Development and Pierce College

I am writing to you regarding the farm at Pierce College. One of my colleagues in the Pierce English Department seriously questions the very meaning of the real estate term “development,” and I agree with her. Looking down Ventura Boulevard, one must define “development” as diminishing, scarring, uglying up, or downright killing the land. That’s right: killing. Once earth is developed, evidently one cannot grow good plants or feed farm animals on it ever again. Instead of developing land at Pierce, we should redirect money into the Pierce farm program so college students can learn and tens of thousands of West Valley children can see a farm like they all read about in story books.

LAWRENCE V. KRIKORIAN, English Professor, Pierce College, Calabasas