Urban planting projects are springing up all over the city
and the idea is growing. In the part of
Detroit known as a “Food Desert”, there are no grocery stores. Starting farms seemed like the logical thing
to do. People are hungry and there are
ARCES of unused land in the city. So,
they began to grow. Today, the urban
farms have grown from just feeding the community to SUSTAINING it with a
regular source of income.
Produce from Detroit urban farms can now be found all over
the city. There is a “Grown in Detroit”
section at the Eastern Market, various local restaurants use produce from urban
gardens or, you can just visit the farms yourself and purchase foods. The people that run these gardens would call
them Detroit’s future, but the city is still pushing for more development.
In addition to the dozens of commercial property “for sale”,
the city has written no laws to protect and grown urban farms, on the contrary
the law directly hinders them. There
are limits on the sizes of greenhouses, they don’t actually own the land and if
the city wants to, they can take the land back at any time. …sounds stupid to
me too. It would be simple to give the
farmers land, let them tend it and eat the produce they harvest. After all, the farmers most often are
Detroiters seeking some peace in a restless city.
Since the movie “Grown in Detroit” was created, MSU (Go
green!) has proposed a potential 100 acre, $100 million investment into urban
gardening research in Detroit. This
research facility would put Detroit back on the map as a center for worldwide
urban gardening research. Currently they
are looking for areas on the Lower Eastside that would be suitable for urban
farms and gardens.
I don’t know if farming will be Detroit’s future, but it
does make sense. Maybe not as a major
economic business, but farming within Michigan makes perfect sense to me. The people are hungry. Why not give them an opportunity to grow food
and feed themselves? In addition to
being able to feed their own hunger, they can sell the food and make MONEY to sustain
themselves long term. Also, the benefits
to a generation that has grown up on McDonald’s are too numerous to count. Community, health, knowledge, economic….the
reasons for urban farming seem never ending and I for one can vouch that a
Meijer tomato taste NOTHING like homegrown.
Yup! Detroit is serving up organic, fresh and healthy produce right from its own backyard. Visit facebook.sowdetroit.com for more information.
I heard about urban farming in the past, and I simply love the idea! It really is a great way to improve the community, allowing people to be more self sustaining and less dependent on the city. I really hope that the city works WITH the farmers. I have hope for Detroit.
ReplyDeleteDaniel