I had the honor of speaking with Amanda Hurley from NextCity.com about urban agriculture and the changing landscape of Detroit. Read all about it here: Laura Mikulski on NextCity
I talked about my backyard chickens, which obviously I'm pretty familiar with. But, the interview got my wheels turning, and made me think about urban agriculture as a method to revitalize cities. Attracting people to a 'dead' city is difficult (look at how many times Pontiac has rebounded slightly and then failed again): the prevailing thought is that you need to become a destination (food/restaurants/bars/entertainment) that draws from other areas, and eventually people will start to move closer to where they're traveling to enjoy themselves. But, could urban agriculture be a simple way to attract people who want to 'put down roots', so to speak, prior to revitalizing the core business/entertainment sector of a city? Looking back at Detroit, it certainly seems that way.
It's a shame that Detroit has made serious moves against urban agriculture in the past, particularly cracking down on animal keepers in the city (their muni code specifically forbids keeping farm animals). I'm really excited to see how much time & energy they're investing in finding a long term solution to allow urban agriculture to thrive in Detroit, particularly because the code they're enacting is based in reality from data driven resources, rather than the arbitrary knee jerk reaction from a council with no experience in animal husbandry.
