Many of you have commented my post from yesterday concerning John Hantz's idea to turn Detroit into an urban farming city. I am very happy about the discussion thus far, because while many people have responded positively to this idea, a handful of people have expressed doubts or concerns about Detroit evolving into an urban farm. I whole-heartedly agree with those who have stated that Detroit has a more to offer than farm land. The major hitch is what to do with all of those vacated lots. A city spread out is not in my opinion a unified city. There are huge swaths of the city that are what experts refer to as food "deserts". A food desert is a region in which there is no adequate access to fresh food. This has become a common problem in cities that are experience depopulation, and keeping people spread out will not help solve the problem. In a neighborhood with twenty families a small grocery store could keep in business, but when all but four families move out, it is not economically feasible to stay in business. These are simply factors of supply and demand. With out demand from a sizable population Detroit simply cannot supply those that remain with the current conventional food supply chains in place.
Urban Farming can help support areas in current food deserts and while Detroit has not transformed itself into the giant urban farm of Hantz's dreams, it has created a well established network of community urban gardening initiatives. Earthworks is one such farm that was established to provide for a food bank. Most of the food that food banks receives comes from either donations or the USDA commodity surplus system, both of which are heavy on the processed foods and very light on fresh healthy produce. In an article in Metro Times, Larry Gabriel outlines why urban farms are important for revitalizing and supporting Detroit.
He's motivated to feed people, but he also talks about using the work to empower people. "They can see that we're not just victims," says Yakini. "People will see that we can grow food and we're not dependent on others." ... There are skills to be learned, such as composting and cultivation, marketing and sales, even processing the food into products such as tomato sauce, pickles, jams and jellies. City government needs to create policies that encourage and support urban farming. (The city could legalize beekeeping, for instance.) And it wouldn't hurt if federal subsidies to giant agribusiness either stopped or were more equitably dispersed to smaller farmers. In Cuba, the government got behind the issue and supported training and even land reforms that helped small cooperative farms flourish.
http://www.metrotimes.com/news/story.asp?id=13732
As you can see urban farms are not just about trying to make a profit off of abandoned land, but lay deeply rooted in an commitment to building community and helping those in need help themselves and become independent from government and other organizational outreach. And as for the government subsidies that support large farms...well we'll get to that tomorrow.
If you are interested more about Earthworks Farm here is a link to a video about the farm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JvUQxsU8jc
Here's a question for all of you. What do you know about gardening? About the farm subsidies our taxes pay?
