Michigan's Right to Farm Act has proper standards and flexibility for urban settings

[begingri]

BY ANDREW KOK
DETROIT FREE PRESS GUEST WRITER

The Michigan Farm Bureau supports a greener Detroit, and we're happy to help residents farm or garden. But growing Detroit does not require changes to the Michigan Right to Farm Act.

Every state has a Right to Farm Act. Michigan has a model that already covers greenhouses and farm markets in Detroit, Grand Rapids and many other cities. If there are unique situations in Detroit that require special ordinances, the city can address them without amending the law.

The Right to Farm Act allows local governments to enact additional ordinances, subject to review by the Michigan Commission of Agriculture. We urge Detroit to work through this established process.

We also encourage city planners to think twice about adopting their own regulations; farmers don't want to grapple with inconsistent rules. The Right to Farm Act is popular largely because it prevents a patchwork of regulations.

Continued at: http://www.freep.com/article/2011030...9/1068/opinion

[Al Publican]

Whatever happened to Detroit's "Farm-a-lot" program? Is it still in place? If so, does City Hall encourage the program or, as usual, permit the heck out of those that want to plant gardens in vacant lots?

[jeanofarc]

Then why does the Detroit Food Policy Council have a problem with it? Detroit should be able to have an organic ordinance which is important to keep big gmo farmers out. Tjere is something that I don't quite understand.

[maxx]

Doesn't "organic" refer to the use of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides? GMO is a different issue.

I am guessing that the definition of a farm does not include livestock, right?

[Fnemecek]

The Michigan Farm Bureau supports a greener Detroit, and we're happy to help residents farm or garden. But growing Detroit does not require changes to the Michigan Right to Farm Act.

Every state has a Right to Farm Act. Michigan has a model that already covers greenhouses and farm markets in Detroit, Grand Rapids and many other cities. If there are unique situations in Detroit that require special ordinances, the city can address them without amending the law.

Yep, I said the same thing back in November.

http://warrendale.blogspot.com/2010/...nt-excuse.html

[Pam]

Doesn't "organic" refer to the use of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides? GMO is a different issue.

To be organically certified, products are also supposed to free of GMOs.

[fryar]

Then why does the Detroit Food Policy Council have a problem with it? Detroit should be able to have an organic ordinance which is important to keep big gmo farmers out. Tjere is something that I don't quite understand.

Big gmo farmers are looking at Detroit? Isn't this whole thing a nascent movement? Is that guy Hantz ever going to debut his mega-farm?

On another note, I think you may be on to something. It is an opportunity for Detroit to regain some cachet, to do some branding. It's like Amish cheese in the supermarket cooler, which can command a premium in price because it is perceived to have been done right. The question of what that means, precisely, isn't even that important [[although, with the Amish, it probably is organic). Now the premium in price means lower volume, which may mean less total profit for the producer. But there are almost certainly positive externalities for the Amish community as a whole. Eccentrics who purchase their hand-made craftsman furniture from the Amish because the cheese in the supermarket has increased the Amish brand's visibility.

"This head of lettuce was grown in Detroit, so you know it's done right - it's the law." Or some such with better marketing potential.

It's not like Detroit has to work its way up to organic by way of fertilizer-based produce.