UBC Farm - History

History

The farm, located on traditional Musqueam First Nation's territory, has been part of UBC since 1915. However, the Farm of 1915 was not located at its current position, but reached from the Nitobe Memorial Garden to the Thunderbird Stadium. In 1970 the Farm moved closer to its current position at Wesbrook Place. During the 1990s activity on the agricultural area in the South of campus declined and in 1997 the area was declared a "Future Housing Reserve". A student-initiated program, supported by the Faculties of Science and Forestry, began in 1999 to advocate for the revival of the UBC Farm. 2008 saw the announcement of plans, to reduce the size of the Farm or to move it somewhere else entirely. This caused the Alma Mater Society club "Friends of the UBC Farm" to start the "Save the Farm" campaign and advocate for the conservation of the Farm. This campaign caused a shift in policy and on December 1, 2009 UBC Board of Governors stated that the area of the UBC Farm would no longer be considered a housing reserve. In 2011 the area was declared a "Green Academic" zone, which "will be kept primarily as open areas to support land-based teaching, research and community engagement".