Hippie Oko Farms volunteers to get evicted from NYC plot before they can harvest crops
About 600 urban farmers say they are being evicted from their Williamsburg plot so suddenly that they won’t even be able to harvest their last batch of crops.
The volunteer gardeners toiling for Oko Farms — which provides fresh produce to low-income Brooklynites — was warned by Two Trees Management in August that they would need to pack up the hippie operation by November.
The sustainable farmers had been borrowing the real-estate company’s vacant plot along the East River between Metropolitan Avenue and North Third Street since May 2021 as the developer awaited approval to break ground on the final piece of its luxury megadevelopment.
As part of the deal, Oko Farms was granted free rent, but Two Trees retained the right to kick it out with just three months’ notice.
“While we understood that this site would not be permanent, the abruptness of the termination of our lease is unfortunate,” Oko leadership wrote in an online statement.
“However, this is neither surprising nor unusual as far as urban farming is concerned. Land access is one of the, if not the biggest roadblock for urban farms and it has been a constant challenge for us since our inception.”
Oko is asking that Two Trees reconsider the sudden eviction and allow the group to stay through the mid-winter so it can reap the benefits of its harvest, as well as find a new home for its volunteer gardeners.
The makeshift farmers use a unique aquaponic system that relies on fish waste to fertilize plants. Those plants then help to filter water for the fish in a closed-loop system that uses 80% less water than traditional soil farming.
But Two Trees says the requested extension is out of the question. The company has instead offered one extra week on the plot and to store the group’s equipment in a nearby structure until March.
“Two Trees has a long history of providing space for interim community use at its construction sites, and we have been able to host OKO rent-free for four years, longer than initially planned,” a rep for the company told The Post.
“We are now preparing to begin construction on the last building at Domino, which will deliver more than 250 units of affordable housing, and require use of the site.”
The new building will be the second site of the River Ring development, which will consist of two luxury waterfront apartment buildings that will include beaches and a sprawling nature walk.
Most of the project’s 1,000 planned units will be sold at market rate — which for the trendy area means one-bedroom pads going for around $7,000 per month and two-bedrooms netting $11,000 monthly, according to StreetEasy listings.
The farmers’ eviction marks the second time in 10 years that Oko Farms will be forced to move, the group said. The farm operated an original location in Bushwick for a decade until it completely moved to the Williamsburg lot last year.
