Benifits
Home	Plan, Awareness, Practices	Benifits	Issues	creater	Source
Community gardeners in Detroit harvest a good deal of fruits and vegetables each year, but not much of that other type of green: profit. This year, though, Detroit's small-scale, volunteer urban farm movement will see the most dramatic steps yet toward making urban farming an economically viable industry. These steps promise that within the next few years, urban growers in Detroit will produce jobs and a tax base along with their salad greens. Among those efforts are RecoveryPark and Hantz Farms, two proposals to farm Detroit's vacant spaces at a scale unknown now, up to 2,000 acres or more each -- that's twice the size of Belle Isle. Meanwhile, the nonprofit Greening of Detroit this year plans to open Market Garden, a two-acre site near Eastern Market to train would-be career urban farmers how to operate like a business. And New York activist Majora Carter continues to map plans in the city for a pilot program for a worker-owned farming cooperative. Those involved say 2010 will be the critical year to get these efforts in the ground instead of just talked about. "I think it'll move from a theory to a reality this year," said Michael Score, president of Hantz Farms. Gary Wozniak, director of the RecoveryPark project, agreed that the coming months will see the first flowering of a new farm economy in Detroit. "We're talking about creating an entirely brand new industry in the city," he said. Microclimate improvement If appropriately planned and integrated into urban design, urban agriculture can contribute to the comfort of citizens. Green spaces around apartment blocks and houses, as well as neglected spaces in the city, help to improve the physical climate because vegetation can: help increase humidity, lower temperatures and introduce more pleasant odours to the city; capture dust and gases from polluted air through deposition and capture by the foliage of plants and trees, and soils; and help break wind and intercept solar radiation, creating shadow and protected places. One good example is the city of Cairo, where air pollution has risen to dangerous levels. For this reason, urban green areas now have a high political priority. The Tree Lovers' Association aims to expand the green areas in Maeādi. The Association takes charge of planting and caring for the trees in the location of the old canal in this district of Cairo. Another example is Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, where growing of food around housing compounds, along riverbanks and in other vacant spaces where public green spaces have been neglected by the municipality has led to an increase in vegetation and an improved microclimate.

Benifits

Community gardeners in Detroit harvest a good deal of fruits and vegetables each year, but not much of that other type of green: profit. This year, though, Detroit's small-scale, volunteer

urban farm movement will see the most dramatic steps yet toward making urban farming an economically viable industry. These steps promise that within the next few years, urban growers in Detroit will produce jobs and a tax base along with their salad greens. Among those efforts are RecoveryPark and Hantz Farms, two proposals to farm Detroit's vacant spaces at a scale unknown now, up to 2,000 acres or more each -- that's twice the size of Belle Isle.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit Greening of Detroit this year plans to open Market Garden, a two-acre site near Eastern Market to train would-be career urban farmers how to operate like a business. And New York activist Majora Carter continues to map plans in the city for a pilot program for a worker-owned farming cooperative. Those involved say 2010 will be the critical year to get these efforts in the ground instead of just talked about.

"I think it'll move from a theory to a reality this year," said Michael Score, president of Hantz Farms. Gary Wozniak, director of the RecoveryPark project, agreed that the coming months will see the first flowering of a new farm economy in Detroit. "We're talking about creating an entirely brand new industry in the city," he said.

Microclimate improvement

If appropriately planned and integrated into urban design, urban agriculture can contribute to the comfort of citizens. Green spaces around apartment blocks and houses, as well as neglected spaces in the city, help to improve the physical climate because vegetation can: help increase humidity, lower temperatures and introduce more pleasant odours to the city; capture dust and gases from polluted air through deposition and capture by the foliage of plants and trees, and soils; and help break wind and intercept solar radiation, creating shadow and protected places. One good example is the city of Cairo, where air pollution has risen to dangerous levels. For this reason, urban green areas now have a high political priority. The Tree Lovers' Association aims to expand the green areas in Maeādi. The Association takes charge of planting and caring for the trees in the location of the old canal in this district of Cairo. Another example is Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, where growing of food around housing compounds, along riverbanks and in other vacant spaces where public green spaces have been neglected by the municipality has led to an increase in vegetation and an improved microclimate.