Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the House on September 16, 2010

Click here to view bill details.

 WTF?  I'd like to know the reasoning behind...it basically makes it more difficult for Urban farming, which does nothing but HELP people.  I'm surprised to see this coming from Democrats...aren't there more pressing matters in Michigan than this? 

 This does not make it harder.  It in fact protects the City of Detroit to make its own regulations, responsive to the community and the growers.  It further protects the City from commercial interests that may have no regard for best practices in the context of the neighborhood in which they locate. It keeps the ability of the city and its residents to determine what is best and not determined by outside interests.

I'm not sure why the language was included to specifically target Detroit since that is the only city in the state with a population of over 900,000 people. One of the co-sponsors, Rep. Leland, represents a part of a small Detroit.  I am not sure if he has any urban farming in his district, but I hope that he did this out of requests from the growers in his district and across the city of Detroit and not as part of any paternalistic philosophy. 

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depends on how you look at it) this won't affect any other urban farming efforts across the state including Flint where I live.  We have similar land use issues and there are several urban gardens/farms on lots in residential neighborhoods.

I too believe that this law is trying to make agriculture more local and autonomous, which is something great for any private growers and farmers, who only should respond to their local community. In my opinion this will encourage productivity, pest control and communication between the farmers and their councils of representatives.