Actively Ignored: The Fight for the Urban Farm in Eugene, Oregon
One of these options to save the farm is to go to the City of Eugene and the State of Oregon to designate the farm as a historical site.
Story by Maris Toalson | Photography by Isabel Lemus Kristensen and Liam Sherry
Daily Emerald
Jun 6, 2022
Excerpt:
Tucked away behind the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impacton the north side of Franklin Boulevard rests the Urban Farm. A walk into the Urban Farm reveals rows of lush, green crops and an assortment of weathered wooden structures that contrast with the modern glass building of the nearby Knight Campus. An area in the northeast corner of the farm — known as the “back 40” — hosts lines of flowering fruit trees. The sounds of bird songs and buzzing insects almost overcome the distant roar of traffic.
“It’s one of the only places that I know for students to really get away from the busyness of campus, on campus still,” says Grace Youngblood, a University of Oregon student who has been involved in the Urban Farm for four years. “It provides a step into nature.”
The Urban Farm has been in operation since 1976 and is a space where “people grow food, work together, take care of the land and build community,” according to its website. Run through the Department of Landscape Architecture, the Urban Farm is both a physical space and a program that provides hands-on learning opportunities to students across various disciplines.
However, plans to develop the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact threaten the Urban Farm. The Knight Campus currently features one building — which opened in December 2020 — and is an initiative made possible by donations from Phil and Penny Knight to promote scientific discovery and innovation, according to its website.
