Posted on 12/16/2014 7:02:04 AM PST by Lorianne
Greg Willerer may not seem like your average entrepreneur. The once full-time school teacher quit his job to follow his passion for farming in the most unlikely of places. Located not far from Downtown Detroit, Willerer launched his urban farming business on just one acre of land.
During his first year, Willerer earned almost the equivalent of his teaching salary. His venture, Brother Nature Produce, sells locally grown produce to restaurants across Detroit. They recently received a $10,000 grant to help grow their business from the New Economy Initiative’s small business challenge, and his farm was among one of five Detroit based urban farms to be awarded.
Willerer’s story is part of a growing trend in a city with a bountiful amount of unused land. With an estimated 20 square miles of vacant land, Detroit’s abandoned lots are roughly the size of Manhattan according to the Detroit Future City Report. Detroit has an estimated 40,000 blighted properties needing to be cleared. The city allows residents to get an easy start at urban farming with the sale of side lots for only $100 dollars through the Land Bank.
Entrepreneurs here see a business opportunity to grow locally, reinventing the way the land is used, while creating products made from an all around sustainable business model.
Growing and serving locally
Noah Link got his start at urban farming after moving back to Michigan in 2010. Link saw the potential for organic farming to take off in Detroit. His business Food Farm has since sustained it’s needs and hired on several employees to grow, profiting from sales at Detroit’s Eastern Market, through the City Commons Agricultural program, and by selling to local restaurants and businesses.
“There is definitely opportunity for urban agriculture businesses to grow in Detroit,” said Link. “Next year we’ll operate a weekly onsite cafe to serve meals based around our own organic produce.”
Other farms are expanding their offerings to grow, as well. Buffalo Street Farm is adding a small vineyard to their land in Detroit. Co-founder Chris McGrane says it may take a lot of groundwork to become sustainable, profitable business.
“Successful urban growers usually find a high value niche crops to keep business afloat, or use a cooperative model,” said McGrane, pointing out the City Commons program both farms participate in.
Though land is plentiful, urban farmers must secure land suitable for farming and work around city zoning and licensing. Link says he always encourages entrepreneurs to find ways to integrate into the existing farming community, and to keep an eye out for ways to reach new markets.
The largest urban farm of them all
One entrepreneur in Detroit is thinking big when it comes to repurposing the land. Hantz Farms boasts the title of the largest urban farm in Detroit. Owner John Hantz made his fortune in the financial services industry, before turning his sights to urban farming as a way to address blight in the city.
“We were looking for a tool that could deal with a large amount of blight at once,” said Mike Score, president of Hantz Farms. “We knew that a larger scale farm could be attractive and profitable in the long run.”
The Hantz Farms project, a 174-acre tree farm, is just beginning to take root after several years of planning. On Detroit’s East Side hundreds of trees have been planted this fall and 57 blighted homes will be demolished by the end of the year. Five full time employees work on the farm that Score says is on track to meet long term financial goals.
But for the Hantz team, a driving factor for entering this industry is closely tied to helping the community.
“When we come down the street our neighbors wave and smile at us. That really motivates us,” said Score. “When we came in and mowed 175 acres and started ripping out the brush and tearing down houses, it made it possible for others to stay.”
Like this first batch of trees on Hantz Farms, the urban farming movement in Detroit is growing. Detroit may see more entrepreneurs reinventing land and leading the way for a locally sourced food movement.
It’s nice to see the land put to some use.
But, I wonder: After a century and a half of city life, isn’t the land hopelessly polluted by today’s (and the EPA’s) chemical standards? It’s not exactly cleared virgin forest.
$10,000 grant? where did those funds come from? Taxpayers no doubt.
Everyone knows that people cannot accomplish things on their own without Big Government involvement.
It's a good thing the Pilgrims and pioneers had federal government subsidies or they never would have succeeded.
/s
I’m all for getting Detroit back on its feet but farming isn’t the way to do it.
Besides, what is the point? Michigan is covered with farmland that won’t require decontamination.
Do they encase these “urban farms” with tall fences, perhaps topped with barbed wire or are they just a free produce section for any takers?
I can just see the lab coated EPA types swarming the prospective farms..looking for reasons to see to it that they never get “off the ground”...i.e. grow anything in it,
There were farms in what used to be Rome in the Middle Ages. It took over a thousand years before Rome regained its population.
Things move faster now and there are a lot more people, but I think Detroit is on the same path.
As many others on this thread are stating: what pollutants exist in the soil?
(Maybe those things aren’t as bad as we’ve been led to believe?)
As many others on this thread are stating: what pollutants exist in the soil?
(Maybe those things aren’t as bad as we’ve been led to believe?)
Please excuse the burp (double post)
Concentrated human habitation leaves the soil a real mess no matter where it is. In a city with a history of heavy industry its even worse.
These aren’t urban farmers so much as they are Grant Ranchers.
Wish someone would give me 10 grand to grow my garden.
100 years ago men left the farms in the Detroit area for the high wage low skill jobs in the Auto industry.
And this pitiful exercise is supposed to bring Detroit back?
Unbelievable.
Yep,give me 10K and I’ll show you what a real garden looks like.
About 20 years ago, there was a study about this. It said that there were such high levels of metals, lead and chromium in particular, and organic solvents that they recommended not eating stuff that was grown there. They recommended growing some specific plants that had high uptake of metals and disposing of them.
Call the venture Superfund Farms.
I’m with you with the 10 grand for my garden :-)
Yeah, where’s my $10 grand?
I retired from the agricultural business. I wouldn't be afraid to eat what is grown on these plots of land.
One should look at any study with skepticism since, as we have found out with 'global warming hoaxes' that sometimes the studies are intentionally directed. Incjdentally for all of your information, many of the products labeled for 'organic' use are as deadly, or more deadly than conventional insecticides is improperly used. The only difference is that 'organically labeled products' generally have less efficacy which means that there is more applications. Like every week as apposed to once a month with conventional products.
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