So finally, an investor with practically limitless access to capital finds a unique need and a potential future industry....is willing to commit funds...
Part of my worry is that it's a way for all the urban farmers to get their foot in the door in a big way. It starts with MSU's 100 acres, which will develop a sense of normalcy around the idea of giant farms inside of Detroit. It can snowball from there, and I'm not so sure that's a good thing.
Here's my problem with it: what makes Detroit, which was historically a dumping ground for industrial contaminants, especially well-suited for farming? I just don't see what competitive advantage Detroit offers over traditional rural areas. It will be cramped in comparison to a normal rural area and it will be based in a market that for various reasons has been unable to support the amount of grocery stores/fresh produce stores you'd expect for its population level.
Sure, MSU can afford to stay long-term in weak markets like that, but what about private entities?
All in all, urban farming just sounds philosophically like an easy way out to me. Rather than hold ourselves accountable for Detroit's downfall and do some real soul searching, we instead want to revert large chunks of Detroit into some kind of weird subsistence agriculture experiment. Sure, it'll bring food sources closer to Detroit, but it will also put larger spaces between the residential and commercial areas of Detroit and the rest of Metro Detroit.
People thought all of that urban planning in the '60s was great at the time, too. Now, most urban planners consider it an unmitigated disaster. Looks like history is about to repeat itself if they have their way.
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