Lawmakers want to take the right to farm in Detroit away.

**mpow** · October-07-10, 09:11 AM

What? excuse me if this has been posted....
http://www.mackinac.org/13629

**Melocoton** · October-07-10, 09:19 AM

I'd personally be very skeptical of Mackinac Center news releases claiming to champion Detroit and its community gardeners, considering their right-wing orientation and the fact that elsewhere on the website, they say this:

"The biggest threat to freedom in America is from within — the modern day green movement."

So it's hard to judge from that article what the law is intended to do, but I imagine it's targeted at potentially large commercial farms--like the proposed Hantz farms, maybe--rather than your average organic empty lot farmer or backyard gardener. And it makes some sense--if a big commercial farmer, like Hantz, sets up nearby a neighborhood, don't the residents of that neighborhood have the right to some protection from noxious odors that animals, composting facilities, etc. might produce?

**mpow** · October-07-10, 09:35 AM

yet, the law's intent is to go retroactive for ten years. http://www.legislature.mi.gov/docume...0-hIB-6458.htm

**Danny** · October-07-10, 10:01 AM

Detroit is a city not a farming community. We Detroiters do have the right to have a garden type urban farming, not animal farming due to sanitation issues.

**Eric_c** · October-07-10, 10:05 AM

Whatever. Like that's even enforceable in Detroit. Just more time-wasting bullshit.

Heh. LET somebody try to tell the average Detroiter to NOT do ANYTHING! Lol!

**Blueidone** · October-07-10, 10:13 AM

Is Detroit's population over 900,000? Does Michigan have ANY city with that kind of population? If not....it's REALLY a waste of time!

**MCP-001** · October-07-10, 12:51 PM

The farmers are scared of a little competition???

**BrushStart** · October-07-10, 01:06 PM

Originally Posted by MCP-001

The farmers are scared of a little competition???

It's ironic that Detroit's urban farming is in the crosshairs of a conservative agenda, seeing as many large-scale farming industries have been recieving major government subsidies for decades.

**EastsideAl** · October-07-10, 01:14 PM

That website, from the Mackinac Center who are a bunch of radical property rights cranks, really misrepresents that bill. No one is going to be stopped from urban gardening or urban farming. All it does is to allow the city to regulate its own land use and keep out large agri-business farms if they want.

The law that it exempts Detroit from is a bill that was essentially passed via the lobbying of big agri-business, and one that is a favorable protection for them. It particularly protects them from being regulated by any local authority and being sued over the effects of their practices on the people who live near them.

**MCP-001** · October-07-10, 01:23 PM

All the more reason to oppose this bill.

**gnome** · October-07-10, 01:34 PM

jesus christ you people are stupid.

**EastsideAl** · October-07-10, 01:57 PM

Originally Posted by BrushStart

It's ironic that Detroit's urban farming is in the crosshairs of a conservative agenda, seeing as many large-scale farming industries have been recieving major government subsidies for decades.

Agri-business is the most subsidized and protected large sector in our economy. We wouldn't want those backyard and vacant lot farmers in Detroit taking their "rights" away, now would we?

**ndavies** · October-07-10, 02:51 PM

Originally Posted by BrushStart

It's ironic that Detroit's urban farming is in the crosshairs of a conservative agenda, seeing as many large-scale farming industries have been recieving major government subsidies for decades.

You did notice the bill was initiated by the democrats? It was the democrats trying to put restrictions on the urban farming not republicans.

**EastsideAl** · October-07-10, 02:57 PM

Again, it is not a restriction on urban farming.

**Russix** · October-07-10, 03:20 PM

Originally Posted by mpow

Lawmakers want to take the right to farm in Detroit away.

No, lawmakers want more regulations over urban farming than what is currently allowed in the Right to Farm Act. Here's a comment that sums it up well:

This does not make it harder. It in fact protects the City of Detroit to make its own regulations, responsive to the community and the growers. It further protects the City from commercial interests that may have no regard for best practices in the context of the neighborhood in which they locate. It keeps the ability of the city and its residents to determine what is best and not determined by outside interests.

**Todd_Scott** · October-07-10, 04:41 PM

Russ Harding is absolutely clueless once again. It's clear he has no understanding about the problems with Michigan's Right to Farm law and urban agriculture. The former is what's keeping the city from allowing more urban ag. Best farming practices for the countryside are not the same as for in an urban setting -- but the current situation ignores this difference.

The bill should be supported and passed.

**Novine** · October-08-10, 10:48 PM

RTF has its good aspects and its bad. Bad is when it's been used as a shield by the AG lobby and corporate farmers operating CAFOs to turn Michigan's rivers and streams into open sewers. Detroit isn't a rural area and farming activity in the city should be regulated. RTF largely exempts farming operations from almost any regulation. That's not appropriate for activities within the city.

DetroitDad · October-08-10, 11:09 PM

Well, nobody has told me clearly which way to vote yet... should I vote for this proposal or against it? Come on people! WAG THE DOG!

**lalynch** · October-09-10, 02:38 PM

Originally Posted by MCP-001

The farmers are scared of a little competition???

Doubt it. I'm a market master for a small farmers market in Lincoln Park. The small local farmers that sell at farmers markets welcome competition because the more farmers at a farmers market the more customers.

I bet that someone like Monsanto is behind this bill because a commercial farm like Hantz Farms would be competition to those much larger farms.

Stosh · October-09-10, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by DetroitDad

Well, nobody has told me clearly which way to vote yet... should I vote for this proposal or against it? Come on people! WAG THE DOG!

Last time I looked you weren't in the Michigan legislature.

**erikd** · October-10-10, 06:11 AM

It is good to see that the fucking idiots in Lansing are still hard at work and focusing on the real issues.

The fact that we can't afford to send police and EMS units out to most of the emergency 911 calls in the city is no big deal. Actual life and death situations are trivial fodder, because our brilliant leaders are dealing with the really important issues, like making sure that nobody smokes a cigarette within 20 feet of an entrance to a bar, or passing laws that regulate the sale of produce grown in a community garden, or making sure that everybody wears their seatbelt, or supporting a constitutional amendment that keeps the evil gay people from having equal rights.

Are we really debating the merits of some vague law concerning urban gardens? Are we on candid camera here?

It is time to wake up and smell the shitpile that we are standing in. This state is completely falling apart, and our leaders are dealing with this crisis by passing laws against smoking near a bar door, selling tomatoes from your backyard garden, and making sure that gay people can't get married.

What is going on here? How is this happening? Is there anybody out there that actually thinks that these are the important issues that we should be focusing on in this time of crisis?