Large scale farming may be coming to Detroit

This evening the nation's focus is on Detroit. The Final Four college basketball games are being played in Ford Field.

What has been overlooked is a momentous article from Thursday's Detroit Free Press.

First some background: In the last fifty years, Detroit has lost half of its population. Even before the collapse of the domestic auto industry, the most recent one that is, Detroit was known for its many vacant lots that are the result of this depopulation.

What's to become of all of that land?

Businessman John Hantz of Detroit, in an exclusive interview with the Free Press, unveiled his plans for Hantz Farms -- a concept that would convert hundreds, even thousands, of vacant parcels in the city into urban agriculture.

Offering jobs and an ability to produce fresh fruits and vegetables locally, Hantz Farms could help Detroit "become a destination for fresh, local and natural foods and become a major part of the green movement," Hantz said.

Detroit already is home to hundreds of smaller community gardens. But Hantz's proposal is the first to envision large-scale commercial farming.

He said he could grow everything from Christmas trees to fruits and vegetables, with amenities such as a cider mill or horseback riding available.

Think about it. Detroit, battered and bruised it may be, is still a major American city. And someone is talking about establishing a commercial farm there.

A farm. Wow.

UPDATE April 5: Levois of It's My Mind has a video from 2007 that shows the effects of Detroit's people exodus.

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