Urban Farm
In the early morning of December 19th, 2022, an orchard of apple, plum and pear trees surrounded by beds of long-cultivated soil and centuries-old heritage trees caught the rays of floodlights set up by demolition crews. These were the last moments of the ‘Back 40,’ a beloved section of the University of Oregon’s Urban Farm that was destroyed to make way for phase two of UO’s Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact [1]. Nearby, a quote is printed on a wall inside the Knight Campus building #1 which represents the development’s ethos: “There is no finish line. That is our motto. Let everyone else call your idea crazy… just keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t even think about stopping until you get there, and don’t give much thought to where ‘there’ is. Whatever comes, just don’t stop” [1]. The words, those of Nike CEO Phil Knight, strikingly illuminate how scientific impact was pursued against the will of many students wishing to control their own environment and education. A month ahead of schedule and on the first day of winter break, the crews erected the fences, cut down and chipped the trees in order to create space to stage construction materials that December morning. But students and organizers fought for nearly a year leading up to this point to save the space which was not only a farm but also a classroom and living landscape.
Founded in 1975, The Urban Farm is a 1-¼ acre piece of land affixed with hundreds of garden beds and other food bearing plants. Here, students learn how to grow food for themselves and each other through the Urban Farm Class, and many others enjoy the views and smells of what feels like an ecological sanctuary. Now being encroached upon by the towering Knight Campus, its landscape demonstrates institutional and corporate power facing off against students and place-based values for the right to land.
The farm was a visionary experiment in designing urban areas for food growing [2], started by Landscape Architecture Professor Richard Britz and students. Together they envisioned creating a public commons with elements of food growing and energy production in pursuit of a concept Britz called the “Edible City’ – retrofitting existing empty space within cities to see how much food they could produce. With surplus land available along the Millrace stream, Britz and students began experimenting, and in the process, transformed the area into one of the most unique parts of any major university campus then and now.
Into the 1980s and under the direction of Ann Bettman (who took over from Britz in 1983), the farm continued to grow in size and the Urban Farm course blossomed into one of the most popular classes at the University. However, the space faced consistent threats of building development, most notably from the Riverfront Research Park project in 1986. City and University officials had partnered to coordinate locating new research buildings along the north edge of campus (and over top of the farm), but thanks to opposition from Betman and students, the project decided to site construction in other areas [3]. Over the years, similar developments that threatened the farm arose, but its momentum as a program and presence in the local agrarian community protected its land use.
In the early 90s, students decided to reclaim the abandoned ½ acre area adjacent to the north edge of the farm, clearing out old construction debris and removing invasive blackberry brambles to create what would be known as the ‘Back 40.’ This landgrab was tolerated by the University and the farm added the mixed species fruit orchard, more fenced growing space, and a hoop house to the area. Unlike the other half of the space which had been recognized as outdoor classroom space during early land use advocacy, the Back 40 lacked designation as a part of the farm despite it functioning as one space. In 2011, current farm director Harper Keeler wrote that the farm “would be seriously impacted should any further designs to reduce its usable area be entertained and student objection to such a plan would most likely be considerable.” in his master’s thesis [3].
And he was correct. In early 2022, the UO announced that the second Knight Campus building would come to fruition thanks to a $500 million donation from resident UO alumni billionaires Phil and Penny Knight. The facility, designed for biomolecular research in concert with large corporations, was slated over top of the gravel parking lot along the farm’s east edge. Though it was claimed to not impact the farm, students and the concerned community quickly realized that this was only true for designated farm space. Ensuing public records requests by students found that construction crews planned to level the Back 40 to stage construction materials for the new building. Thirty years of tending to land—building soil health, planting trees, teaching classes, and feeding students—meant little to the university in terms of what was the best use for the space [1].
The divergence between the development plans and the on the ground reality of Urban Farm supporters lead to the emergence of “Save the Urban Farm” – a student led camping to save the Back 40, seeing it as integral to the farm and community. Despite administrative attempts at pacifying concerned students, the group led months of marches, town halls, musical festivals and organizing meetings, generating widespread support against the development. And yet, seemingly little progress was made towards halting it and the demolition date crept closer. Students faced months of confusing public engagement, inaccessible ‘public’ records, inaccurate timelines, and ultimately, undemocratic decision making from the University [1]. Antagonism between students and administrators – particularly Dean of the College Design, Adrian Parr – grew to such a point that the December 19th demolition crews were there a full month ahead of the planned schedule – announced to even the farm director. Clearly wary of supporters taking direct action to protect the space, the UO hastened timelines to begin construction during winter break when most students were away.
Although the outpouring of collective effort was not able to save the Back 40, it did yield the concession of a $1 million grant toward an additional space for urban farming on campus – to be housed on the bank of the Willamette river and called Urban Farm ‘Riverside’ [4]. As of 2026, the new site is still a point of administrative and departmental contention and has yet to be built.
Today, University administration primarily sees the remaining Urban Farm as a chance to continue their marketing ploy of greenwashing and strategic PR boosting – they will likely attempt to shrink place-based programs as such to the point that they are as small as possible on the campus map, but just big enough to get a shot of someone holding a shovel and ‘throwing up the O’ for a commercial. This contradiction between what students experience here and what values the University projects has implications – that those invested in the soil will constantly be struggling against development and loss if they are in a spot that is ‘buildable” (and farms and gardens are always ‘buildable’ as compared to other spots on the campus map). In order to preserve the few remaining places of growing food (and our souls) students will need to stay aware of how development works and be ready to fight when it happens – as so many before us have.
A note from the Farm: Wednesday, September 17th, 2025:
This morning I find myself sitting here at one of the farm’s picnic tables, finishing my notes for this entry. As I entered the farm I was greeted by the loud whirring of construction machines and a black, cloth-paneled fence around its back border. I was, once again, stunned by the abruptness of the development, which is most well characterized by the four story and nearly all glass Knight Campus Building II towering over what once was the Back 40. I believe the space, now being used as a staging area, will be returned to the control of the farm when construction is done, but as a blank canvas. A memory of what once was; 50 years of careful tending erased in just a few.
I sit here and ponder the effects of students organizing to save this loved part of the farm. While researching the campaign’s timeline, I was struck by the memory of a small and cold November 4th, 2022 march and rally for the farm. It was somehow the first protest I attended on campus, and in my life for that matter. I had little prior knowledge of the space – I had only walked through it once before – but the crew of campus radicals I had found myself immersed in via The Student Insurgent newspaper had told me the story and gotten me out there with a sign in the drizzle. As the march terminated at the farm’s outdoor pavilion (where I sit now), I and others wrote letters to the Back 40 to process our condolences. Now, just about three years later, I can credit this effort to save part of this space with launching my own trajectory towards campus organizing and activism. It gave me especially important knowledge in my efforts to maintain and protect the Grove Community Garden.
I see that the designation of outdoor classroom space in itself poses a contradiction to the status quo of our campus – that forms of development can take unexpected and even beautiful shapes which are mutually beneficial to the land, students, and University community. And yet this unique landscape has been a site of constant struggle: over land use and the question of the economy vs environment – what use is most important at the University of Oregon? You can tell a lot about a place from how they grow their food – so what is our campus about? Ultimately, this is the heart of the Urban Farm’s experiential education offering – that landscape architects and other students are exposed to an entirely new set of placemaking tools and thrown into the struggle for space as they are learning how to use them – a true practice in political geography and ecology. This potential for a critical land-based connection is a very rare opportunity at the University for students to actually become immersed with where they are. It is one of the few places you will find students with hands in the ground and rain on their face – and this alone is power.
REFERENCES
- https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/249c24c972984456bf647bc2c02b43d4
- Hands in the Soil: Experiential Education at the Urban Farm by ALEXANDRA ODE https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/80854036.pdf
- Considering the Urban Farm Program and the Role of Place-Based Experiential Education in the Pedagogy of Landscape Architecture https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/items/68426f1f-5539-4a83-add9-156820ccebce