An Open Letter to the Rev. Jesse Jackson

Dear Rev. Jesse Jackson:

I recently read in the Detroit News that you described urban farming in Detroit as a “cute, but foolish” idea. Instead of urban farming, you said, Detroit should add a battery plant. The city, you said, should obtain more industry because the Motor City should not become Moo-City. Also, you said, the city should allow urban squatting so people can take over vacant land and develop it. After all, you said, we are not urging farming in Baghdad.

Indeed.

Mr. Jackson, putting farms on uninhabited land is better than allowing weeds and garbage to grow from it. Growing food on urban farms could provide low-income residents with easier access to fresh produce and fruit. And if those farms use new technology, such as aeroponics, then a new green industry that uses less land and water could be developed. That can lead to new jobs producing not only food, but developing the technology used in such farming. There can even be an educational component to urban farming. Students could be exposed to other areas of agriculture, from creating plant hybrids to new food packaging methods to better storage facilities. Who knows, a Detroit high school student exposed to the possibilities of soy beans might decide to pursue a career that leads to finding other uses for soy. Simply, urban farming could be about more than just growing corn and selling it. It could be about developing technology so that food could be grown in the heart of Baghdad or even in drought stricken Ethiopia.

Adding a battery plant could further encumber the city to the auto industry, which has cyclical declines that often pull down the rest of the region’s economy. Part of the reason Detroit is in such financial trouble today is because of its dependency on the auto industry and the insulated nature of that industry. The city cannot abandon the auto industry, which is too much a part of its history and future, but Detroit must look to non auto-related ways to bring in revenue during an economic downturn. New farm technology could be developed and built in Detroit then shipped elsewhere.

In addition, urban areas have continuously been too dependent on manufacturing, particularly those enterprises that employ unskilled or low-skilled workers. We have seen manufacturing jobs dry up year after year, decade after decade, leaving most of urban America pot marked with abandoned factories and warehouses. Detroit doesn't need more of the same. The city is in desperate shape, so why not take a chance on something different? Why not break the mold and experiment with ideas that are not within the usual context of urban thinking? According to you, instead of using empty land for farming, the city should give it away to squatters for development. What a marvelous idea. Give away city land with the hope that someone will someday build on it. Such a plan could lead to land speculation and greater corruption in a city already reeling from corruption.

If you believe so much in the development potential of Detroit then how about you and some of your rich friends – the ones that received Coca-Cola franchises after your protests several decades ago – build a bottling plant in the city or some other business. And if you decide to do so, Mr. Jackson, please do it on land purchased from the city, not obtained through squatting. People like you have been squatting over Detroit for far too long, dropping all the wrong things on the city.