Monday, October 26, 2015

Agriculture making a comeback in Detroit

Hoop house on Detroit's
east side
Farming is making is experiencing a resurgence in the Motor City.

From MLive.com:
A massive five-year plan was announced Monday for a blighted neighborhood on Detroit's east side.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan joined a jovial Gary Wozniak in announcing a $15-million plan to turn 22 blocks around the former Chene-Ferry Market into an urban agriculture hub for the city.

Wozniak is the CEO of the nonprofit RecoveryPark, which essentially repurposes blighted abandoned land in Detroit into specialty urban farms through RecoveryPark Farms, a for-profit arm creating agricultural jobs for Detroiters.

RecoveryPark Farms specifically hires ex-offenders, recovering addicts and others who would have barriers to employment.
The thirty five acres of land for RecoveryPark won't resemble rural Iowa; hoop houses for vegetable cultivation is what Wozniak has in mind. Besides, most Detroit vacant land has building foundations hidden in the soil. Try plowing that.

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