Roots of Radicalism: Students Organizing for (Food) Justice

This trip is now closed.

Hop on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) with a local guide and head to Berkeley for this student-led tour. This tour will give you a look at the roots of Berkeley student radicalism and at the dynamic resurgence of student organizing in the last few years, to fight corporate control of public education and student spaces. You will tour the UC Berkeley campus and discuss how past student mobilizations inform current struggles. You will then visit the Berkeley Student Food Collective and Student Organic Gardens, and learn about specific student organizing to build a sustainable, and student-owned, campus food system.

Beginning in the Fall of 2009, thousands of students participated in a series of walkouts, strikes and building occupations in order to push back against recent steep tuition increases and an unprecedented centralization of administrative power at the UCs.  This struggle against university privatization is ongoing, as the UC Regents appear set to increase tuition again by 32 percent in the coming year. Student organizer Amanda Armstrong lead you on a campus tour of historic student organizing, and discuss how past student mobilizations inform current struggles—for free speech, for ethnic studies, against apartheid, and more recent mobilizations against university privatization.

In 2008, a plan was proposed to open a Panda Express on campus, making it the first fast-food chain in the UC Berkeley student union. A major student campaign was launched against the fast-food restaurant, calling it an affront to campus culture. To address the lack of both a student-owned food space on campus as well as healthy, affordable food choices, a group of students formed the Berkeley Student Food Collective. BSFC was born of a desire to offer an alternative to corporate food: something student-owned, community-based, and a healthy and sustainable part of our food system.

The BSFC store was successfully opened in November 2010, founded on the mission to provide fresh, healthy, environmentally sustainable, and ethically produced food at an affordable price to Berkeley students and community members. Its innovative business structure promotes community building, social justice and environmental stewardship through a cooperative model, and focuses on collaboration with local farmers, other cooperatives, and the local community. On this tour, you will learn about this working model for how youth can take back control of their food, their values and their voices. You will also visit the organic gardens of the UC Berkeley Student Organic Garden and Urban Bee Project.

Participating Organizations

• UC Berkeley student organizers and faculty guests (TBD)
• The Berkeley Student Food Collective (BSFC) provides fresh, local, healthy, sustainable and ethically produced food at affordable prices to the Berkeley campus and greater community.
• Student Organic Garden Association (SOGA): Celebrating its 40th  anniversary this year, the UC Berkeley Student Organic Garden was established in 1971.
• The Urban Bee Project at UC Berkeley has been working since 1987 on promoting knowledge of the benefits of native pollinators and their importance for sustainable urban agriculture and healthy ecosystems.

This trip is now closed. Please check back for future Food Justice Tours to UC Berkeley.

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Bay Area Food Justice Tours (Nov. 4 – 5, 2011) are brought to you by CFSC in partnership with Food Sovereignty Tours, a project of Food First/the Institute for Food and Development Policy.

For more information, contact Tanya at tkerssen@foodfirst.org or by phone at (510) 654-4400, ext. 223