UVic Students - Food versus Lawns

Recently some student activists at UVic has started to rip up lawn with the intent to plant a garden. Their intent is to be lauded, but their actions make no sense to me because their plan to grow food is doomed to failure and they have harmed the cause they say the support.

• Having any sort of veggie garden in the middle is a lost cause as long as there are the rabbits. Nothing will grow.
• Who will tend this garden? A veggie garden takes work. It is this need for work that is the primary reason most people do not grow a garden for food. The amount of work you put in does not equal what you get out of it for most people.
• The garden is in a location that will be subject to on going vandalism by students.

The action by the activists was clearly a stunt to attract attention. They got the attention, but it also has dramatically damaged their reputation for being serious about the issue. Confrontation with a university that is willing to sit down and talk about things is a bad idea.

It is not like UVic does not have veggie garden space on campus. About 1/3 of an acre is being used at the moment. The garden looks like it will be moving to a larger location at UVic. It is also interesting to note that the people behind the campus community garden are not part of the people protesting.

In one stupid publicity stunt, the protesters have dramatically harmed the cause of food production at UVic. Everyone involved with growing on campus will now be connected with people that destroyed part of the campus. The people actually working on the community garden are going to have spend a lot of time and energy on rebuilding their relationship with the university administration.