{"id":13377,"date":"2011-09-01T10:50:50","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T16:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sustainablog.org\/?p=13377"},"modified":"2011-09-01T10:50:50","modified_gmt":"2011-09-01T16:50:50","slug":"urban-agriculture-flint-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/urban-agriculture-flint-michigan\/","title":{"rendered":"City Hall Gets Behind Urban Agriculture in Flint, Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Edible Flint 2010 Garden Tour\" width=\"1170\" height=\"878\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LktZ_PmPyEk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As we noted in our series on <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/urban-agriculture-success-stories\/\">urban agriculture<\/a> in the United States, many in struggling cities see small scale food production on city lots as a way to provide both economic and social benefits to communities desperately in need of both. Over at SUNfiltered, though, I&#8217;ve taken a look at a couple of cases where <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sundancechannel.com\/sunfiltered\/2011\/08\/los-angeles-community-garden\/\">unusual gardening<\/a> got people in trouble &#8211; one Michigan woman was even <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sundancechannel.com\/sunfiltered\/2011\/07\/front-yard-garden-may-earn-michigan-woman-jail-time\/\">threatened with jail time<\/a> for her front-yard garden.<\/p>\n<p>Yep, city codes are still catching up in many places (as is often the case). In Flint, Michigan, however, the city&#8217;s not merely staying out of the way; they&#8217;re actively supporting a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.growflint.org\/\">growing urban farming movement<\/a> within the city. Partnering with Michigan State University, Flint is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mlive.com\/news\/flint\/index.ssf\/2011\/08\/city_government_joining_flints.html\">in the process<\/a> of developing &#8220;a strategic plan for urban agriculture&#8230; including improving inner-city access to fresh produce and identifying proper zoning policies for urban gardens.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/edible-flint-farmers-market.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-13381\" title=\"edible flint farmers market\" src=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/edible-flint-farmers-market.jpg\" alt=\"edible flint at the farmers market\" width=\"288\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/edible-flint-farmers-market.jpg 288w, https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/edible-flint-farmers-market-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 288px) 100vw, 288px\" \/><\/a>Flint, as you may well know, has been a bit of an economic and social basket case for several decades: if you haven&#8217;t learned about this from Michael Moore&#8217;s films (he&#8217;s a native), you may have seen the city&#8217;s frequent listing as one of the worst place in the country to live. This is a town desperately in need of fresh ideas for removing its reputation as the poster child for the Rust Belt. As in <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/urban-farming-detroit\/\">Detroit<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/urban-agriculture-kansas-city\/\">Kansas City<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/urban-farming-baltimore\/\">Baltimore<\/a>, groups of local residents have seized on urban agriculture as one way to build some hope and opportunity in the city. A grower&#8217;s co-op, <a href=\"http:\/\/anrcom.msu.edu\/news\/article\/edible_flint_urban_farmers_co_op_has_community_impact_beyond_food\">edible flint<\/a>, has even sprouted to bring food from these urban gardens to the city&#8217;s farmers market. The concept seems to be moving in the right direction: &#8220;In 2010, edible flint brought 1,713 pounds of food to the market with total sales over $1,608.&#8221; These efforts are also creating jobs for young people in the city: Baker College has supported summer jobs in these urban fields through its youth employment program, and federal Community Block Grant funds have also paid for workers.<\/p>\n<p>Flint&#8217;s effort aren&#8217;t as far along as some of the other cities we&#8217;ve mentioned, but the cooperation of non-profits, local government, and academic institutions in these efforts strikes me as really promising. At the very least, no one&#8217;s going to get hassled by inspectors&#8230; Check out the video above for some scenes from last year&#8217;s garden tour.<\/p>\n<p>Know more about the urban agriculture scene in Flint? Share it with us&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>via <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/letsGoSO\/status\/108714382342635520\">@letsGoSo<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Image credit:<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/anrcom.msu.edu\/news\/article\/edible_flint_urban_farmers_co_op_has_community_impact_beyond_food\">Michigan State University Extension News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we noted in our series on urban agriculture in the United States, many in struggling cities see small scale food production on city lots as a way to provide&nbsp;[ &hellip; ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":16827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[5320,2723,5321,5123,5322,2712,1777],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Urban Agriculture Gets City Hall Support in Flint, 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