Worker-owned urban ag co-op for Detroit?
BobbyG
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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/26-3
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Free Press (Detroit, Michigan)
Activist Sows Seeds for Farm Co-Op
Owned by workers, venture could reap profits for Detroit
by John Gallagher
The Mo' Green Town proposal by New York City activist Majora Carter
just
might hit the sweet spot in Detroit urban agriculture.
Carter visited Detroit recently to talk up her plan to create a
worker-owned urban agriculture cooperative venture. By pooling the
efforts of numerous small growers in Detroit, it would attempt to grow
big enough to generate real profits and a return for investors. But it
would be run by local community growers themselves.
That seems to fit midway between Detroit's hundreds of tiny, volunteer
garden plots and the big, mechanized, for-profit farm that businessman
John Hantz proposed earlier this year.
And as a worker-owned co-op, Carter's venture might not ruffle the
feathers of the nonprofit community that for the most part opposes
Hantz's for-profit proposal.
Carter said commercializing what is now largely a nonprofit volunteer
operation is the best way to help poor Detroiters.
"We're trying to create new models for economic empowerment," she
said.
"It has to be commercialized and capitalized to the point where you
can
start showing a profit fairly soon.
"Ultimately, our goal is that these are investable models and that we
will be able to find the capital to do this simply because we are
going
to be able to show that there's money in this, that there is a return
on
investment if we do it right."
The Troy-based Kresge Foundation is among the local funders that
Carter
met with to talk about supporting her venture. Kresge already supports
a
nonprofit greening organization called Sustainable South Bronx that
Carter founded in New York.
A lot to offer
Rip Rapson, president of the foundation, said Carter and her staff
could
bring a lot to Detroit.
"Their track record is spectacular, their ambition is appropriate, and
their sensitivity to local dynamics is really quite profound," Rapson
said. "They're exactly the kind of person you want to attract to
working
in Detroit."
Carter also met with other Detroit-area foundations and with activists
from Greening of Detroit and other local organizations. She has not
yet
met with Mayor Dave Bing; she is hoping to develop a full business
plan
first.
Her proposal is one of several ways in which urban agriculture is
advancing in Detroit. Bing has said his staff is working on a plan to
boost urban agriculture, while the Greening of Detroit and other
organizations continue to train neighborhood growers and provide
seedlings and technical assistance.
Worker-owned cooperative arrangements are already common among U.S.
farmers, although generally not at the level of urban agriculture in
places like Detroit.
Michigan's dairy farmers' cooperative, the Michigan Milk Producers
Association, is one example. Another is Ocean Spray, the producer of
cranberry juice and other fruit products, which has several hundred
member producers.
Some Detroit community gardeners already participate in a small-scale
commercial version in which they sell local produce at farmers markets
under the Grown in Detroit label. But that effort remains relatively
modest at this point.
Waiting for the details
Rebecca Salminen Witt, president of the nonprofit Greening of Detroit
organization, said she wanted to see more details of Carter's proposal
before committing to the idea.
"She's certainly a charismatic person who seems to be able to get a
lot
of things done," Witt said. She added, "We're really concerned to make
sure that whatever direction urban agriculture takes in the city, it's
one that benefits the people who are here."
Witt, meanwhile, said Greening of Detroit will establish a plot in
Eastern Market next spring to serve as a training ground for community
gardeners who wish to support themselves by growing and selling their
fruits and vegetables inside the city.
Carter said she will finish writing a formal business model over the
next couple of months and take it to local funders such as the Kresge
Foundation for initial support.
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