As promised, we’re building on the success of “Food for Talk” by continuing to provide information and knowledge about the many challenges and initiatives associated with urban agriculture and local food production in southeast Michigan. Those of us who attended “Food for Talk” were fortunate enough to have had a great lunch catered by Fresh Corner Café; we also took a tour of RecoveryPark’s Pilot Farm. If you didn’t make it, we hope you find the following useful as you learn, discover and connect.
One of the things SMSBF does is initiate and support connections between companies, organizations and individuals. At the close of the event, those of us at SMSBF took on the responsibility to administer these connections and make sure participants would be able to connect with each other. Those of you who attended the event should have received a list of the attendees and their e-mail addresses. The SMSBF will continue to develop the ways in which we stay connected, so look to our website and LinkedIn group for more to come.
Bob Mattler, a senior correspondent for “Greening of Detroit”, attended the event and wrote a thoughtful and insightful article about it.
There was a bit of discussion about how much more effective the Detroit Land Bank has become in recent months. A number of folks commented about how the Land Bank has greatly improved the ways in which they process information about land available in Detroit for urban agriculture. It seems the accuracy of the information has been improved and it much relevant than it has been in the past; it sounds like good things are happening over there. Click here to access the Detroit Land Bank website.
We also talked about the effectiveness of the Green Task Force, which is being administered by Detroit council member Scott Benson. The Task Force meets on a monthly basis and what comes of these meetings seems to be taken seriously in city government decision making processes. The Forum believes engaging in this and other sustainability initiatives is critical, particularly as Detroit emerges from bankruptcy and is hungry for new ideas about moving the city forward.
There are many organizations currently active in urban agriculture, gardening, and food production in Detroit. If you haven’t had a chance to connect with them, check-out these websites. There are many more, but these will get you started. As you discover others, please let us know and we’ll make sure they get added to our connections as well.
If you like what you see, please consider attending SMSBF events. We’re committed to a healthy and lively exchange of ideas about advancing urban agriculture and food production in southeast Michigan; if you are too, then join us.
