This is the third time the farm has been damaged this semester
On Sunday, Dec. 2 Karen Houle, philosophy professor at U of G and volunteer interim site director at the Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming (GCUOF), found tire tracks throughout the centre fields at the one-hectare learning research facility.
A winter crop of oats and soil-beds that house over 3,500 garlic bulbs were either damaged or destroyed. Almost all labour on the farm, including the planting of the garlic bulbs, occurs on a volunteer basis. Many of Houle’s former students volunteered to plant the garlic bulbs as part of a seminar on “dignity,” Houle told The Ontarion.
“Seeing our collective hard work totally disrespected and actually undone made me feel so crappy about humankind,” said Houle. “What if someone drove a monster truck across Johnston Green and gouged it up into deep ugly muddy ruts?”
This is the third incident of vandalism or theft at the farm this year. In the first incident, personal property was stolen from the main shed after a break-in. In the second incident somebody defecated in GCUOF’s main greenhouse.
“I’m so dispirited by it,” Houle said. “It feels to me like a form of ‘hate speech,’ but against our collective spaces and the beauty we are trying to create and protect.”
Photos by Karen Houle