" I heard it through the AgLine"

July 16, 2010

 

 

·        World’s largest urban farm slated for Detroit

·        Massive plagues threaten Aussie crops

·        Odd weather will delay NM chili harvest

·        Tokyo Subway growing lettuce in store

·        Henry Ford’s grand dream for agriculture

 

 

World’s largest urban farm slated for Detroit

 

(The Epoch Times) MICHIGAN—With over 30,000 acres of vacant land, it’s hard to drive down a Detroit street without seeing overgrown lots and abandoned, sometimes decomposing, buildings. Arson and crime are a continuing problem, and unemployment is at more than 25 percent, well over the nation’s average of about 10 percent.

 

Unlike in most big American cities where land is an asset, in Detroit it can be a liability. There are opportunities to buy a foreclosed house for as little as $1 in Detroit.

 

Mayor Dave Bing is currently moving forward with a plan to demolish 10,000 vacant houses and “shrink” the Motor City to match a population that has shrunk to about half of what was in 1950, when the American auto industry was thriving.

 

“We got trapped by our own success, now we have to reinvent ourselves,” said John Hantz, one of the few multi-millionaires left within Detroit’s city limits.

 

A few years ago, Hantz decided it was time to invest in his city of 20 years. He hatched a plan to use $30 million of his own money to buy up a large quantity of Detroit’s cheap land and farm it for everything its worth—an unprecedented feat.

 

Though delayed for about a year, Hantz estimates that he will start with 250 to 280 acres by spring 2011, making it the largest urban farm in the world. First crops will include apples, tomatoes, lettuce, and even wood—trees will help in purifying the soil, and the long-term cost-benefit of wood is viable, according to Hantz.

 

How It Started

 

While driving to his office in the suburbs of Detroit (the reverse route of most local commuters) about two years ago, Hantz realized that if he really wanted Detroit to change for the better, he would have to stop looking to others.

 

“I was thinking, well someone needs to do something, and then I had that hated dreadful feeling that someone might be, like, me,” Hantz said.

 

He then decided that what Detroit needs is scarcity of land.

 

“Vacant land is a train wreck, it destroys land, it destroys community,” he said. “The worst part of vacant land is that it consumes the city’s resources.”

 

Hantz’s estimate, confirmed by the city, indicates that each parcel of vacant land in Detroit costs the city about $2,400 a year to maintain, when various services, such as police protection, fire protection, and lawn mowing, are accounted for. With 200,000 vacant parcels, that amounts to a $480 million-a-year tab. It’s no surprise that Detroit currently faces a budget deficit of more than $300 million.

 

Even if Hantz Farms fails, just by taking over the land and mowing its grass, Hantz will be doing the city a service—relieving it of approximately $3.5 million in maintenance fees. If he pays his taxes on the land, which he said he will, he will also be giving the city money over and above that.

 

Hantz concedes that Hantz Farms is a “little thing” amid a big problem in Detroit, but he hopes it will be inspirational to over 700,000 residents of the city, who can also acquire ownership of the city land for farming.

 

“Even if you add up 700,000 people doing a little thing, you get a pretty big thing—that’s the pendulum that I am hoping the farm impacts,” he said.

 

Making It Work

 

Hantz Farms won’t be a typical farm with sprawling fields. Hantz has consulted with agricultural experts at the Michigan State University and the Kellogg Foundation and plans on using all the agricultural ingenuity the modern world can afford to make his endeavor work. His 250 to 280 acres will be split up into “pods” throughout the city and will grow vertically. He eventually plans to incorporate aquaculture (fish farming), hydroponics (growing plants in water), and aeroponics (growing plants in air), all of which can be housed in buildings.

 

Some have worried that Detroit soil may no longer be suitable for farming. Hantz Farms will initially limit itself to former residential properties, not commercial buildings, in order to cut down on the possibility of difficult land.

 

“That’s going to be one of our biggest costs, going through the parcels,” Hantz said.

 

An increasing number of community gardens in Detroit—from approximately 80 in 2003 to 1,300 at present—seem to attest to the viability of Detroit’s soil. According to Dan Carmody, the head of Detroit’s mammoth farmer’s market, Eastern Market, there are a variety of solutions to Detroit’s soil quality.

 

“There [are] short-term solutions, there [are] long-term solutions, but [the soil quality] should not be an impediment,” Carmody said in a panel discussion at the University of Michigan, Dearborn.

 

He cited the planting of sunflowers, which can leech heavy metals out of soil, and also said that 12 inches of top soil can be simply put on top as a viable solution.

 

Down the Street

 

John Hantz lives on Iroquois Street in Indian Village, one of few affluent neighborhoods left in Detroit. His manicured lawn and grand home seem like a relic of Detroit’s glory days.

 

About a mile down on Iroquois Street—no longer in Indian Village—lives Earnest Sanders, a retired General Motors factory worker who has lived in his Detroit home for 47 years. His two-level house is more modest in size than Hantz’s, but the two Detroit residents share an affinity for manicured lawns.

 

Sanders lives directly across from Pingree Park, a sprawling plot with three-feet-high weeds. Next to the park is an abandoned school, where locals do drugs, he said.

 

While he’s proud of his community of neighbors on Iroquois Street, Sanders said, there are a lot of “no-gooders” just a block away.

 

“We’re people with values and morals, but we’re surrounded by people who don’t have values and morals,” he said on his porch overlooking the park.

 

Pingree Park would not be a possible area for a Hantz farm, since it’s a city park, but the abandoned school next door could, in theory, be bulldozed and sold to Hantz. Money saved and taxes collected from such a farm could probably pay for more regular maintenance on the untended park.

 

Asked to comment on Hantz Farms, Sanders said, “If you can produce something that’s beneficial to the community, that’s wonderful.”

 

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Massive plagues threaten Aussie crops

 

(AFP via Yahoo! News) SYDNEY – Plagues of mice and locusts are threatening huge swathes of Australia's farming heartland and could wipe out crops worth one billion dollars (880 million US), scientists warned Wednesday.

 

Millions of mice are currently devouring crops and will be joined within months by dense swarms of locusts, affecting southeastern regions with the combined area of Portugal.

 

"This is the result of what we are calling a perfect storm," said Chris Adriaansen from the Australian Plague Locust Commission. "Many millions of eggs will hatch."

 

High rainfall and mild temperatures have created ideal breeding conditions for the pests, which will hit parts of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia, experts told a briefing.

 

Mass locust hatching in September and October is set to create swarms of up to 15,000 per square metre (yard), devastating crops at a rate of several hundred metres a day.

 

Scientists said the best way to stop the plagues was to predict their movement and use pesticides, but held out hope that cannibalism by the locusts could limit the disaster.

 

"Locusts are constantly nibbling on each other and are more than willing to feed on each other," said Greg Sword, an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney's Molecular Ecology Lab.

 

"The locusts would effectively be feeding on themselves and could help limit their own populations."

 

Aerial tracking aircraft will be used to follow the outbreaks, allowing farmers to target the use of pesticides to protect their vegetable and grain crops.

 

"The problem with poisons is that they have other impacts throughout the ecosystem," said Mathew Crowther, a lecturer in wildlife management at the University of Sydney.

 

"They're also quite expensive, and when the farmers do put them out, often a lot of the damage is already done."

 

But the impact of inaction could be far worse, with Adriaansen estimating losses of up to one billion Australian dollars if the plagues are left unchecked.

 

And while scientists are confident they will ultimately be able to control the outbreak, it is expected to continue for several months at least.

 

"This will be a problem that will continue into (southern hemisphere) summer," said Adriaansen.

 

News of the plagues comes after a mass sabotage in Queensland wiped out seven million vegetable plants, mainly tomatoes, which cost an estimated 50 million dollars and is expected to send prices soaring.

 

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Odd weather will delay NM chili harvest

 

 

(Santa Fe New Mexican) LAS CRUCES — Prolonged cool springtime temperatures followed by a heat wave in June add up to a delayed and likely smaller New Mexico chile harvest, growers say.

 

Hatch-area grower Shayne Franzoy probably won't begin harvesting his 200 acres of chile until early to mid-August, about three weeks later than normal. Last year, he started bringing chile in on July 25.

 

"We're hoping to start by the 8th of August, but we don't even know yet," Franzoy said. "It depends on what happens between now and then."

 

Abnormally cool weather resulted in a "very slow start" for the state's chile fields, said Stephanie Walker, cooperative extension vegetable specialist at New Mexico State University. June's heat wave added stress to plants. That's in contrast to last year, which had excellent growing conditions.

 

Walker said she does not expect lower chile pod quality, just a later-than-usual harvest.

 

"Chile probably will start trickling in the first week of August, but we won't hit full stride until Aug. 16," she said.

 

New Mexico growers harvested about 12,300 acres of red and green chile last year. The 72,700-ton chile crop was valued at $57.4 million, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Nearly half of the production was from Dona Ana County.

 

Pests and disease are not much of a concern this year, except for chile plant-killing curly top disease, which has shown up in some areas.

 

Danise Coon, program coordinator and researcher with the New Mexico Chile Pepper Institute, said the organization is preparing to host an international pepper conference that will draw researchers from around the world. It's slated for Sept. 12-14.

 

Chile acreage harvested in the New Mexico has been going up since 2007, when it reached a low of 11,000 acres. Walker said the industry's growth will depend on developing successful mechanical green chile harvesters.

 

"Consumers want to buy New Mexico chile; it's good stuff," Walker said. "We just need to make sure we can compete with other countries."

 

While shoppers might already have seen green chile pods in local grocery stores, it's not locally produced, Walker said.

 

"Any green chile they see now is coming from other areas far, far away," she said.

 

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Tokyo Subway growing lettuce in store

 

(FastCompany.com) – A Subway Sandwich shop in Tokyo introduced a creative marketing ploy this week to bring in sustainability-minded customers: hydroponic lettuce grown on-site. The shop, located across the street from Tokyo Station, has a "vegetable factory" enclosed in glass that features hydroponically grown lettuce destined to land in customer sandwiches.

 

The venture isn't exactly making Subway extra cash--the hydroponic lettuce costs twice as much as the refrigerated variety, according to InventorSpot. And the vegetable factory only produces 5% of what the shop needs. Still, it's an attention-grabbing way to prove to passers-by that fresh food can be grown in the middle of even the most crowded cities.

 

Subway Japan claims that the hydroponic lettuce stations will eventually be rolled out to other spots around the country. But the initiative doesn't stand much of a chance in the U.S. "You need to have room in the store for something like this, which would be an issue," says Kevin Kane, a public relations manager for Subway.

 

But just because Subway stores in the U.S. don't have room for hydroponics doesn't mean that other urban and suburban locations can't be utilized. Ohio's Cleveland Galleria mall, for example, is building a giant urban greenhouse where shops once stood. The same could easily be done in empty storefronts elsewhere.

 

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Henry Ford’s grand dream for agriculture

 

(The Voice of Agriculture) – The locavore movement, urban farms and green products all seem like relatively new ideas, but they are reminiscent of Henry Ford’s grand design for agriculture nearly a century ago.

 

Ford transformed American life and the workplace with the Model T automobile and the factory assembly line. He was a proponent of farm mechanization, but a number of his ideas for agriculture never took hold during his lifetime. In fact, he felt so stymied by politicians and critics in America that he took his plans to Brazil instead.

 

Ford was among the first to see the agriculture potential in the Amazon jungle where he cleared land for a rubber tree plantation. Unfortunately, he didn’t see the ecological problems and dangers lurking in the rain forest. His farm managers and workers were bitten by pit vipers, chased by crocodiles, swarmed by insects and contracted tropical diseases.

 

The account of Ford’s misadventures in South America is captured in a new book, Fordlandia, by Greg Grandin. It chronicles the rise and fall of Henry Ford’s forgotten jungle city named Fordlandia.

 

The story picks up in the 1920s after the American Farm Bureau Federation supported Ford in his efforts to acquire the World War I nitrate munitions plant at Muscle Shoals, Ala. Ford wanted the unfinished defense project on the Tennessee River in order to produce fertilizer and hydroelectric power. As his offer to buy dragged on in Congress, Ford became frustrated and abruptly dropped out. Farm Bureau persisted until Muscle Shoals emerged as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority under President Roosevelt.

Author Grandin reported that Ford spent tens of millions of dollars and two decades in building two American-style towns and a rubber plantation in Brazil, remnants of which still exist. Walt Disney visited Fordlandia in 1941 and released a documentary about it. Later he would develop plans for his own namesake towns.

 

Ford’s great vision was to meld agriculture and industry. He believed the factory worker should have a few acres of land to grow fruit and vegetables for his family and market the rest nearby. Instead of residing in a circular metropolis, workers would live in long, thin cities alongside farms.

 

Ford was an advocate of small hydroelectric projects to loosen the grip of the energy trust – similar to the renewable fuels push today to lessen dependence on oil. His scientists experimented with new uses for soybeans and even built a car body out of plastic made from soybeans. The project was scrapped because the process required formaldehyde – not a desirable new car smell.

 

“With one foot in agriculture and the other in industry, America is safe,” said Ford. No doubt he would embrace mainstream agriculture, city farmers, gardeners and locavores today, not just for the food, but the lessons he thought farming taught people. Fordlandia was a bust, but Henry Ford’s firm belief in agriculture was not.

 

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