On this page, you can explore the development of resilient urban food systems as a framework for social reorganization and socio-environmental sustainability. Here you can learn about the successes, and potential conflicts, of the growing urban farming movement in Detroit, Michigan, and how their neighborhood solution – though originally intended to solely address issues of food security – can be applied to global societies to create a more equitable and just sustainable future.
Figure 1: Eigenbrod, 2014, private collection
In 2013, the city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy after decades of decline following the exodus of the automobile industry from the city. The largest municipal bankruptcy filing, before or after the Great Depression, few were prepared for the effects of such a drastic cut in Detroit budgets – and drastic rise in debt (Safransky, 2014). Decades of shrinking industry and white flight had already left Detroit relatively empty, however following the enactment of the Detroit Future City Plan, which outlined plans to consolidate the city to key geographic areas, many of the city’s residents get left even further behind. Detroit didn’t have the funds to provide necessary infrastructure and services to all of the city, therefore it was decided that services would be funneled to communities that needed them most (Safranksy, 2014). These communities, however, were not the predominantly black and working class neighborhoods that had been hardest hit by abandonment and industrial decline. Rather, those communities were told to relocate, despite the financial burdens, or be once again left behind (Safranksy, 2014).
The important actors at play in this case are most obviously the government, particularly the municipal government of Detroit and the Michigan state government; Detroit’s residents, most importantly black and working class residents. Community activists and organizers also play an essential role is facilitating the development and coordination of community gardening and urban farming in the city. It’s important to also acknowledge the players outside of the system, that still impact it greatly, namely the US economy – tied explicitly to the global economy as well, and outsiders who are making their way to Detroit to capitalize on the low housing costs brought on by decades of government abandonment. These people play an important, though controversial, role in the “urban revival” – or gentrification – of Detroit and its urban farming system (Checker, 2011) (Safranksy, 2014). We also must acknowledge the environment and climate itself as essential actors in this system, as they play a crucial role in the ability of residents to build sustainability. All of these actors operate and interact with each other across both spatial and temporal scales to create ongoing social and environmental changes in Detroit’s urban center.
Figure 2: Depicts the key actors impacting the development of urban farming in Detroit, organized by scale. Interactions between and across scales are highlighted, with cross-scalar interactions applying to all members of that scale.
In 2014, there were thousands of vacant lots left behind from abandoned houses, concentrated heavily in the areas most impacted by poverty and insecurity brought on by Detroit’s decline (Hester, 2016). The retreat of Detroit’s government, propelled by national deindustrialization and global recessions in years prior, ultimately turned Detroit’s urban residents into a negative externality. Residents, recognizing – as they had for a long time – that the state was not going to serve or provide for them in the ways they needed, and jumpstarted a new adaptive cycle (Walker and Salt, 2011). When government abandonment-fueled food and economic insecurity, caused by the concentration of resources away from communities in need, had finally reached a threshold, and Detroit residents began to push into a new regime. Many residents, though in an uncoordinated effort, began planting gardens in their own homes, or in nearby vacant lots – a technique used throughout generations as a tool to create self-sufficiency outside of a broken system (“History,” 2018). This technique has grown and expanded to create a network of farms and farmers operating in Detroit’s vacant lots, redefining how they feed their communities and what it means to be resilient (Eigenbrod and Gruda, 2015) (Panagopoulos et al., 2018). This formulation of a classic adaptive cycle also works to break other crucial cycles, such as poverty and unemployment traps brought on by structural marginalization and institutionalized racism.
Figure 3: Depicts the adaptive cycle generated by the rise of urban farming in Detroit, as well as farming’s impact on the social organization and cycles of poverty present in contemporary Detroit.
This urban farming movement has been invaluable to many communities in Detroit. Not only has it provided historically food-insecure communities with relatively consistent sources of fresh and nutritious food, but it’s also been a resident-led movement that has fostered community-building and a sense of empowerment (Hester, 2018) (Tornaghi, 2017). The system typically entails a community member occupying a vacant lot in their neighborhood, and using their own time and resources to grow food in that space, which ultimately goes back to their family or neighbors. Some farmers set up markets or distribution stations where other residents can purchase or obtain food, both promoting security and minimizing potential waste (Eigenbrod and Gruda, 2015) (Hester, 2018). As these farming projects have grown, some farmers, like as Malik Yakini, have developed programs to involve local youth and other volunteers in their operations, facilitating knowledge transfers and providing safe and healthy opportunities for young people (“Our Work,” 2018) (Safransky, 2014). These farms, when scaled up or connected with the proper funding, can also provide jobs to some of the many unemployed members of these communities. As such, this system operates in a way that provides increased opportunities, knowledge, food, health, and sustainability to vulnerable and abandoned communities in Detroit.
Although this system appears self-contained, there are many power dynamics at work at every scale. Governments – municipal and state – have contested rights to land, particularly of vacant lots, of urban farmers in Detroit (Safransky, 2014). This conflict often calls into question the antiquated notion of ownership and “deservingness,” as well as knowledge claims over human relationships with nature. At times, these power conflicts have resulted in community dispossession of crucial spaces of food production and community building. Power dynamics between “outsiders,” or gentrifiers, and current residents exacerbate issues over land rights and claims (Checker, 2011). In addition, there are also important temporal scales at play on the community level. As low-income communities in Detroit are predominantly made up of people of color, particularly black communities, farming has painful legacies and ties to the history of oppression and slavery of black people (Hester, 2018) (Tornaghi, 2017).
Though it is important to acknowledge these uncomfortable and traumatic legacies, many Detroit farmers see this as an essential part of their work to become a self-sufficient and sustainable community. Some farmers, such as Greg Willerer, see their work as a reclamation of their relationships to nature and to food production, and as a tool to distance themselves from any reliance on the structures and systems that continually subjugate their communities (Hester, 2018) (Tornaghi, 2017). This objective demonstrates why it is so important for long-term sustainability that this community-led movement continues that way, led by those who know the reality of the issues they seek to overcome (Colasanti et al., 2012).
Urban farming in Detroit, therefore creates an important opportunity to develop a sustainable system that is rights-based, community-led, guided by history, supported with resources by those outside it, and perhaps most importantly, left to exist outside of the structures that forced its existence. This case is that is presents an opportunity for complete social-environmental reorganization, potentially forgoing existing power relationships completely. Though it is currently impossible to completely dismantle existing power relationships, this case study calls for a reformulation of power such that government-resident and corporation-resident relations can be acknowledged, but cannot dictate residents’ actions.
Figure 4: Edward Cardenas, 2015, CBS Detroit
In order for this system to be sustainable over the long-term, it requires support from the outside – without being supplanted. Farming requires resources, in tools, labor, knowledge, and other inputs, particularly on poor quality urban land. Therefore, as farming continues to grow and develop in Detroit, social and physical infrastructure must be created for the sharing and distribution of resources. Additionally, while state efforts to support and grow these efforts may seem like a helpful and necessary step, there are conflicting perspectives on the role of a state that forced the existence of an extra-statal community, taking control of that community (Colasanti et al., 2012) (Horst et al., 2017) (Paddeu, 2017) (Meenar et al., 2017). However, as mentioned, cross-scalar relationships are central to the creation of this movement, and therefore must be central to its long-term sustainability. Therefore, government resources – on local or state levels – should be put towards supporting the needs of community-based initiatives such as the urban farming movement. Governments at all levels should also protect the work being done by urban farmers and community organizers from land grabs by wealthy individuals and corporations, particularly considering that these farmers fill in the gaps left by the rollback of the state (Colasanti et al., 2012) (Horst et al., 2017).
While this case study results from Detroit’s specific industrial history and long-time economic decline, similar movements exist around the world and are continuing to expand (Meenar et al., 2017). The maintenance of these movements on a global scale, individuals and societies must be willing to rethink our current neoliberal economic system in exchange for a more localized and equitable system of resource exchange. In order to create a more resilient and equitable food system, and therefore a broader sustainability ethic, communities must be willing to eat in tune with their farmers, that is, seasonally and locally. To do so, national governments must also ensure that all people are being paid living wages and have the resources to purchase this food and support themselves, including urban farmers. In order to apply this sustainability framework to cities without such vacant space, leaders should work with residents of marginalized communities to identify creative spaces in which they could foster food production (Horst et al., 2017) (Tornaghi, 2017). Though resilient food systems are just one component of building a sustainable future, the case of urban farming in Detroit provides an example of social, environmental, economic, political, value, and knowledge systems can be adapted and reconfigured through community-led movements to create a more just and resilient future.