And yet Hantz is fully aware of the potentially historic scope of what he is proposing. After all, he's talking about accumulating hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of acres inside a major American city. And it's clear that he views Hantz Farms as his legacy. Already he's told his 21-year-old daughter, Lauren, his only heir, that if she wants to own the land one day, she has to promise him she'll never sell it. "This is like buying a penthouse in New York in 1940," Hantz says. "No one should be able to afford to do this ever again."
4 comments:
Maybe Rebecca Solnit was right. . the danger of the urban gardens is that the new agriculturists will be treated as sharecroppers. .
Hey,
we are a group pf urban researchers and designers form Europe that is running an online magazine. The next issue will be on Urban agriculture and we would really like to publish the Detroit story.
Check our website http://www.citiesthemagazine.com/ and the fist issue of the magazine:
http://issuu.com/citiesthemagazine/docs/00_industrial_renewal
let us know please
Francesca
Francesca,
You should definitely talk to the farmers in the city--EarthWorks Urban Farm, The Greening of Detroit,
It's sad to me that the city government is willing to give this guy such a great deal on all this land, while they are very unsupportive of the people in Detroit who are already farming here. I'm also concerned about this because he has not going to be organic- what does this mean for people who live in the neighborhoods nearby? It seems to be the same story of government bending over backwards to get businesses going and ignoring the grassroots solutions the people have already started. Will this farming operation help locals get access to fresh foods? There are few places to get groceries here. Will it provide jobs for locals? Or will we just watch this business come into our neighborhoods have to deal with the pollution and disruption that it will bring while reaping none of the reward. My guess is that we will watch a bunch of outsiders working and taking the food and money out of the city. This kind of operation is what has crippled the city. I say support the local farmers- they are the ones organizing and feeding the community. They are the ones rebuilding Detroit. -the yes farm
Post a Comment