City OKs farming project on Detroit's east side

[begingri]

By JOHN GALLAGHER
Detroit Free Press Business Writer

The City of Detroit has given permission to Hantz Farms to purchase 20 small parcels of land on Detroit’s east side for a demonstration farming project.

The agreement bars Hantz Farms from selling any products to the public. Michael Score, president of Hantz Farms, said the organization was pleased to be taking this step forward.

“We believe that this acquisition provides us with the opportunity to demonstrate what we can do to restore and beautify abandoned property. While the acquisition of this site is just the beginning, it is a milestone, and we look forward to ‘getting in the ground.’”

The parcels are located near Hantz Farms’ offices at 17403 Mt. Elliott.


Source: http://www.freep.com/article/2011030...it-s-east-side

[Gannon]

Why would they ban the sale of his produce to the public?! That makes NO f'in' sense at all.

Did they also ban the use of GM seedstock...of course not.

This is not a good thing...unless Hantz suddenly gets a soul and goes completely organic and forces the city's hand at allowing community composting.


I haven't listened to his group's plans lately, but don't expect it. He is a numbers guy, and the GM seed companies can show greater yields per acre.

[old guy]

This is not a good thing...unless Hantz suddenly gets a soul and goes completely organic and forces the city's hand at allowing community composting.

What does that mean? Is it illegal to have compost in Detroit, or is it illegal to do it as a group or something?

[sumas]

On my way to other things.

Here is a murder map of neighborhoods in Detroit: ... in at their office, which is at 17403 Mt. Elliott Street, near 6 Mile and Van Dyke. ...
www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1945183
????? Note address

[Gannon]

We've consistenly had trouble with one particular fellow within the administration who had to approve it...and were continually shot down for obtuse reasons. He just didn't get it.

That was in the previous administration, though, if I remember correctly. Maybe he was looking for the standard bribe, and couldn't see urban garderners gleaning enough for his lifestyle! LOL.

I've had friends closer to the ground within the urban agriculture movement go to Hantz's meetings and such, so most of my information today is secondhand. I will be honestly surprised and elated if things have changed since the last time I paid any attention to it all.


I REALLY want Hantz to be a real guy and help everyone grow their OWN food, as well as growing some for public sale...but because real urban gardeners through the Eastern Market initiative and other street vendings are his natural competition, I cannot imagine that. He will become the bully if left unchecked, he will HAVE to...in order to protect his investment.


That logical continuation would seemingly indicate his use of GM seedstock and petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides...all things what are totally contrary to the honest holistic whole-Earth approach of those like Kate at Spirit Farms, our man Cub on Georgia Street, Gregg of Brother Nature, and the smaller community gardens that are ALL OVER this town now.

IF he were a real guy, he'd totally sponsor Kate's DUST holistic college, and the Capuchin monk's longtime work over at the Earthworks project, and fully fund the Greening of Detroit to do anything and everything they've EVER dreamed of. Because THEY are the future of Detroit urban agriculture, not this deep-pocketed corporate capitalist...who only by his natural habits will have to continue exerting his influence to STOP all of this momentum, since it is his competition. I have hope against hope that he becomes our true savior and not a false one.

If anything, the City Council should insist that ALL Gentically-Modified seedstock be grown ONLY in controlled environments, full greenhouses with sealed air and water and waste. I'm talking only direct genetic 'implants', not standard hybrids, they are totally different things, the GM stuff contains ANIMAL DNA and other strange stuff that allows plants to contain and store some pesticides, which is completely contrary to nature and will be dangerous to organic crops across the road and all of our bees and other necessary insects and other living beings a bit further up the food chain.

No matter what you read in any studies. They have successfully capped any and all research contrary to their production...when the leading studies on the bee die-offs in Europe indicated clearly these GM crops with the ability to carry pesticide within their stalks were to blame.

The proof was the fact that all countries that outlaws use of such plants had NO trouble with their bees, while EVERY one that allowed 'em, including the US, had significant bee population die off. It did hit Michigan, too, but I haven't seen the results lately. It is as if the whole discussion simply went away, but I'm pretty sure the problem has NOT.


Without bees, we have a serious problem. I need to follow up on what happened to the almond crop in CA last year...got off my game for a while keeping up on these things.


Cheers

[Hypestyles]

... if the produce is not sold directly to the public, who is it sold to? Area grocers?

can the city charter commission create a department of Agriculture Development, to directly address issues like organic farming, non-polluting policies, etc.

[skyl4rk]

There are not too many crops you can grow that will make enough to pay 65 mills of property tax on your farmland.

[Django]

There are not too many crops you can grow that will make enough to pay 65 mills of property tax on your farmland.

I can think of three off hand but I dont think they would go over too well with the DPD. We could turn this city around easy if we could though.


Im with Gannon on the GM seed stocks. The companies designing those seeds are fucking evil.
Makes me wonder if Afghanistan and Burma are now using GM Papaver Sonifferum Poppy seeds. I know, thats pretty out there.

[Rocko]

That's a beautiful semi-industrial neighborhood....I wonder what the partical fallout is up there? It's good to see the city finally take a step forward with this, though.

[Mikeg]

On my way to other things.
Here is a murder map of neighborhoods in Detroit: ... in at their office, which is at 17403 Mt. Elliott Street, near 6 Mile and Van Dyke. ...
www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1945183
????? Note address

Money quote from the out-of-town reporter who started that thread:

"And I learnt that the true sound of Detroit isn't techno but the chirping of crickets "

[Gannon]

We've consistenly had trouble with one particular fellow within the administration who had to approve it...and were continually shot down for obtuse reasons. He just didn't get it.

To be clear, I realize I never answered your question OldGuy.

The city had to approve a large-scale community composting facility, and it was continually denied for spurious reasons. Like the potential smell wafting down many blocks of emptiness.

As IF that kept the Marathon refinery from expanding, LOL.


Sorry I went off like a man possessed. I may be.

With passion for this whole urban agriculture continuum...done the OLD FASHIONED and time-tested way. Well away from ANY and ALL of the new-fangled science that will soon turn our national breadbasket into yet another dust bowl.

Not to mention what this run-off has done to the waterways leading to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico.


Monsanto and Cargill and the likes of 'em have poisoned the Earth with their abuses, and I fear we will be suffering from their mono-crop idiocy very soon.

I only tasted REAL corn for the very first time in my life at a Native ceremony in the fall...blue and meaty and amazing. Nothing at all like the number 2 variant yellow stuff, or the sweet corn they've pushed on us for years.

But the Number 2 variant is the best to make high fructose corn syrup from...as well as any number of corn-based product. So the corporate capitalist world ignores the bounty of Mother Nature and chooses ONE over all the rest.

Because it yields more in so many ways...excepting nutrition, of course.



Yeah, I am a man possessed. Pissed about this all, too.


But again, I pray that this now-famous man Hantz gets some divine intervention and an awakening that will help the rest of us truly change the face of Detroit and feed the people in trade for their labor in all the aspects of this endeavor. As long as they can grow their own, too.



And you're right, Django, we need to become an economic development zone outside the standard Federal idiocy against Hemp, Poppy, and what would that third product crop be?!


IF we could develop hemp again...making canvas, clothing, rope, paper, fuel...and finally the 'fiberglass' that Henry Ford made the original Model T prototype out of.

THAT is the future industry of Detroit.

As well as turning silica sand and recovered/recycled glass into varieties of glass products...starting with flat glass for building rejuvenation...greenhouses...water solar distillation...and finally solar electrical panels.


We can have all the raw materials growning IN the city...with very little petrol necessary to transport it to production.


Same with all the ingredients for beers and wine [[I loved hearing that story about the Belle Isle wine company).


EVERYTHING we'd need to feed tourists who'd come here for our creative forces and history...locally produced so it would be genuine Detroit. This is the industryial revolution of the new millenia without cheap oil.

Because the old way is quite done, folks. If you cannot see it, you're not looking close and far enough!


Sincerely,
John

obviously over-caffeinated...and under-medicated.

[Gannon]

We need to create an economic 'funnel' that allows us to once again create product that can be sold to the world, yet sustain directly those within the local economy, and even DRAW the world to visit us. Either way, it needs to be shaped like the one Hollywood has, always draining wealth from OUTSIDE the city into everyone's pockets here.

That is the ONLY way this city will rise from the ashes we've been wallowing in my entire lifetime.

[Gannon]

http://hempcar.org/ford.shtml

[softailrider]

When you talk to people from other states, or, other countries and you try and describe this urban farming in Detroit, whomever you're talking to looks at you like you're crazy.

[NorthEndere]

When you talk to people from other states, or, other countries and you try and describe this urban farming in Detroit, whomever you're talking to looks at you like you're crazy.

And? So what?

[GUSHI]

They don't realize how much land Detroit has in its borders.

When you talk to people from other states, or, other countries and you try and describe this urban farming in Detroit, whomever you're talking to looks at you like you're crazy.

[Det_ard]

Might as well farm the vacant land, make a little money, feed the people, but I don't expect a significant economic or jobs impact. It'll be more of an idiosyncratic quirk of the region. It may generate a better financial return through increased eco-hipster tourism than basic agriculture.

[Gannon]

Those would go hand-in-hand! LOL


Here is something that just crossed my perception:

http://savingseeds.wordpress.com/201...ood-ordinance/

[robyn]

I know this isn't perfect and there are some bumps along the road. But, I think this is such a positive step in the right direction. As a fellow gardener myself, this gives the participants not only a food source and a great way to use land, but it also give those involved something they can take pride in and learn from. A great thing, indeed!

[stromberg2]

By the way, if done properly, compost never smells bad. In fact, it smells like fresh earth.

Stromberg2

[SWMAP]

There are so many directions urban farming can take us. I, too, think this is a good move. There's plenty of room for both commercial and non-commercial.

I saw this article last weekend in the NYT: "Greenhouse Projects nurture Produce and Workers" The project, called Arthur & Friends, trains developmentally disabled workers to grow pristine, sustainable produce for restaurants and farmers’ markets. About 200 people have been educated in the art of dirtless farming, and more are waiting to learn
"Participants work 8 to 20 hours a week in a four-tier, 200-hour program that trains them in hydroponic agriculture and also teaches invoicing, ordering, shipping, conducting online sales and interacting with customers.
People with disabilities “have long been excluded from the workforce, and have been given jobs to keep people busy — repetitive manual labor or janitorial duties,” said Elaine E. Katz, vice president of grant programs at the Kessler Foundation, which gave $48,162 to establish the Sussex County greenhouse in 2008 and $500,000 more in 2009 to expand the project to Hackettstown and other sites.
The project is unusual, she said, because it is potentially profitable and provides jobs with the possibility of advancement.
Mrs. Blanchard said the workers “were breaking their own stereotypes about themselves.” She added, “As their sense of independence and entitlement increases, their dependency on their families and friends — and on social services — goes down.”
One trainee, Andrew Cohen, 43, has risen to assistant greenhouse manager in Hackettstown despite developmental and anxiety disorders. “My goal is fulltime employment,” he said. “It keeps you from being in the house and being bored.”
When graduates are hired in the program’s greenhouses, their hourly pay rate can range from $7.45 to $13, depending on their responsibilities.
Participants work 8 to 20 hours a week in a program that trains them in hydroponic agriculture and also teaches invoicing, ordering, shipping, conducting online sales and interacting with customers."

[Marc]

I think we all want urban farming. There are very few people that think it's downright a bad idea. It's true that Detroit has a seemingly endless supply of vacant land, nobody would question that. And, no doubt, seeing rows of flourishing vegetables rise up out of the ashes of last years arsons to provide quality food for the many starving in Detroit's food deserts is a sight we would all like to see.

The question is whether or not Hantz farm is going to provide this kind of future, or anything close, or anything remotely close to close. Hantz makes it very clear that his intentions are for profit and there is nothing wrong with that. But it is important to note that commercial farming can be done in a way that is healthy for the environment, healthy for the community, and healthy for the economy. It can also be done in the exact opposite fashion. Commercial farming done wrong [[as currently done so by many mega-farms today) can rape the land of nutrients, kill off local wildlife, destroy communities and damage local economies. I could go into details on this but this is a forum not a book.

The point is this, a farm can be a great thing for a community, but it is not inherently a great thing. Hantz has yet to show any real plan to create a healthy farming system that will benefit our city. He has provided cartoon like sketches to suggest to the general public that his farm will be a playground of fresh vegetables and green technologies for all but has provided no framework or plan as to how his farm will operate, and that is the serious issue.


On a very relevant side note, Detroit is actually known throughout the world for it's community sourced agriculture. Detroit has more individual farms than any urban city in the nation [[maybe the world) and they are very successful. It's hard to walk down a street or ally in Hamtramck Heights without being bombarded with squash, beans, and peppers. And many non-profit organizations are doing amazing things in the city that are getting recognized daily throughout the world. Yes, commercial and non-profit can work simultaneously [[Salvation Army V. Value World) but we should really be careful to protect what we have going here and make sure any commercial plans are regulated to benefit all.

[cub]

I agree with Marc.

[Blueidone]

I agree with Marc and Cub

[stromberg2]

I agree with Marc, Cub and Blue.

Stromberg2