Scalability of urban farming

[Huggybear]

Maybe the racial apprehension in the article is driven precisely the fact that many Detroiters are only a couple of generations past being exploited by sharecropping [[or worse) in the south. People came up here for good-paying industrial jobs, not to scrape by at subsistence farming.

A couple of other questions/comments:

1. Did you mean "Antarctica" rather than "Australia?" Australia has indigenous agriculture.

2. The argument that people grew their own food on every continent is a bit of a stretch. The rural/urban divide has been acute for about 5,000 years, and cities [[if not empires) often imported the bulk of their staples from other places. Rome, for example, had no nearby large-scale agriculture and was heavily dependent on Spain [[other end of the same continent) and north Africa [[obviously a different one).

The article touched on many great points, although I found this comment pretty odd: "Additionally, farming is often associated with white culture while more than 80 percent of the city’s current population is black." Um, what percentage of that black Detroit population is only a generation or two removed from FARMS in the South? Where on earth did they think our grandparents did growing up? EVERYONE except for the small percentage of us that are descended from the upper classes is only a few generations removed from a FARM. Sure, many areas our immediate ancestors worked in were agricultural monocultures [[e.g., cotton, tobacco, wheat), but poor and working people of ALL RACES GREW THEIR OWN FOOD ON EVERY CONTINENT EXCEPT AUSTRALIA for at least the past two millennia.

Urban farming is not a white vs. black thing! Only in Detroit... sigh...

[English]

Maybe the racial apprehension in the article is driven precisely the fact that many Detroiters are only a couple of generations past being exploited by sharecropping [[or worse) in the south. People came up here for good-paying industrial jobs, not to scrape by at subsistence farming.

Beyond that, judging from conversations that I've had, some Detroiters feel that there is an element of white [[liberal) paternalism involved. The notion of idealistic whites overseeing young blacks and Mexicans as they learn how to grow "organic produce" makes some people antsy. I certainly don't feel that way, but others do.

The argument that people grew their own food on every continent is a bit of a stretch. The rural/urban divide has been acute for about 5,000 years, and cities [[if not empires) often imported the bulk of their staples from other places. Rome, for example, had no nearby large-scale agriculture and was heavily dependent on Spain [[other end of the same continent) and north Africa [[obviously a different one).

Until relatively recently in human history, the majority of humanity wasn't urban. My post wasn't meant as a treatise on growing fields of wheat in the middle of a city. Urban populations prior to the last century engaged in forms of animal husbandry and small-scale gardening to supplement their nutritional needs.

Did you mean "Antarctica" rather than "Australia?" Australia has indigenous agriculture.

I could be wrong about this. What I learned in school was that indigenous Australians altered their environment to make it more favorable for hunting and gathering, but never engaged in what specialists consider agriculture. But I'm happy to be corrected.

[maxx]

I think the most important info from the vegan blog was about brown fields and their potential to harm people. Aren't there grasses that leach out some poisonous substances?

[Danny]

Detroit does need urban farming since real estate values worth its weight in lead. Most folks in the ghetto are still buying those 'Soylent Green' processed foods and there are fewer organic markets. It's time to return Detroit back to farmland until property values go up.


WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET

Because healthy food is a birthright as air and water for Neda's sake.

[Huggybear]

Beyond that, judging from conversations that I've had, some Detroiters feel that there is an element of white [[liberal) paternalism involved. The notion of idealistic whites overseeing young blacks and Mexicans as they learn how to grow "organic produce" makes some people antsy. I certainly don't feel that way, but others do.

No kidding, patronization. People have always had backyard gardens - but this latest discourse goes over the top. "Sustainability" is the magic word that allows people to rationalize imposing their way of thinking on others.