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<br />is a plan, and there is no question
<br />it could go forward."
<br />This idea, that agriculture
<br />should have a place in the urban
<br />planning process, particularly in
<br />cities that, like Detroit, have lost a
<br />great deal of their population,
<br />may be more than just a social 0 0 f+ JASON FLIGGER, DETROIT: "All UPrUAP+ f;'i,t;:!!LPI V110 ,11�c, r UR N01 HEF C,: 1`0*11P RCC tEs t: fq bC :!_ :,; i :`J;.S '
<br />idealist's pipe dream. "Look at the
<br />metropolitan areas in the United States, particularly in the
<br />Midwest and the Northeast," says Jerry Kaufman, an emeritus
<br />professor of urban and regional planning at the University of
<br />Wisconsin - Madison. "The central city is the poorer part of the
<br />metropolitan area. We have so many inner -city areas with
<br />vacant land, and the richer people have fled to the suburbs. The
<br />question is, What are you going to do with that land? Most city
<br />officials would say they want to build housing.... But what if
<br />you began to see that you have a built -in market for food pro-
<br />duction and that you could break into the market in the subur-
<br />ban ring by growing food downtown ?"
<br />A foundation for that market might be living next door to the
<br />vacant land. Many residents in low- income neighborhoods
<br />worry about having enough to eat, but, Kaufman says, urban
<br />planners completely overlook the problem. A recent survey by
<br />the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that 31 million
<br />Americans, 10.1 percent of households, were "food insecure,"
<br />meaning that at some time during the previous year they
<br />weren't certain of having, or were unable to acquire, enough -
<br />food to meet basic needs.
<br />Jason Fligger, who heads the Detroit Agriculture Net-
<br />work, an organization trying to connect the city's disparate
<br />farming projects, introduced me to several rugged individu-
<br />L�i_i _ )
<br />ar'
<br />alists who grow produce in neighborhoods where food inse-
<br />curity is an issue. A 70- year -old man named Johnnie McGhee
<br />grows everything from corn to the pealike Mississippi silver
<br />skin on three vacant lots and keeps egg - laying quail and a wine
<br />press in his basement. Maxine Elam, 69, grows enough on a
<br />vacant lot to feed herself and her family. "I don't buy anything
<br />but meat," she told me. Another man in his fifties, Paul
<br />Weertz, used an entire city block to grow hay and alfalfa for
<br />the animals he reared at a nearby school for pregnant and par-
<br />enting teens. None of these projects makes money or feeds
<br />people outside the grower's immediate circle of friends and
<br />family, but each has helped some Detroiters achieve a degree
<br />of self - sufficiency.
<br />Kaufman, who admits his ideas about urban farming are
<br />fairly novel among his colleagues, offers the Troy Drive Gardens
<br />in Madison as a model for integrating dense housing and agri-
<br />culture. Rising gently from a winding road on the edge of
<br />town, the gardens fill five acres of an empty 31 -acre plot flanked
<br />by subsidized, low - income rental housing to the east and upper -
<br />class lakefront properties to the south. For years, the land
<br />served as an unplanned park, as well as a place where members
<br />of the local Hmong community and many others planted
<br />crops. Six years ago, with Madison's population booming, the
<br />MAY (JUNE 2002 61
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<br />alists who grow produce in neighborhoods where food inse-
<br />curity is an issue. A 70- year -old man named Johnnie McGhee
<br />grows everything from corn to the pealike Mississippi silver
<br />skin on three vacant lots and keeps egg - laying quail and a wine
<br />press in his basement. Maxine Elam, 69, grows enough on a
<br />vacant lot to feed herself and her family. "I don't buy anything
<br />but meat," she told me. Another man in his fifties, Paul
<br />Weertz, used an entire city block to grow hay and alfalfa for
<br />the animals he reared at a nearby school for pregnant and par-
<br />enting teens. None of these projects makes money or feeds
<br />people outside the grower's immediate circle of friends and
<br />family, but each has helped some Detroiters achieve a degree
<br />of self - sufficiency.
<br />Kaufman, who admits his ideas about urban farming are
<br />fairly novel among his colleagues, offers the Troy Drive Gardens
<br />in Madison as a model for integrating dense housing and agri-
<br />culture. Rising gently from a winding road on the edge of
<br />town, the gardens fill five acres of an empty 31 -acre plot flanked
<br />by subsidized, low - income rental housing to the east and upper -
<br />class lakefront properties to the south. For years, the land
<br />served as an unplanned park, as well as a place where members
<br />of the local Hmong community and many others planted
<br />crops. Six years ago, with Madison's population booming, the
<br />MAY (JUNE 2002 61
<br />A.,
<br />
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