at UBC, more than a decade after the success of the Great Farm Trek. Many different student
groups have popped up over the years to adovcate around different environmental topics, from styrofoam to nuclear bombs and fossil fuels. Now protests and demonstrations are also increasingly taking place. According to UBC history PhD candidate Henry John, “universities have often been the centre point for social movements as a whole,” including environmental movements.
THE BEGINNINGS Most historians agree that what is commonly understood as the environmental movement in the West started in the 1960s along with other social movements. At UBC, inklings of environmental activism can be traced back to the 1960s, with students worried about the effects of pollution. A 1969 article in The Ubyssey described the UBC Society for Pollution and Environmental Protection as wanting to “actively wage war against pollution.” Worries about a possible nuclear explosion also plagued people’s minds and tied into concerns about the environment both at UBC and across
