Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Harvest time in Detroit
If the collapse of the U.S. auto industry has turned Detroit into what some say is an “urban prairie,” then why not do with this vacant land what settlers once did with the original American prairie: farm it. Some agricultural pioneers have already begun to convert some of Detroit’s empty lots to small farms, turning desolation into productivity and in the process improving the local food supply for the needy.
The international organization Urban Farming moved its headquarters to Detroit last year because the struggling city seemed ideal to promote its mission of converting city property into viable agricultural fields. The group is hoping to triple the number of urban farms in the city every year, and give away the food to the poor.
“Were I an aspiring farmer in search of fertile land to buy and plow, I would seriously consider moving to Detroit,” writes Mark Dowie in Guernica. “There is open land, fertile soil, ample water, willing labor, and a desperate demand for decent food.” Dowie adds that Detroit “may be best positioned to become the world’s first 100% food self-sufficient city.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Detroit: Urban Laboratory and the New American Frontier (by Aaron Renn, New Geography)
Food Among the Ruins (by Mark Dowie, Guernica)
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