As Berkeley Food Institute’s (BFI) agroecology director, I manage Oxford Tract. Oxford Tract is the hub at UC Berkeley for the study and practice of urban agroecology or urban farming. Agroecology focuses on building up soil life and biodiversity through practices like poly-cropping, composting and applying little to no chemicals, among other practices. We use and test new and long proven farming methods to see how we can maximize food production on small city plots. 

I have seen the power of the land in the hands of the people.

Not as theory, but as testimony.

Working with community organizations like People’s Programs at Oxford Tract, we harvested two tons of produce on a quarter acre of land and served 170 families with fresh produce, organic food you can’t even find in most grocery stores. If there were grocery stores in West Oakland. 

I’ve watched grandmas pass down recipes across generations. I’ve witnessed what happens when people reclaim what has always been theirs: the right to feed themselves. The right to heal through food. Because food is medicine. That’s not philosophy, that’s fact.

Urban farming is not a hobby.
It’s a declaration. It says: 

We will not starve quietly.
We will not wait for salvation.

They’ll tell you agroecology isn’t efficient. That it can’t “feed the world.” But that’s not the point. Urban agroecology isn’t about feeding the world, it’s about feeding this block. This neighborhood. These people who are not being fed.

It’s about using underused land to serve overlooked communities. It’s about tearing down the lie that hunger is about production. Because we already produce more than enough food. Eighty billion pounds of food is wasted every year. Mountains of it rot in landfills while children go to bed hungry. 

They never talk about the grocery stores that are shuttered and chained up in our neighborhoods or the food deserts mapped with intent. The problem isn’t scarcity. 

The problem is access.

This land grows enough. What we need now is to grow autonomy. To plant the unshakable truth that we have enough when we have access to land. That we have power with our own hands, on our own terms.

Urban agroecology is not a silver bullet.
It’s a seed.

A small, stubborn, sacred start. Planted row by row. This work is an echo. A remembering. But theory alone won’t get us there.

We must collectively:

• Buy and eat organic.
• Buy from the local farmers.
• Grow something. Anything. Even just a single basil plant on your windowsill. 
• Show up. Touch the soil. Remember what it feels like to know your own food.

If you’re near Berkeley, come to Oxford Tract on Saturdays, 11am to 2 pm. You’ll find us in the field, hands in the dirt, building something freer.

Because every seed is a sentence in the story of food justice.
And we’re writing this story together.