Cultivate Detroit's Significant Farming Opportunity

     One likely component of any viable plan to reverse blight and reclaim Detroit's vacant land for productive use is legislative action to boost the city's nascent urban farming movement.   Mayor Dave Bing says he's open to promoting the cultivation of crops south of 8 Mile. Sometime this year, Detroit City Council members will likely be asked to add a new zoning designation authorizing commercial agricultural production in neighborhoods previously restricted to residential, retail or manufacturing development.  

     And one visionary entrepreneur vows to market his first crop of salad greens this fall, even if he has to use hydroponic growing methods to comply with zoning that currently precludes the commercial cultivation of the city's soil.   To Detroiters who grew up in a densely populated city of some 2 million souls, the notion of urban real estate reverting to farmland may seem a devolutionary development that seals Detroit's demise as a viable city.   But it could also augur changes as revolutionary as those that transformed the transportation industry a century ago.

     Michigan ranks 15th among the 50 states in total agricultural production, seventh in dairy revenue, and first in the production of blueberries, tart cherries and cucumbers.  Yet the vast majority of what Michigan's farms produce ends up on store shelves far from our state's borders. At the same time, most of the fresh produce Michigan residents consume comes from producers half a continent or more away.  Fruits and vegetables typically travel more than 1,800 miles before they reach a Michigan diner's plate.