Monday, February 15, 2010

Corporate farming in Detroit...

Many months ago, a major business man here in Detroit John Hantz announced his plan for a giant commercial urban farm that he pledged $30 million of his own money to create. I was instantly skeptical and mostly against it, but considered that maybe there was space in the city for both the grassroots urban farming movement that I am part of and hantz's plans. I think in the end, the city and community and many folks in the suburbs are commited to small local agriculture, and it would win out. I stumbled across a CNN article from about a month and a half ago thats converted me into a fierce opponent to everything that Hantz represents. From his hyper-capitalistic reasoning, to his technocratic life destroying & culture-less methods, to his arogant attempts to create a legacy for himself that will be remembered always...I just can't stand these plans.

Here's a gem of a quote: "...Hantz plans on making his farms both visually stunning and technologically cutting edge. Where there are row crops, Hantz says, they'll be neatly organized, planted in "dead-straight lines -- they may even be in a design." But the plan isn't to make Detroit look like Iowa. "Don't think a farm with tractors," says Hantz. "That's old."
lame

Read the whole article