Urban Farming Cleaning Up Detroit
Detroit Residence Plant Small Gardens for Needy in Abadoned Lots
Sep 8, 2008
Urban Farming, a non-profit organization, saw something in Detroit that many people around the nation have noticed. Detroit has been hit extremely hard by the foreclosure crisis and the country’s economic downturn. According to the Ann Arbor News, Michigan will lose 51,300 jobs in 2008. Economists do not expect economic upturn in Detroit until 2010.
Due to the economic and housing crisis in Detroit, Urban Farming believed there was no better place to begin their mission.
The Mission of Urban Farming
Due to the economic situation in Detroit the founder of Urban Farming Taja Seville decided there was no better place to begin than where people need help the most. Urban Farming’s mission is to “eradicate hunger while increasing diversity, motivating youth and seniors and optimizing the production of unused land for food and alternative energy.”
Urban Farming Helps the Detroit Community
According to the Urban Farming website through partnerships with local business and support of the community Urban Farming plants food for the needy to pick and eat. Urban Farming also facilitates mentoring programs to teach both youths and adults about agriculture, fossil fuels, math, science, life skills and the advantages of healthy eating habits.
An NPR report sites Urban Farming has taken over nearly 20 derelict properties in Detroit and the surrounding areas alone. After the food is grown and dispersed what ever is left over is donated to local food banks.
In the same NPR report citizens of Detroit praise Urban Farming. Detroit Resident Eric Parrish told NPR “You can tell people are struggling. So when I do see these plots of land it makes me say, 'I want to garden there.”
The Future Of Urban Farming
Urban Farms are now popping up all over the country. Urban Farming is not the only nonprofit seeking to eradicate hunger by using land and spaces that otherwise waste away.
Time.com displays a slideshow of images from urban farms across metropolitan America including San Francisco, Boston, New York and Chicago. The pictures boast of future farms grown vertically on sky rise buildings, off lakefronts on farm towers and agricultural pyramids free of pesticides and parasites.
While these ideas are those of urban farms future the urban farms of the present are bringing communities together to serve the needy and to clean up the foreclosure crisis that threatens Detroit and so many American cities. Urban farming is also being used to eradicate other problems facing Americans today, such as, global warming and loss of land space.
 |
