What urban agriculture means to Detroit today.

Once a city of nearly million, Detroit has seen more than half its population flee due to an economic collapse of its industrial and manufacturing base. Today less than 900,000 people remain, a disproportionate number of whom are desperately poor and suffer one of the highest rates of unemployment in the nation, recently estimated at 27%.
Neighborhoods are sparsely populated in many areas and completely abandoned in others. This has caused the city to demolish entire blocks of abandoned homes to reduce the strain on city services and for fire safety reasons. It is estimated that these bare and vacant lots now make up thirty percent of the city, which provides and excellent opportunity for urban agriculture because the soil has not been toxified by industry. Already there are around 900 urban gardens within the city limits with many more planned on these vacant lots. Moreover the resurgence of urban agriculture allows residents to regain control over their lives lost due to globalization of Detroit's manufacturing base. Also it provides a source of community food security that it desperately needs after the loss of many of its major supermarkets. In this way, Detroit's urban gardens demonstrate the principals of autarchy in that the surplus can be sold once the community needs are first met. Finally it is important to note that many of these urban gardens signify the recovery of the town commons, in that local residents can plant crops, alleviate their poverty, and rebuild the local economy by usufruct, use of the town commons. In this case, borrowing the use of the commons to plant crops, while not diminishing its value. It would be interesting to see more if more cities could adopt these ideas and empower their citizens to be able to grow their own food, while creating more economic resiliency in the community.