US (MI): 60 acres of fresh produce at Detroit urban farm

Urban farming is big in Detroit, and it’s about to get even bigger. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced the addition of a $15 million, 60-acre urban farm where fruit and vegetables will be grown and sold to local restaurants. The mayor granted 40 acres of city-owned property to the project, joining other land already purchased, to become the future home of fields, greenhouses, and hydroponic systems. This will be the biggest urban farm in Detroit by a wide margin.

The farm will be possible in large part due to a transfer of about 40 acres of city-owned land near Eastern Market to the farm project, some of which still contains uninhabited homes. Mayor Duggan broke the news at the end of October, describing the project as a means of transforming 22 blocks of blighted property into an “urban agricultural enterprise.”

The farm is the golden child of an organization aiming to grow food commercially inside the city and use the profits to support SHAR, a drug addiction recovery agency, including putting recovering addicts and ex-offenders to work. Detroit’s food paradise will be run by RecoveryPark, which already manages a vegetable farm at a former industrial site off East Grand Boulevard near New Center. The new site will span 60 acres and represents a $15 million investment – if the nonprofit can come up with the funds.

Read the full story at Inhabitat