Yes.
Democracy now had a program about Detroit not too long ago.
Detroit Urban Agriculture Movement Looks to Reclaim Motor City
In Detroit, demolition crews are planning to tear down 10,000 residential buildings over the next four years that the city has deemed dangerous. But as old structures are coming down, the city is redefining itself in other ways. An estimated 20 to 30 percent of the city’s lots are vacant, and there is a growing urban agriculture movement that community groups are using to reclaim the city. Malik Yakini, chairman of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, gives us a tour of D-Town Farm, one of the biggest urban farms in Detroit. [includes rush transcript
AMY GOODMAN: We are on the road in Detroit. Demolition crews here are planning to tear down 10,000 residential buildings over the next four years that the city has deemed dangerous. But as old structures are coming down, the city is redefining itself in other ways. An estimated 20 to 30 percent of the city’s lots are vacant. There’s a growing urban agriculture movement that community groups are using to reclaim Detroit. Several farms currently exist within the city, and there are hundreds more community, school and family gardens.
D-Town Farm is one of the biggest urban farms in Detroit. It was founded by the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, a coalition of organizations and individuals working to build food security in Detroit’s black community. Malik Yakini is the chair of the group. He gave us a tour of D-Town Farm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfyCnI-4COs
MALIK YAKINI: Welcome to D-Town Farm. D-Town Farm is a community self-determination project operated by the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network. And this is a two-acre site inside of a city-owned park. This is inside of Rouge Park, which is the largest park in the city of Detroit. And so, we have obtained a ten-year license agreement to create a model organic farm here in the city of Detroit. And so, what we’re doing is we’re showing how unused and underutilized land in the city of Detroit can be put to productive use both to create greater access to fresh produce, also to mobilize people to work on their own behalf, and also to, again, demonstrate to people how land in the city—and we have an abundance of land which is either not being used or being underutilized—how that land can be put to productive use.