Gill Tract Defense Fund

Thank you for helping me reach my goal! Any funds I continue to raise over my $3000 goal will go straight to the Gill Tract Defense Fund and help support our organizing!

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Thank you, thank you, so many thanks! I am trying to raise $3000 by JAN 15, in order to help cover my rent, food, and basic expenses for January-April. See below to find out more about the project! Any additional funds I raise will help support the "Gill Tract Defense Fund".

Thanks again and again for your support- I have some gifts for you in return!

$5 donation will get so, so, so much of my love and thanks!

$10 donation will get an mp3 of The Land, the song sampled in the video

$20 donation will get the mp3 and a poem about the Gill Tract, and a hand-written thank you letter.

$50 donation will get the mp3, a poem, and a compilation of oral histories of Gill Tract community members, and a hand-written thank you letter.

$100 donation will get an EP of original songs, a poetry compilation, the oral histories, and a hand-written thank you letter.

$200 donation will get all of the above, and I will play a house concert for you!

$500 donation will get all of the above, including the house concert, and I will give you monthly check-ins on the campaign.

ALL donors will be able to follow what I'm working on at my blog, to be updated and released soon :)

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My name is Vanessa Raditz and I am a Master of Public Health Candidate at UC Berkeley studying Environmental Health Sciences. I am a founding member of Students for Engaged and Active Learning , a group working alongside Occupy the Farm  to help save the south side of the historic Gill Tract Farm from privatized commercial development. For the past year, I have also been working on the UC Gill Tract Community Farm on the north side of the land. 

The crises that my generation will have to face in this era of climate change terrify me. The defunding of our public education system and the corporate buy-out of the academy by the same companies that are causing the problem now makes it even harder to get an education in the solutions to crisis.

In the face of such massive injustice, I have often felt hopeless. But the Gill Tract - The 20 year, grassroots community struggle for the Gill Tract - This gives me hope.

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This spring, I will be taking a semester off so that I can get a hands-on education in grassroots struggle to create a living future. I am going to be working to help save the Gill Tract.

Starting in January, I am going to be an intern with Food First , an internationally known "think-and-do tank". I will be coordinating a statewide tour of the nationally-released Occupy the Farm film, followed by a speaking and listening tour with Eric Holt-Gimenez, director of Food First, and author of "Food Movements Unite" and "Campesino a Campesino".

Watch the trailer for the Occupy the Farm film:


We are building a statewide "Coalition for the Commons" and highlighting the opportunity for innovation from a 20 acre Center for Urban Agriculture and Food Justice at the Gill Tract Farm, housed within our land-grant, public university.

A center would provide our thought-leaders of tomorrow with an education in the soil- an education in the basic fundamentals of what we really need to live.

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The Gill Tract Farm is the last 20 acres of what was an 104 acre farm that the University of California bought back in 1928. The UC's real-estate branch has been trying to develop the land for 20 years despite community, student, and faculty opposition. 

Thanks to Occupy the Farm, 10 acres has been saved for 10 years , but 5-6 acres are set to be paved this year. None of the Gill Tract is permanently protected.

Learn more about the Gill Tract:
- An Abbreviated History
- A Virtual Tour

Saving the Gill Tract means protecting a source of resilience in what is now a densely populated urban area with high levels of air pollution and food insecurity. It means protecting arable land at the convergence of three creeks in an era of escalating droughts. And most importantly, saving the Gill Tract means holding our public university accountable to fulfill its mission to provide hands-on learning opportunities and research grounded in community needs.

This is our LAST CHANCE to save all twenty acres of this historic farmland. Community members have been carrying on this struggle for 20 years. In this last year, we are going to give it our all.

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I am turning to you, my family, friends, and community, to please support my leap of hope. 

In a time when change feels close to impossible, it takes community of care and compassion to support the courage to attempt impossible things.

I am trying to raise 3,000 dollars to help cover rent, food, and basic expenses for January-April. Any additional funds I raise will help support the campaign.

Thank you for whatever you can contribute.