Motown Turns Grow-town: Urban Agriculture in Detroit
This article was written by Deeva Green

Motown Turns Grow-town: Urban Agriculture in Detroit

By Deeva Green

Originally posted on Agritecture.com

If there’s one thing Detroit has plenty of, it’s empty lots and empty buildings. Once a city of nearly two million people, Detroit’s population now stands at around 700,000. Large swathes of the city are sparsely populated, their landscapes marked by industrial ruins. Despite the growing appeal of Detroit to the young, creative class, the city remains best known to most as America’s most photogenic ghost town.

But, as I recently discovered on a brief trip to Detroit, it may in fact be Detroit’s emptiness that holds the greatest promise for the city’s future.

***

It was late on a Friday when I checked into my downtown hotel. The hotel was nearly full thanks to several weddings taking place there that weekend, but the neighboring streets were largely empty of people: a few convenience stores with flashing lights were the only signs of life in the immediate surroundings. I didn't know what to expect come daytime.

On Saturday morning, I peeled back my curtains to see the Detroit River and, arching over it, the Ambassador Bridge leading to Canada. Looking down at the streets just below below, my eyes alighted on something unexpected: a patch of green. From eighteen stories up, I couldn’t make out much detail, but neatly planted rows told me I’d chanced upon my first urban farm. I later learned that this was Lafayette Greens, a tiny farm of less than half an acre established in the wake of the demolition of a landmark building that had once stood in its place. More an urban design project than a working farm, Lafayette Greens nevertheless seemed an auspicious omen for the day’s agricultural explorations.

Later that morning, I set out in my rental car for Detroit’s North End district with plans to see an urban farm. I drove through residential neighborhoods, some streets still lined with large, impressive houses, but many of them seemed empty: windows broken, porches collapsed, roofs caved in.  Then, incongruously, an enormous piece of street art: one entire side of an eight-story building covered in long streaks of brilliant pink and blue, a drip painting the size of an Olympic size swimming pool. My destination was just around the corner.

Behind a decrepit house—one whole side of the house was missing, as if it had been ripped off in a tornado—I glimpsed the farm, on oasis of green brilliant enough to seem like a mirage set against the drab urban desert that surrounded it. Row after row of vegetables and fruits sprung from rich, dark soil; bright orange marigolds guarded the ends of each row, warding off pests without the need for pesticides.

The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative—MUFI—was founded in 2011 by then-University of Michigan students, Tyson Gersh and Darin McLeskey. The farm functions as a non-profit organization that, according to its mission statement, “seeks to engage members of the Michigan community in sustainable agriculture.” The organization targets issues related to vacant land, unemployment, access to nutritious food and fresh produce. Education is at the heart of MUFI’s values, aiming to re-connect people to the source of the food they consume, meanwhile educating people on concepts like food miles, nutrition and local food production.

Now run by Gersh, and several other full-time volunteers, the farm welcomes part-time volunteers every week to help run the farm, attend to the compost, weed, till the soil, and more. In order to ensure zero waste, produce is picked to order rather than pre-picked and packaged. Customers place their orders with the volunteers, who then harvest the orders straight from the plants. MUFI currently plants kale, chard, tomatoes, melons, pumpkins, several types squash and lettuce, a variety of herbs, and much more. When it’s time to checkout, customers pay only what they can afford for the produce. Non-profits like MUFI may not in and of themselves bring the city of Detroit the financial solvency it desperately needs, but they respond to the equally pressing need among many of the city’s residents for accessible, nutritious, locally grown food.

***

Buzzed on my visit to MUFI, I got back in my car and headed to Artesian Farms in Brightmoor, a mostly industrial neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. The streets were lined with semi-trucks and warehouses.

Jeff Adams, founder of Artesian Farms, used to sell technologies to the automobile industry before he made a perspective-altering mission trip to Brazil. “It was an eye-opening experience for me,” said Jeff. “But on returning, I looked at my wife and said, ‘how could we travel all the way to Brazil to help people when there are people right in our neighborhood who need the help just as much?’”

So, with the aim of creating jobs and providing highly nutritious produce year-round, Adams decided to build a vertical hydroponic farm not far from where he lived in Detroit. First, he bought a blighted building; next, he licensed hydroponic growing technology from Green Spirit Farms, a leader in the field. Last summer, he planted his first crops—a colorful mesclun called “Motown Mix,” a fragrant, large-leaf variety of basil, spinach and Blue Scotch kale—all cultivated using organic practices. Adams currently supplies to several local restaurants, including Republic and the Henry Ford Museum; several other partnerships are in the pipeline. Detroit’s Whole Foods will begin carrying his products in October.

Aesthetically speaking, Artesian Farms holds little of MUFI’s charm, situated as it is in a windowless warehouse, completely cut off from the summer’s sun. But what the farm lacks in looks it makes up for with efficiency and pragmatism. As Adams spoke, the benefits of hydroponic, vertical farming in a climate with a short growing season—particularly during a time when our country’s most productive agricultural zone continues to suffer a devastating drought—became increasingly clear. On less than 1500 square feet, Adams can harvest about 1200 pounds of vegetables every 21 days: that’s 17 times per year, instead of two or three harvests for conventional Michigan farmers. In his carefully controlled indoor setting, Jeff has no need for pesticides (other than the aphid-eating ladybugs he occasionally releases into the growing room) or fertilizers. He uses only natural compounds and Detroit city water in the nutrient solution. And, because the hydroponic technology allows him to reuse most of his water, Adams uses 90% less of it than conventional agriculture in Michigan.

At the end of our meeting, Adams went into the growing room to pick some fresh greens for me to take home, greens that would be more nutritious—he promised me—than any others I’d had. Soil-grown produce, Adams explained, is often stressed by climate variations, full-spectrum light and changing nutrient levels in the soil, which deplete the produce of energy, leaving less nutrients in the plant. Likewise, plants that are reliant on the sun’s light must filter out all but the red and blue light from the spectrum; only red and blue help the plant grow. Since hydroponically-grown plants are fed only those compounds they require in the nutrient solution (and nothing more), and because they receive only red and blue light via LEDs, the plants store more energy. This translates to more nutrients in your food. At a minimum, I can attest to a noticeable difference in taste: the kale I came home with was bouncy, with a bright, springy flavor; the basil was sweet, fragrant, and almost crunchy. I couldn’t imagine a restaurant or grocery that wouldn’t be excited to buy from Artesian, and I told Adams as much. Right now though, he’s growing in only one quarter of the building, but he’s planning to expand to fill the rest of the space by next spring.

We hear a lot these days about skyscrapers filled with hydroponic farms, and certainly such structures will play an important role in the production of food in the metropolises of the future. But in Detroit, there is no need to go up, no need to build at all: the space is there, and so are the empty buildings. There’s a long way to go until Detroit’s promise is fulfilled, but the seeds have been planted.

Author’s Note: Lafayette Greens, MUFI and Artesian Farms represent only a fraction of the Detroit’s urban agricultural scene. Other exciting urban agriculture projects include Hantz Farms, Occupy Yourselves Agricultural Academy, Rising Pheasant Farms, among many others.

Jeff Carter

Sales Management, Operations, New Business Development

9 年

I likewise think Podponics modular approach to hydroponic agro would be a good fit in Detroit - www.podponics.com

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Charles Elisha

LaurelGabe Solutions Int'l Ltd

9 年

Great article for other people, communities and decision makers to emulate.

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Sandra Oliveira

Director of Culture Healing Communities CIC at Culture Healing Communities CIC

9 年

Now, that deserves a commendation! Excellent example to be followed.

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Milan Kluko

Sustainability & Environmental Consulting

9 年

Two Vertical Farms in Michigan - Artesian Farms Detroit planted Earth Day 2015 our second farm in Michigan while the first vertical farm was in SW Michigan (New Buffalo MI). Planted first commercial crop Earth Day 2012. We continue to provide fresh sustainably grown produce 24/7 365 sold locally off setting thousands of food miles a week, using 98% less water 96% less land area than California or Arizona produce - that's a small Foodprint with maximum food transparency & ecosystem performance.

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