‘Save the Farm’ Is Rallying Cry at Pierce College

Waving signs and shouting chants, more than 500 people gathered at Pierce College on Sunday to protest plans to convert the college’s farm into a golf course.

Protester Elisa O’Brien of West Hills said she has always considered Pierce College an agricultural institute and believes it should stay that way.

“It’s always been a breath of fresh air driving by Pierce College farm and watching the Canadian geese coming here every year,” said O’Brien, 42, a former Pierce student.

The Canada geese, however, may no longer consider the farm a destination if the Los Angeles Community College District’s Board of Trustees follows through with its plan to turn the 240-acre property into a golf course.

On Sunday, supporters of the farm expressed their displeasure over the golf course proposal during an afternoon rally on the northwest end of the property.

Motorists driving along Victory Boulevard near De Soto Avenue were greeted by protesters waving signs and shouting, “Don’t wait too long! It’s going, going, going, gone!”

“It’s one of the only stands we have as citizens, to try and stand up for something we believe in,” said West Hills resident Rachel Orr, 42, holding a sign that read “Geese, not golf.”

There was action inside the chain-link fence separating the farm from the sidewalk too. Members of the college’s student coalition to save the farm were on hand to gather signatures and distribute pamphlets and information at the old Cicero Farm building.

Against the backdrop of the farm’s rolling hillside, Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica); Susan Nissman, senior field deputy for Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky; and coalition co-chair Jacky deHaviland spoke in support of the farm.

Kuehl told the crowd: “We just don’t believe there ought to be [a golf course] taking the place of a very, very important, critical and unique program in our community. There are very, very few urban environments in which agriculture and the concerns about agriculture and the environment are taught in a laboratory setting.”