I think this is great, however, are the soils tested for heavy metals and other pollutants prior to conversion to agricultural use? Is soil contamination a major issue in these communities? Keep up the good work!
Yep. Its not sustainable. Just gonna lead to more water loss, soil erosion, and food poisoning. Then growing outdoors isn't viable for a sustainable food supply. Weather changes, and Detroit is cold.
Love your channel! I retired from the agency formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service. Your efforts are extremely important today. Thank you very much for your efforts! If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know. I usually log about 500 hours annually for volunteer conservation work.
My grand father owned his house, and when the house next door burnt, he bought that property too, after the city tore down the house. He turned 1/3 into a garden, 1/3 into extra parking in back, and 1/3 was a large green space for the grand kids to play in after the street lights came on. He fenced in everything. Always had fresh greens, beans, tomatoes, strawberries, and more all year around. So I'm glad to see more spaces turning into green spaces. Its scary tho, here we have a urban city turning into green spaces for growing anything. Then you go down south to VA where I lived for 19 yrs, it was complete farm country USA, green spaces everywhere. Pastures full of horses, cows, pigs, and chickens. Now those same spaces are cover by Motels and hotels. It really sadden me to see that change. From a country town to a busy small city.. We need more farms producing sustainable food, NOT more motels and hotels..
I would be very concerned about where those "green spaces" are since asbestos and other toxic chemicals were probably in the old houses that were built long before knowledge of how toxic those materials were. When I worked in the biology dept of the University of Miami back in the 1970s, one of the professors was writing up a paper showing where car exhaust and other harmful materials go as one is driving down the road. It appeared that, while it landed on the roadway, the rain would wash those chemicals, oil, gasoline, etc. into the edge of the road and if that road fronted on grassland that was used by cows or other animals, the chemicals would saturate the ground to a distance of about 50 feet from the edge of the road. Then the plants would uptake those chemicals in the rainwater into them, the cows would come along and eat the grass and then humans would eat the cows. Scared the crap out of me when I was typing that up and I vowed not to eat beef anymore. Still did, but this was before organic food was popular. Whenever I see a veggie garden right next to the road around where I live, I think of that paper. I put my own veggie garden about 300 feet from the road remembering that paper.
@@bryanjones8778 Not like Detroit though..There's a lot of open land in Detroit from the removal of old abandoned industrial buildings and abandoned homes that have been torn down in the last 5 to 10 years..
It definitely is a good idea but like anything, in moderation. And to be fair this has been happening for a long time in Detroit, if not on the scale shown in the video (and there actually are plenty of other of these types of initiatives not shown including an apple orchard, a "wood lot", all types of community gardens, apiaries, etc.) The problem is (and this is part of a larger American problem), that if too much of the abandoned land is devoted to these types of initiatives the city doesn't have adequate tax base to cover its bills. Unfortunately, the city, like most American cities, was set up financially for continual growth. There are a ton of legacy costs in the forms of infrastructure, pensions, high service delivery costs, etc., that in order to sustainably solve, would require either A) a large (and I mean huuuuge) infusion of outside cash to do things like rework the street and sewer systems, prefund employee retirement costs, modernize service delivery, etc. or B) a decent amount of (non-agricultural) development in the city. The bankruptcy actually helped the city with a lot of these issues, but I also know that finance wise, the city cann't afford to just turn all of the abandoned land into farms and woods. And while many of the farms in Detroit are considered temporary (until enough development / higher income people move in to spark investment in traditional food delivery systems), it is hard to provide a resource to a population / neighborhood and then take it away. Sorry for the looong comment. I actually agree with you (and the video) but wanted to provide some context to the situation.
I started learning about urban farming in Detroit in 2013 and it was already around for serveral years by then. I'm not watching the video as the voice bugs me, but there is a full on apple orchard on E Vernon highway
Thank you for this coverage. As a Detroiter, its nice to see the bigger story being told. We are about to become a new world paradigm for what cities can be in this new millenium. Detroit was once called the Paris of the Midwest. If we keep going, Paris will soon be called the Detroit of Europe - and be proud of that designation.
Mate, that was a loong time ago when detroit had 0 d1eversity...after the government forced tayrone and shanykua by the thousands, your city got irreparably destroyed
We recently bought an old two story 1912 house with a large property and back alley. This spring we planted two double rows of potatoes along each side of the back yard. We collected other people's bags of leaves and grass for a thick layer over top giving nutrients and trapping water. The 80 potatoe plants are 3 feet tall! And the aspgras, rhubarb and 6 fruit trees are all awesomely healthy too.
I used to work with the People's Garden program in my USDA offices. Very important program for urban areas and a good way to promote neighborhood camaraderie. Sometimes we had to include gang members in our planning in places such as LA. Nearly all were success stories! Always make sure to do detailed soils analysis of any urban properties going to gardens for lead and other contaminants. Have seen numerous buried fuel oil tanks also. I'm here to help as a volunteer now.
Every child should plant a tree, bush, flowers or vegetables with a parent or teacher. It will help connect them to nature and the environment. We must learn to live with nature and not destroy it.
Excellent stuff, the ONLY way Cities can be anywhere near Sustainable is by doing such grassroots projects, be nice to see a progress from Orchards, to Forest Gardens. That provide max food per Acre, need min input, and are great for wildlife. Keep it up, we can build the future on land no one else wants/uses! ✊🏽🌻🌎✌🏽
This is a great thing on so many levels. Not only provide good food for the community, but help to unite and rebuild the community in the process. This is something all cities should support in poorer, blighted areas.
In my city they are building cheap houses and apartments on the best farmland.... encouraging to see the houses can eventually be bulldozed and turned back into productive land
People in food deserts need to be taught to grow food too, zucchini, cucumber and beans are all very easy to grow and provide good yield without taking up too much space.
And taught how to preserve the food for winter! At some point in the summer they will have more vegetables then they can eat so canning or freezing is a necessary skill
@@michellezevenaar Folks in Detroit they done knew how to grow & can vegetables back before the 1970's! Today, Detroit residents are facing higher water & utility & tax bills than ever at a time of rising prices for everyone. Due to bad decisions by outside. Wages have not kept up with inflation for decades. When given some resources, Detroit thrives. People who finally got mortgages were fixing up homes before the 2006 foreclosure waves started. There is a lot of good development happening in the city, but, living in Michigan my whole life, I've watched the state politicians in Lansing literally rob money & resources from Detroit for decades and then dare to say the city is irresponsible. Kwame deserved jail, but the city was solvent before him, and would have stayed solvent if the MI state gov paid them back their own sales tax money and the Feds bothered to fix old schools and bail out disasters like the flooding which never got Federal disaster status. Every level of government has robbed the people of Detroit.
@@hadore152 Detroit used to be a pole of industry, in the region of Chicago and Michigan. I knew desindustrialisation occured since then. It is a good alternative that people have chosen for themselves, and opted for agriculture! They surprised me positively, and gave a good image of America!
Detroit was my second option to move to but me and the gf ended up deciding on Phoenix lol. I'm very glad to see these developments in Detroit though, they've been struggling for a while and this a good first step
these urban garden have been in Detroit for years. Just because a site has decided on reporting on it doesn't mean it just started. Detroit has been positively changing for the past 10 years. But, news sites love to only focus on crime.
This makes my heart so happy❤️ Born in Detroit, love to see it prosper, love to see so many people come together ❤️🙏United We Stand🙏❤️One Nation Under God ❤️🙏 God Bless every single one of you & thank you, we appreciate you & we love you❤️🇺🇸🌍👪
Every building could be completely sustainable in energy, water, and waste management. And every building could be at least partially sustainable in the area of food production. We grow both outdoors and indoors, all year round. The indoor closet sized greenhouses supply scallions, celery, cherry tomatoes, herbs, and greens. No more trips to the "store" looking for healthy salad fixings.
I like swales and ponds and check dams, huge potential to reverse desertification!!! Governments need to mange water shed land areas and build swales and check dams and ponds and such. It's about slowing water down as it moves down slopes, this encourages water to absorb into soil.
As encouraging the agra-development of Detroit is, someone need to be teaching and helping with canning and preservation of the harvest. Detroit has a fairly short growing season and brutal winters. Green houses are okay to extend the season by about a month before heating is required but they are expensive and take a certain level of expertise to be successful. The times of plenty for fresh produce is less than 1/3 of the year. Growing the food is only part of the struggle, however their willingness to take the first step is excellent. Small scale meat and egg production in the form of chickens, meat rabbits, squab and dairy goats are important for balancing the local diet. Provide materials and instruction in those areas as well.
What a fantastic idea, especially because there were so many abandoned houses in Detroit after the 2008 housing market crisis. And California might not be the veggie garden of the country for very long if the megadrought continues.
Food deserts in my city were caused by shoplifting and crime. Why would a grocery store not leave an area like this. Now we have this element endangering all the remaining stores within several miles radius. I don't know the answer but it's causing yet more flight to the suburbs. It's like a virus with no chance of recovering.
I like swales and ponds and check dams, huge potential to reverse desertification!!! Governments need to mange water shed land areas and build swales and check dams and ponds and such. It's about slowing water down as it moves down slopes, this encourages water to absorb into soil.
The only thing I worry about is the soil when it comes to reclaiming land like this. Tests on urban chickens show high concentrates of lead and other nasty stuff from the practices of the past. I grow my own food 3km from the centre of my city, our house was a sandal making business. The stuff my neighbour and I find when we till the ground.
I also would ask the local McDs and other fast food restaurants to have fresh fruit/veg available as partners in food distribution. Introducing kids to fruits and veg young is part of the way to make kids into healthy adults. I am worried about the water quality in Detroit since the story about lead contamination broke years ago. I've heard a lot about filtering water through vegetation, but do you know where I could find more out about heavy metals and if they can be filtered? Thanks for all of these great and informative videos!
That definition of a "food desert" is absolutely rediculous. If you don't have a store within one mile of you, you're somehow lacking? That doesn't make any kind of sense.
This is all well and good, but maintaining a garden, especially a large garden, requires time and effort. Problem is, a city doesn't decay into the mess that is Detroit by being comprised of hard working, industrious citizens. These gardens will be created and managed by only the few who have the will to take on such a project, and therefore produce only a fraction of what is needed for the city as a whole.
I drove into Detroit not far back.. it looked like a haunted ghost town..a city that used to have two million people living there..now has a third of that ..mile after mile of boarded up graffiti covered businesses. That have been closed for a very long time..I missed my turn and there wasn't a car anywhere in sight so I turn my eighteen wheel truck pulling a fifty three foot trailer around in the middle of the one time busy blvd..that had no traffic anymore... I'm told I was taking my life into my own hands being in there..but no bullet holes in the truck when I got out of their..
A even better idea is to build a green house with a heating stove that is on one end then heat travels under the greenhouse and comes out the other side. Seen a video of someone in Nebraska that is making a living growing citrus year round then selling slightly cheaper than it can be shipped in from the south. Probably making a killing these days with the high fuel cost. The stove concept needs very small amounts of fuel sources to do the job because all the heat that normally would escape through the chimney travels under ground to the other side of the greenhouse. Great heat system for cabins also.
I used to live there. Food stores closed because of theft. There was a family-owned small grocer at the end of my block. It had to close after 30 years because many in the neighborhood kept stealing. So let’s be clear that there are those who would destroy their community
Awesome awesome awesome!!! Wonderful model for many food challenged communities as well as the social aspects of bringing people in the community together.
Its great to showcase this one agrihood. But to be a success depends on how many agrihoods are there in Detriot. How many are there and are they making a sizable difference?
Everyone needs a garden, to grow your own food, you need to grow wheat, beans, peas and corn and raise chickens, ducks, rabbits and bees. Plus fruit and vegetables.
The urban bees are vital ..you cannot grow crops without pollinators and American bee 🐝 populations have suffered badly from hive collapse disorder and viroa the parasitic mite.. but they treat their agriculture like a factory and depend too much on pesticides and chemical based fertilizers. So things look perfect but have little taste and poor nutritional values. The soil and water ends up contaminated and degraded. 1-1.5M of all topsoil has been lost in farming areas in the past couple of decades.. 😬🤷🏻♂️ The loss of natural ground cover and trees exposes millions of acres to the degradation of full sun, flash flood rainfall and wind erosion. Conventional party politics and divisive political and social ideologies ... dont want to change their failed ideas. Whats needed is a new generation of planners educators and Environmentally aware people taking over the running of the human and natural environment who want to do stuff that works and works for the majority not a self promoting/sustaining minorities. The fact that unless you have a car you cannot survive or eat healthy enough to live well is a a measure of how dysfunctional Post war USA became because of the Car and oil based economy and lack of political foresight in domestic planning.
This is a great idea. I think the large number they give of people not having access to groceries because they live more than a mile away from a store is very misleading as not everyone lives in a city. United States is vast country. I live in a town of 20K and I am more than a mile from a grocery. But within five miles I have at least five. Americans are used to driving, most towns in rural American are 5 to 10 miles apart.
Urban Aquaponic Facilities that can grow fish and shrimps plus veggies might help. Tree farms facilities that have lemons and other fast growing fruits trees for sale is a good way to use idle lots or empty spaces. Vertical farming systems can also be employed to conserve spaces. Nothing needs to be planted or grown on the ground...everything is possible to grow things in Detroit...the science and machinery is available. All they need is the citizenry to employ it.
What a great idea,! I'm so happy to see that there are some many people willing to contribute their hard work and effort into their community like that.
This is not new, we've been doing this for over a decade. I lived on one of the largest urban farms in Detroit for years. They make it look like Detroit's all ruins and it completely is not maybe 15 years ago but it's thriving now.
They also don't mention that we have the largest and oldest farmers market in the country. And over 30,000 people visit every week to get their produce, and it's super affordable.
These should be the norm. Small to medium organised communities, interlinked with other such communities around cities and counties. Just imagine the impact something like that would have in the world with time.
On the ariel shots there seem to be a lot of houses with great big lawns...about the size of my allotment plot. If people changed their mind set from having a 'nice lawn' to growing not just food but planting trees and flowers might go some way to help
Agree lawns in general aren't great, but some people cannot afford to buy trees to plant, and in many places its illegal to plant food in your yard but ideally trees, shrubs, plants and food would be a great garden for those who can
@@LeafofLifeWorld I only speak as a UK resident. Can't imagine it being 'illegal' to grow food in your own yard. Some people set up 'seed banks' over here to swap out and gift any seeds for other people to grow plant, trees and food. You can buy a pack of salad seeds for 25pence and you just need a pot and some soil and water
Compel public schools to put out cereal dispensers with free high fiber cereal all day. A single mother of 2 children could save $5 per day per child. In the long run, health insurance and medical costs would plummet.
Property taxes pay for public schools, libraries, parks, police, fire dept, other amenities and infrastructure. If you eliminate how do you fund those things?
I remember the Victory Gardens of WWII. Everyone had one. Not only for the war effort BUT to augment their own food. No matter the size of the yard, it was planted with vegetables. Some also had a chicken. A yard without a food garden is a waste of space. If each house dedicated a portion to growing food then the entire neighborhood would benefit by sharing the produce. Larger yards could plant potatoes or onions to share with their neighbors while smaller yards had beans or tomatoes or herbs in effect the overall neighborhood could be a good grocery store.
The initial statement of why detroit is unhealthy is patently false. It is however great that old decrepit buildings are being destroyed to make way for farmable land and it make the area look a lot better
Let this be wisdom. When you depend on intities provide for you and then they are gone. What will happen?? Good for Detroit!!! Taking care of yourself and others. Humans helping other humans. Good nutrition which we have been lacking for all of us.
I like swales and ponds and check dams, huge potential to reverse desertification!!! Governments need to mange water shed land areas and build swales and check dams and ponds and such. It's about slowing water down as it moves down slopes, this encourages water to absorb into soil.
This sounds like a wonderful idea as long as there are no buddy F*kers in the community. All it would take is one person to vandalize the farm to ruin it for everyone. It takes a lot of time, money and effort to make a garden grow. If someone starts stealing from the garden and others follow suit, there would be nothing left for the growers. The areas that need these agrihoods are racked with crime and poverty. Desperate people will take what they need without consideration for the future. I wish them luck, but I don't expect this project to work out.
The downward spiral for low income people. Businesses don't want to operate in low income residential sections, because of low profit and higher rates of crime. But that only exacerbates the decline in the area. So people get trapped in a dying inner city blight zone with higher rates of crime, and of course higher rates of incarceration, that cycles downward and implodes. People loose hope and self esteem. It's really a sad state. I wonder if for every 10 million people we add to the country, how many fall ultimately into various income strata. I am not trying to argue against immigration or income equality. I am just wondering if Growth, and More People generally is really a good thing since the system in America seems to concentrate income and wealth disproportionately toward corporate and high income families. I wonder if as the population ages, and declines that America might be a more equitable country someday again? Fewer people to fall through the cracks and end up on the street? Ultimately after the Boomers are gone, we could end up with a very much smaller and much younger population of future Americans. What kind of life would they inherit from the last two generations?
