First-Ever National Urban Agriculture Conference Brings Urban Farmers and Their Supporters to Detroit

Whatupdoe! That was the enthusiastic and distinctly Detroit greeting that welcomed more than 500 attendees to the city often considered the mecca of urban agriculture in the U.S. The first-ever national urban agriculture conference, held in the Motor City from August 4-6, was inspiring and informative.

Colorful signs welcome visitors to lush urban farm

Signage at D-Town Farm

The three-day event was sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture, which has been stepping up its engagement in urban ag due to provisions in the 2018 Farm Bill. The cornerstone of the conference was an update on the USDA's new National Urban Agriculture Initiative (NUAg), which has already rolled out in 17 cities, and is being expanded to 10 new cities. The cohort of cities includes Los Angeles and Oakland. (In California, the nonprofit partner helping to build bridges between USDA programs and urban farmers is CAFF, the Community Alliance with Family Farmers).

The conference featured high-profile speakers including keynote speaker US Senator Debbie Stabenow, Chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. According to Stabenow, urban agriculture has grown by more than 30% in the last couple of decades and is finally receiving the recognition it deserves. “People need to understand that urban agriculture provides fresh local produce directly to the community.”

New investment in urban agriculture and champions like Senator Stabenow speak to the elevation of urban agriculture as an important and emerging sector in agriculture and natural resources. Urban agriculture is increasingly seen as an area “at the crossroads of critical issues including food insecurity, the climate crisis, human rights, environmental stewardship, and more” according to another speaker, Malik Yakini, the renowned co-founder of the Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network (DBCFSN).

Field trips to several local farms were part of conference activities. One stop was the for-profit Beaverland Farms. It's pieced together from vacant lots that the farm owners were able to purchase. Because of the collapse of the Detroit auto industry beginning in 2008, and the subsequent financial crisis and significant loss of population, many houses around the city were abandoned and demolished. Given this surplus of vacant land, Detroit became an early center of the urban agriculture movement. At first, farming in residential areas wasn't legal. The city has slowly caught up in terms of having more progressive urban agriculture policies. Detroiters passed an Urban Agriculture Ordinance in 2013 that made provisions for legal gardening and farming in the city, and are currently working on an animal husbandry ordinance that will codify poultry raising and beekeeping.

A young farmer stands inside a greenhouse between tables full of seedlings

Beaverland farmer Kieran Neal shows participants the farm's seedling propagation area

Another stop on the tour was the venerable D-Town Farm, a non-profit farm on seven acres of city land. D-Town leaders recently negotiated a 20-year lease with the city. Parts of the land are flood-prone and they're experimenting with raised beds and other strategies to adapt to periodic flooding of some of their fields. D-Town is the largest urban farm in Detroit and is a project of DBCFSN.

The information-packed workshops held over two days were excellent. One favorite was an introduction to aquaponics with Yemi Amu, who founded and runs Oko Farms in Brooklyn. Oko Farms is New York's largest publicly accessible (and outdoor) aquaponics farm. Other sessions explored urban land access, agribusiness aspects of urban farming, and climate-smart urban agriculture, among many topics.

The conference was capped off by a presentation from Will Allen, founder of Growing Power, the Milwaukee nonprofit that offered training and technical assistance to urban growers throughout the nation from its founding in 1995. Allen has inspired countless gardeners and farmers throughout his decades-long career. Hearing from Allen was the perfect way to close out this conference, which we hope will be the first of many opportunities to meet up with and learn from urban farmers around the country.

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