Civil Eats

When he was seven years old, Malik Yakini, inspired by his grandfather, planted his own backyard garden in Detroit, seeding it with carrots and other vegetables. Should it come as any surprise that today, Yakini has made urban farming his vocation? The Executive director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), which he co-founded in 2006, he is also chair of the Detroit Food Policy Council, which advocates for a sustainable, localized food system and a food-secure Detroit.

It’s well known that Detroit has been hard hit by the economic crisis—its unemployment rate is a staggering 28 percent—but it also has one of the most well-developed urban agriculture scenes in the country. Over the past decade, resourceful Detroiters and organizations such as DBCFSN have been converting the city’s vacant lots and fallow land into lush farms and community gardens. According to the Greening of Detroit, there are now over 1,351 gardens in the city.

I spoke to Yakini, one of the leaders of Detroit’s vibrant food justice movement, about  the problem with the term “food desert,” how Detroit vegans survive the winter, and what the DBCFSN is doing to change the food landscape in Detroit. “We’re really making an effort to reach beyond the foodies—to get to the common folk who are not really involved in food system reform,” says Yakini. Read More

Recently a Detroit public high school that focuses on farming and second chances for young mothers was added to a list of schools that would be closed this summer. Catherine Ferguson Academy is on that list thanks to a new law that allows Michigan governor Rick Snyder to dismiss locally elected officials and put in place new ones. (I’ll let Rachel Maddow give the details in the video, below).

You might have heard that Detroit lost 25 percent of its population in the last decade. What has resulted is a lot of abandoned land and a lot of blight. And yet, Detroit is also home to an urban agriculture Renaissance, with projects like the Greening of Detroit and D-Town Farm, among others. Catherine Ferguson Academy is just one such place that offers opportunities in growing food to those who need it most. Read More

We’ve heard from the politicians, academics, activists, and social commentators about how to help a city like Detroit that is economically-depressed, struggling to retain residents (let alone attract new ones), and home to 500,000 food insecure residents. What has happened? Not much. People offer statistical calculations for how to reduce poverty levels but the city continues to lose residents and increase the number of vacant homes and lots. Mix in the obesity epidemic, lack of access to healthy, nutritious food and you’ve got the worst-case scenario for the city. I have a new equation to offer for how to build up Detroit. Till soil + plant seeds = self empowerment and community development. Multiply this over and over and the change is exponential. The enthralling short documentary, Urban Roots, proves this theory true. Read More

Detroit recently made headlines for its notoriously poor supply of fresh produce to urban dwellers, though this city ranks among at least a half dozen others that have had to tackle the emergence of ‘food deserts,’ or neighborhoods with little or no supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. Earlier this summer the USDA released its report on the health consequences of food deserts, Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food – Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences, which reviewed the evidence for expanding the supply of fresh produce in communities where fast food and corner store snacks are the norm. They found a clear relationship between the local food supply and the food choices that consumers make. Many health advocates believe that food deserts have contributed to the obesity epidemic, the rise in individuals with diabetes, and many other health problems associated with a nutritionally deficient diet.

In response to these issues, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Commission to Build a Healthier America has recommended that public health programs make access to “full service grocery stores” in communities (urban and rural) that have long relied on fast food or convenience stores for their food supply. They cite Detroit as an example of just how bad it can get (5 grocery stores in 139 square miles). The assumption is that large grocery chains must penetrate these markets in order to provide a constant supply of fresh fruits and vegetables to the community, so that citizens have the ability to choose healthier foods. Read More