Detroit - City in Decline/City of Hope?

Since I first learned this past fall (and blogged about) the vast network of 1200 community gardens in the City of Detroit (which formed in part as a response to the departure of the last major chain supermarket from the City of Detroit in 2007), my ears and eyes have been on the watch for anything Detroit-related.

This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending the NOFA-NY (Northeast Organice Farmer's Association of NY State) Annual Conference held in Saratoga, to hear the keynote speech by Malik Yakini, a Detroit-native who is a longtime black activist in Detroit on local food, health and urban agriculture. As Executive Director of the NSoroma Institute Public School Academy, an African-centered charter school, he's been instrumental in teaching black youth about their ancestry and history, as well as the age old traditions of agriculture. Mr. Yakini is also Chairman of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, as well as a member of the Detroit Food Policy Council, which the Detroit City Council unaminously approved in 2009.

In a city where there are NO major supermarkets and most residents either travel to the suburbs or buy from small convenient shops (which typically don't offer a wide variety of fresh produce), the Food Policy Council adopted the following mission:
The Detroit Food Policy Council is committed to nurturing the development and maintenance of a sustainable, localized food system and a food-secure city of Detroit in which all of its residents are hunger-free, healthy and benefit economically from the food system that impacts their lives.

Okay, that said, Malik Yakini's hour-long presentation was one of the most honest, inspiring, motivating talks I have heard in a long time (even President Obama's State of the Union, but that's for later this week.) As a black activist, he spoke to the predominantly all-white audience about the intersection between racism, poverty, and access to healthy, local fresh produce.

He shared some disturbing statistics that say only one thing to me: As we experience increased unemployment nationwide, and the decline of industry based on cheap oil and energy, many people are looking to Detroit to see how they are managing as a 'post industrial city'. Check out this link for some images on Detroit's decline.

The statistics Malik provided are disturbing:
In 1950, the population of Detroit was 2 million
In 2000, the population of Detroit was 900,000
In 2011, the predicted population of Detroit is 750,000

- The current unemployment rate is 29% - and that's the official rate, it doesn't include those who have been unemployed so long they are no longer on the unemployment rolls. Given this, Malik indicated the unofficial unemployment rate is closer to 40 or 50%! That is almost half of the population.

And there's more:
- There are 103,000 vacant lots in the city, about half are owned by City government.
- 40,000 Detroit residents are WITHOUT water! That means their water has been officially shut off (apparently there's an underground "market" of people who will come around and turn your water back on for a price.)

The number of people without water astounded me. And, I agree with Malik when he said, "I personally believe it is your human right to have water." Noone should go without water because they cannot afford it.

These circumstances, particularly the lack of water, for me puts Detroit in the category of a 'developing country.' Unfortunately, I feel there are plenty of communities right here in the northeast that are headed the way of serious 'post industrial' decline. My own hometown, Gloversville, NY, in Fulton County, has experienced continued unemployment rates well over 10% (I tried to find actual stat but couldn't.)

However, I do believe there is Hope!

Detroit is a community that's founded in community activism. There is an amazing network of 1200 community gardens in Detroit. The Detroit Food Policy Council is working to develop and support access to healthy food. And according to Malik, there's a large network of people working on teaching and training people how to grow food in the community, including the The Greening of Detroit, among many others.

Malik's organization, the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), has actively been gardening for a number of years in the community. Their focus is on 1) Food Access, 2) Food Quality, 3) Food 'economies'. In part, the DBCFSN is really looking at how to provide access to healthy local food, and the role of urban agriculture as a potential viable economy.

As Malik says, "We need to Restore the Honor in farming." One could say this is not just true of urban agriculture in Detroit, but in agriculture in general across our country.

There are a few things we need as humans to survive: food, water and shelter. It's no wonder many of us are only a few generations removed from our earlier ancestors for whom farming was a large part or total part of making their livelihood.

In terms of community organizing, if there was any take home message it was this: You have to engage and look to the community members you may be trying to work with to be leaders in creating change. Malik addressed some of the challenges his organization has experienced in trying to encourage African Americans, especially black youth, to take up urban agriculture. He said there are a number of underlying cultural reasons why black African Americans are resistant to farming, and a key one is they associate farming with slavery, and rightly so, since slaves predominantly worked in the fields.

This means new paradigms need to be created or older traditions connected to. Malik spoke about how at the Nsoroma Institute, they teach students about their roots to African culture, a vastly rich culture with deep connections to respecting the land, honoring mother earth and seeing humans as a part of nature. It is from this place which he attempts to educate and motivate youth to get more involved in gardening and growing food.

He also talked about how real sustaining change and empowerment must come from within the community. To paraphrase him, "It seems the people most interested in this new organic agriculture movement and working in disenfranchised communities are young educated white people." He continued, "And this is fine, but then they start getting grant money, and they start hiring their own white friends."

So, once again, the money intended to help communities of color is going to outsiders. That's the reason why he and others started the Detroit Black Food Security Network. So that community members could create the change from within.

Interesting, Malik told me later that his interest in urban agriculture originates with visiting his grandfather who lived in Georgia and had a passion for farming. At 9 yrs old, Malik planted his own garden in his back yard in Detroit. Neither of his parents were interested in farming, but something about it moved Malik to do this. It's this passion that drives Malik, and which he hopes to instill in more youth growing up in Detroit.

Note: There are other good things happening in Detroit as well, like an art revival among others. Here's a link to a blog (and source for the photo above)