Urban Farming Struggles to Mature in Detroit

The Shift From Non-Profit to For-Profit Farming Has Yet to Produce Results

By Simon Albaugh|
Detroitist
October 15, 2019

Excerpt:

One of those for-profit groups is Fisheye Farms in Detroit’s West Village neighborhood. They purchased a small plot of land from the empty lots that were a product of Detroit’s days of blight. The farm is season-less and grows herbs and vegetables both outside or under heated tents.

“We started the farm because we didn’t want to be reliant on grants,” said Andrew Chae, founder of Fisheye Farms. “So, we’ve joked before that we’re like the capitalist urban farmers. But it’s more about just creating that model. Because we believe that no one should want to do it unless it’s profitable.” Fisheye Farms now sells primarily to upscale restaurants.

Andrew Chae, along with his fiancé Amy Eckert, explained their more sustainable model for agriculture. It involves breaking the supply chain into its most basic components, encouraging microeconomies and new ways of re-imagining what a city could be. One with urban farms.

Two of largest expenses to starting a small-scale urban farm, the cost of land and water, make the barrier to entry nearly impossible for most.

The cost of buying land has become rife with controversy. After John Hantz was able to buy plots in the city for growing a tree farm, some of which he recently sold to FCA for a $2.5 billion automobile manufacturing investment they are building on Mack Avenue. Others have wondered how they too could get land.

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