Real Investment in Urban Gardening

Okay so obviously urban farming isn't a new idea. Various people have been talking about the concept and trying small scale pilot projects for many years actually. Detroit may be the first place in the world to try it on a truly large scale.

Can farming save Detroit?

Desperate times can lead to great innovation. As the author of this article points out, it is Detroit's tragic situation that has opened the opportunity for this sort of project. Mr. Hantz's new urban farming development will be the largest of it's kind in the world when it is completed. No one would have been willing to put this kind of investment in such a risky endeavor unless there were few, or no, other options.

Detroit's unemployment numbers are crippling. With so few jobs people have been leaving the city by the thousands. This has left probably the largest inventory of empty houses in the entire country. With lots and homes selling for an average of $15,000 an urban blight has been growing bigger and bigger every month. This is an opportunity for a risky but potentially world changing shift in how we grow food.

I'm really excited to see how this project works out for Mr. Hantz. If he is able to be successful in growing agriculture within an urban environment for profit, then he will be writing the blueprint for how it can be done elsewhere. Local production of food is going to be vitally important as we try to find ways to reduce consumption of fossil fuels. Good luck to him.