NO this is NOT a promotional piece for nudism……
We have seen story after story of how the recent economic crisis has effected people, banks, cities, etc. The states are ALL fighting to find ways to survive this crisis….and the promises of “green jobs” is a daily injection into the news……but with all that rhetoric how do citiies survive? Declining tax base, tax revenue and population has made it virtually impossible to run a city efficiently….
If you remember your history, then you will recall from the beginning of this country, it was an agrarian society that was the lead and then the industrial revolution came about and the US moved to more manufacturing and the agriculture began to suffer….so that today most farmland is owned by corporations.
Detroit has been struggling to keeps its head above the water line….loss of population, loss of industrial base and super high unemployment, about 16% officially, but unofficially it is probably closer to 20%. But Detroit may have an idea to try and resurrect the city…..I found this article while surfing on simplysustainable.com:
With so much cheap land now available in the city, and countless numbers of abandoned industrial sites too far gone to resurrect, a wealthy investor named John Hantz of Hantz Financial Services thinks now is the right time to get Detroit back on its feet by taking it back to its roots; literally. Hantz has already contributed $30 million of his own money to get Hantz Farms underway; the world’s largest urban farming project.
The idea is not a new one. Talk of repurposing much of Detroit back to agriculture has been talked about for decades; only now has the idea had real backing and the economic environment to make it a reality. From Hantz Farms; press release:
“Detroit could be the nation’s leading example of urban farming and become a destination for fresh, local and natural foods and become a major part of the green movement,” said Hantz, a Detroit resident. “Hantz Farms will transform this area into a viable, beautiful and sustainable area that will serve the community, increase the tax base, create jobs and greatly improve the quality of life in an area that has experienced a severe decline in population.”
Phase 1 plans utilize more than 70 acres of underutilized vacant lands and abandoned properties on Detroit’s lower east side.
Hantz Farms plans to grow natural, local, fresh and safe fruits and vegetables to help meet Michigan’s increasing demand for locally grown produce. In addition to food and trees, Hantz Farms will harvest wind energy and utilize geothermal heat and biomass fuel from recycling compost.
I think this is a good idea, however I do not like the fact that it is just another corporate farm to compete with the “real” farmers that remain…..on the other side, I say if it will produce food and work and help save the city, then why not give it a try?
It has possibilities. I don’t know if you have equivalents, but in the UK there is some evidence of a resurgence of interest in “allotments”. An allotment is an area of (usually local authority owned) land that private individuals who perhaps don’t have gardens, or only small ones that are suitable only for flowers, can rent reasonably cheaply and most grow vegetables on them for their own and friends’ consumption.
If you have an allotment, or a large garden in which you grow your own vegetables, you are unlikely to find any comparison between what you produce and the mass produced crap that most supermarkets dish out.
The satisfaction and healthy lifestyle and diet that results from growing your own food could not only turn around the economy, but the health of a whole nation. That sounds a bit fanciful, but if local authorities got involved in encouraging this, just think where it could go in time!
I agree with you completely…….I like this idea, except for the corporation that is going to be doing it…..greed and other such disgusting things could piss on the idea….
Of course, but then, I think that corporations pushed in the right direction, or encouraged to be “altruistic” (for entirely un-altruistic reasons) CAN be a near perfect answer.
The real fault is that those who could do the “pushing” either want to do it with huge amounts of wasteful and ineffective legislation, or they’re so in the pockets of the corporations themselves that they do nothing effective at all.
Many years ago, many, I recall in a few classes that we were taught that man, in all incidents is motivated by self-interest…..if that is true then playing to the self-interest thing then it is possible that something positive could be done….but then I ask, “at what cost?” Everything good or bad has a cost……
Of course and you’re absolutely right. The real problem is, I think, that these political animals are really megalomaniacal at heart – I think that, deep down, it’s probably why most of them go into politics in the first place – whatever they kid both themselves and us. The desire to control is what they’re all about.
Look, take the simple and, I would think, unarguable example of where and why they are wrong. Almost all forms of Eastern unarmed combat teach how a lightly or unarmed man, OR woman, can beat a relatively heavily armed and agressive man hell bent on destroying them. They almost INVARIABLY do that by understanding the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses and then using that enemy’s own power against him – particularly in Judo, the assailants own momentum is being used to his disadvantage.
But megalomaniacal governments insist on CONFRONTATION, trying (and usually failing abysmally) to change people and entities to behave in the way THEY think they should. If you utilise the individual’s or the corporation’s own strengths and power and simply redirect it, you will achieve far more than pointlessly trying to force change, which humans naturally resist – it’s what makes our species successful and strong!
The thing that any large corporation is good at and understands and will respond to is COMPETITION. If you make sure that the right competition is in place and is sufficiently protected, then the corporations will automatically be controlled – without doing a DAMNED THING MORE! But megalomaniacs want direct control by force and the way they try to achieve that is to legislate like hell, which is doomed to failure, highly expensive and a totally unnecessary and pointless pain in the ass to ordinary people.
Equally, you cannot change individuals – you CAN educate them to understand and have a sense of responsibility – in fact, with the right education you can EMPOWER them and give them a sense of freedom, which, given that understanding, they will protect for both themselves and others. Use their strengths not exactly against them, but to your advantage to achieve what you want and you may succeed. There is nothing more dangerous, belligerent and stubbornly immoveable than a man who is threatened and feels he has NOTHING to lose!
I see what you are saying and I will agree…..and if it somehow helps Detroit survive then of course I will eat my words if I must……Just another thought…in the beginning we were agrarian and then we became industrial and now an attempt to return to the agrarian, at least a bit, looks like full circle everybody talks about…
Just proves a point, though, doesn’t it? Just because something new is seen as good and successful, it rarely a good idea to burn all your boats and turn everything over to it!
So true……