Motown to Growtown: Detroit's Urban Farming Revolution | REWIND
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ธ.ค. 2024
- Rising from the ashes of decades of urban decay, the US city of Detroit is fast becoming an urban farming capital.
Many residents are now producing organic food locally - reducing the environmental footprint of their food by cutting down on carbon emissions from transport and on chemical inputs.
They are also helping revive communities as new green spaces and farmer's markets crop up, providing neighbourhoods with fresh fruits and vegetables.
Plots of land range from backyards, to seven-acre (2.8 hectares) community farms, to plans for large-scale commercial farms.
In 2012, Al Jazeera met the local residents at the centre of the city's urban farming revolution. Several years on, Rewind returns to visit them to see how the movement has progressed.
70-year-old Edith Floyd, an urban farming veteran, has expanded her farm from nine lots to 32 and has added a large hoop house, where she can grow fruits and vegetables year-round.
"We have broccoli, collards, green peppers and celery," she explains.
She says she plans to keep on farming for years to come: "If you don't work, you don't eat. And if you don't work, you get lazy and don't want to do nothing. Work keeps me going. I like working."
A few miles away, Mark Covington and his mother have also grown their farm.
"I want to say we only had eight lots and now we have 24 that we either keep cut or we grow something on," Covington says.
He now keeps bees, which he says has tripled food production, and he has a host of new farm animals.
Both farmers have their communities in mind; Floyd contributes to a food bank, and people who have court-ordered volunteer hours can fulfil them on her farm instead of paying a fine or going to prison. Covington has purchased a nearby house for a community education centre, and also provides fresh food to the area.
"We have our turkey giveaway every year. We do 30 to 35 turkeys with a basket, so we'll put kale and collards and string beans in with it, along with some other donations that we get," he says.
"This is an asset to the city. Not just the neighbourhood but the city."
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What these people are doing with Detroit is simply beautiful. Ron Finley did the same thing in Los Angeles. These videos are very encouraging to people to start growing food. I only wish I'd started earlier.
I'm from Detroit. In 2000 I moved to Arizona and started studying sustainability, by working with non-profits. I worked at a place called the Ecosa Institute in Prescott. We partnered with an organic farmer named Andrew Millison, and made the Eco-Hood project; teaching people how to do exactly, almost beat for beat, what we taught there. It is so great to see the work spreading. What is weird is I've noticed it spreads in 10 year pulses; which is I am assuing how long it takes the people who took the classes when young to get into the positions to be able to enact what they learned.
I own a software company - that is a joke compared to the importance of what these people are doing - nothing is more valuable than learning to grow your own food
nice flex
It’s never too late to start. Get a cactus or fern to start with.
You’re so disconnected from the different realities of many people
@@matthewcain2880 true, but my actions reflect my concern for people that are less fortunate than I am - my path to where I am now was not easy, my mother died alone, poor and brutally (from cancer) 35 years ago and I wasn't in a position to provide real help - I can help people now, and I do, it's my greatest joy in life
This is a throw back to the victory garden from the beginning of the 20th century. This is one answer to being green. I hope the corporatists doesn't get their hands on this.
Edith, what an icon and a hero.
Why don't the fast food restaurants become part of the solution? Give out a couple of strawberries with a McD meal? Or apple slices. Hire a local granny to hand out gooseberries, etc to patrons.
This guy is a hero.
They are so beautiful, especially Mark! Thank you for this video!
I Love all You Family...Shout out too all my fellow gardeners....Great work....Mrs.Edith is such a QUEEN...I always ❤ Detroit since movie Dr. DETROIT. 😃
Bravo! Two thumbs up.
Well done people 👏 👍
This is some very encouraging news. People working together.Etc.
If Community gardens are illeagle then law is crooked
The law that forbids farming in cities goes way back when sanitation was really bad.
It is law in many cities in many countries that restrict farming in city limits. Think of the stench and garbage if a full fledged farm with animals and all is next to you?
As for Detroit, it looks like the city is shrinking so it is logical that freed up land will get a new function. In this case, farming. As a result, the law should be adapted.
Good call. Your smarter than most on this thread.
@@dia.6213 Sorry Dia. My reply to Peter was a confusing, even to me. I should have read it twice and commented once.
Yes, sanitary situations are important. But as a Horticulture Specialist, time cures all, or time creates carbon during the breakdown, and methane, so there is a logical thought of what type of trash are you growing on? So there is no reason that the governing city and (neighborhoods) can't use test kits to analyze the soils chemical make up, and deem it safe. If you can test the quality and chemicals in a swimming pool within 5 minutes...you and we all know that soil can also be easily test at a very low cost.
And to take a thought outside the box of logic, I will state this, and quote me on it...
"Would it be a more positive effect to the city to have the locals clean up the land on there time and effort in preparing a potential place of horticulture, or something else entirely different for a common cause? Once clearing the trash, then test it in a nominal time and do something with it. But the Government should not short change the people trying to improve there city they love. It takes a team to make good happen, not a war to be stagnant".
Basically, it doesn't have to take 30 years to have to cut the red tape and do good.
@@dia.6213 it was meant for you. We are on the same page. Peter did make a valid point though. In some of these broken lands, there is contamination and arson. So it would be best to ensure some safety. Yet, why say no to the opportunities that are already proven.
"Communication is the key. Understanding is the progression. Time should not be wasted".
They need to repeal the restrictions or get special zoning permits. These are local ordinances, address them at a local level. Most zoning snd codes ordinances seem compliant driven. Best thing to do is get approval from the city.!
Keren, anak muda di Amerika ternyata bisa menghargai orang yang lebih tua 👍 di film jolywood selalu menampilkan anak" memanggil nama yang lebih tua. Kapitalis tidak akan senang melihat setiap rumah tangga punya apotek hidup 😁
Inspirational
What's funny is that all the people who say the end of global capital is the end of humanity clearly aren't familiar with human's capacity for DIY.
I've been using urban farming in Detroit as an example for years now.
Great story.
Buffalo has a growing local food scene too.
Get animals you can eat, (just electric fence it off in paddocks) to lawnmower it down & fecal matter compost. Chicken tractor like Geoffrey Lawton. Fresh chicken & egg & compost fertilizer program.
These folks need to learn No til ! No need to plow !
They have to at the start to be able to open up all the years of nothing to a certain degree depending on the lot and the architecture of biodiversity.
1. The need some sort of plot land near natural shrubs, bushes, trees, even weeds.
2. Plant many different vegetables, flowers on the !SMALLISH! plowed ares. Do what the first guy has done...beehives. Then let biodiversity take it own way, but still needs to be controlled with sustainable care.
Watch "Kiss the Dirt" narrated by Woody Harrelson. And don't forget they are in a big city. Imagine a cow roaming around a highway in the middle of the night with cars around? Common sense peeps. A little step can also be a big deal.
These folks need to do what is best for them. If you want to volunteer your time with them, maybe then you will have a voice.
Congratulations AMEN
Whata cool guy.
Do they have processing equipment? They need to be drying and freezing and canning and have cold storage for apples. Root cellars, etc.
No sign of water buts. The soil looks dry. How is it being watered?
I will have to check all of them out! Earth Works & Akilah Muhammad & the Vegan Caterer!
only if they knew about no till gardening
How can growing food be illegal? Very strange law.
He said "How's your son" and she nervously went into a spiel about the farm. Happens to me too. People are preoccupied with my presence and assume what I'm saying as a nervous reaction. Hopefully farming brings them closer together past the fake front being put up for the cameras.
Awesome!!!
✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️💜🙏🏿
Why not turn the disused parts of a city into farm land (contrary to these smaller plots) or simply remove all traces of humans and let nature have its way?
lol 2nd option would be interesting, i don't see much going for it though
second option sounds amazing
If you saw the conclusion at the very end that's what they are doing. If you can visually see the size of these old properties, they have big front and back lawns after the fact that the houses were pretty big. So when they said the have grown from 8 to 21 or 12 to 32? it equates to a huge amount of space to where you need workers!...it's a lot of space. Don't trust my word, but I have been to some of these empty streets.
And if you understood the doco piece, your second point was already answered when we all heard the pheasants? A bunch of these areas are mini forests or groves of wildlife, butterflies and birds.
“Why do we have food deserts?” Because crime forces businesses to close forever. A city isn’t “designed” to make it hard for people to get food. If there are people, money can be made through business. Crime makes them move away or never build in the first place. You’re young and could work, but, nah, you saw those shoes and just had to take ‘em.
Please know that the 'tax base' funding Michigan's infrastructure relies largely upon property taxes. This is problematic, yet apparently entrenched into the State's system. Michigan also has one of the least transparent state legislatures, another deeply problematic, entrenched issue.
NO TILL!!
don't tell me it's the government's fault...
Let us all remember only God can affect climate change no one else
Wrong. Sorry. While we can debate on why we named him "God" and not "Plug, Tile, Gus or Samantha is a very boring. Let's call him ^83&fgro4*$8uwud". Because maybe someone in 600ad said "I will name that thing Dog, but I will name our common sensibility and common connection...I WILL NAME IT GOD! Not an intended "Him". An intended "It". Then the rest of humanity is many, many...many "I heard that he said that she said?" And so on. Also how many different God's are we counting now? I lost count.
We are all ^83&fgro4*$8uwud. It's up to all of us...as one, to stop being Opinionated, and be real. Unlike Putin.
There is no God. We are it what you who name it as God...but reality show that day by day.
We are "Human". None of this is done by three letters made up from the alphabet.
It is us and us alone. I am not going to explain this tonight. I am tired.
But food for thought fellow humanoid.
Think it through. And guess what, if there is life beyond what we can ever imagine in the infinite universe of our factual understanding?
You, Myself and this World
ARE ALIENS!...dn dn daaaaaaa! 😱
@@waystadtymphyndir7079 one day you will stand before God and you will see that he is real the only reason you don't want there to be a God is cuz you don't want to face him for your sins but I tell you you need to repent of your sins and turn to him or you will suffer in the next life
@@rodneyjohnson6313 when I am dead I am having my ashes sent to outer space. I won't be facing anything. I will simply be ash floating in space.
Heaven is the knowing that, just before you pass over, you did your best in life amongst struggles. Heaven is now...not where we go. Where we go is simply over, blank, done. We areall God now. Jesus's was just a dude with great intentions. He ain't coming back.
@@waystadtymphyndir7079 you will see God when you are dead you will see that your spirit lives on and if you live in sin in this life you will suffer in the next unless you repent of your sins and turn to Christ