From their website:
The Detroit Reality:
1. Many Detroiters do not have a grocery store within a mile of the homes
2. "Fast food" has practically replaced home cooked meals in many Black households
3. Detroit's majority African population is dependent on others to feed it
This organization identifies so many of the things that we talked about in Detroit and are taking extremely active grassroots measures to change things around them. They've started a co-op and created a farm in the largest park in Detroit. The organization does focus on Black people in Detroit (81% of Detroit is Black) but I think that their ideology and methods are applicable across race. They really stress taking ownership over your food and working for yourself to create food and a lifestyle that is inherently yours and not something forced on you by another person or corporation. Here's another take on the situation, a more corporate one. The head of the DBCFSN, Malik Yakini, is quoted in the article as saying "I'm concerned about the corporate takeover of the urban agriculture movement in Detroit."
Things to Ponder:
Things to Ponder:
- How related is our sense of general autonomy with our choice of food?
- Is a corporate or grassroots method of urban farming more effective?
- Does a corporate or industrialized agricultural process inevitably lose some something important in a smaller scale farm like Joel Salatin's?
This is really interesting, Max! Both prevalent to our reading and close to home (for you, at least). It makes you wonder why urban farming hasn't caught on in more places. I agree that thought the focus in Detroit lies with the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, the issue definitely transcends race. Can't wait to discuss this in class tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThis is great. I'm so glad you decided to talk about Urban Farming, since we haven't really touched on it yet.
ReplyDeleteThis gets me really excited because it puts Pollan's advocacy writing into perspective and into action. The diction Malik uses really shows his initiative when he talks about "how unused and underutilized land. . . can be put to productive use," how urban agriculture aims to "mobilize people to work on their own behalf" and when he claims that urban farming is to seen as "an act of self-determination and self-empowerment."
He talks about the goals of urban agriculture as gaining a consciousness about what the people of Detroit are consuming. That in itself is empowering. I think the easy way out is to say that there's nothing we as consumers can do. That the twinkies have already been made, so why not eat them? That if God didn't want us to eat animals, he wouldn't have made them out of meat. But if sustainable, local food can be farmed in an urban, concrete, food-desert-of-a-city, why can't we make some autonomous changes for ourselves?
This is a such a prevalent issue Max, especially for our class as well as our campus! I don't really know anything about the Detroit area, and these articles you provided really gave a lot of concrete, useful information on this problem. I like you tied Michael Pollan's book in with this too; everything the DBCFSN is doing is such a great start in terms of the food revolution, and should definitely be considered not only in Detroit but across the nation. Really interesting!
ReplyDeleteMax,
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad you picked this topic as it is such an important issue to think about both within our campus community and beyond. I think it's really interesting how you came across the statistic concerning Detroiters and the close (or not so close) proximity of super markets. Just today, in my Race and Racism class we were discussing how a similar problem exists here in Kalamazoo-- it's something called the Food Desert where the closest super market is over 2 miles away for some residents. I'll be interested to hear what else you and others have to say about this tomorrow.
You do a really great job of conveying the importance of food as a social justice issue here-- and I'm glad you included the idea of autonomy: food is so often the venue that people use to exert control (or an illusion of control). -but where could be a worse place to leave that responsibility than where we have it right now? -and what is the most effective transitioning to smaller communities? Should we go all-out small scale in as-close-to-an-instant-as-possible?
ReplyDeleteKatie and I, both out-of-state students, were talking about how we wanted to go to Detroit sometime. It seems like there are so many people here with strong ties to and feelings about the city. I can't think of anything more exciting to do with a bunch of vacant space in a shrinking city than fill it with gardens! And I also really enjoyed watching the clip in class. Besides being good for the earth and supply a healthy food source, planting gardens will also renew a sense of community.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for bringing this issue to our attention--I'll definitely be curious to see how urban farming progresses in Detroit, and who will end up controlling it.
This is a really interesting topic Max. I don't really know much about Detroit, but these articles were very informative. I'd never heard the term "food desert" before reading this either. That's a very interesting problem, especially since I always assumed cities were places with easy access to most things (especially food).
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by the comparison between the grassroots and corporate urban farming. As we learned from both The Omnivore's Dilemma and Food Inc, Joel Salatin's farm is as effective as it is because he refuses to expand despite growing popularity because industrial organic goes against what his farm and his way of life stands for. And yet in an urban setting, if it is for the sake of feeding an entire city, the corporate method of urban farming seems like a more efficient way to do it. But the empowerment the community feels from the grassroots urban farming could be just as important. This was a really interesting thing to bring up.