I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
The demand for food aid in Metro Detroit is outstripping supply. Soup kitchens are rationing portions and food banks are learning to stock peanut butter, crackers and juice as emergency nutrition for people who show up too weak to wait in line for groceries. Yesterday we noted a Michigan State University study that found that [...]
A new study by researchers at Michigan State University concludes that converting thousands of acres of vacant land in the city of Detroit into urban farms could supply most of the fruits and vegetables needed by that city’s residents each year. AP reports:
In an appearance before the city council in Detroit this week Rev. Jesse Jackson dismissed the idea that urban farming is going to solve Detroit’s problems. Jackson told city leaders that the idea of relying on farming to save Detroit is “kind of cute but foolish it seems to me, as opposed to talking about [...]
The Detroit Free Press has an interesting article about the expansion of urban farming in Detroit and how it could soon become a powerful tool for creating jobs and financial opportunity for residents — on top of the fact that it can bring fresh produce to a city that has little access to it due [...]
Does Detroit need a Food and Flowers Freedom Act? That’s the question I’m left with after reading this story in today’s Washington Post. While the story focuses on a particularly determined urban gardener/entrepreneur in Los Angeles, there may be some lessons here for Detroit’s ongoing efforts to promote urban farming as the urban planner’s version [...]
If there’s one major bright spot to all the talk about Detroit’s many vacant and abandoned lots these days, it’s the focus on the city’s brave new urban farming future. Fortune’s David Whitford takes us there in an in-depth story posted on Time Inc.’s Assignment Detroit page earlier this afternoon. If you’ve got the time, it’s worth [...]
DETROIT — The Motor City has been most famous for its past industrial endeavors. That’s why it’s still a bit surprising to some that within the city limits, there are more than 700 urban farms that yield more than 120 tons of produce each year. When harvest season comes around, the social aspect of urban farming shines through, with farmers coming together to celebrate the season at parties brimming with locally grown food and drink.
Residents in the city of Flint have discovered a use for the abandoned lots in their neighborhoods — community gardens. The problem, according to a story in the Flint Journal, is that the city has no zoning rules or ordinances to permit the development of agricultural initiatives within the city limits.
Officials in Traverse City are considering the legality of raising chickens in the city after several inquiries from prospective urban farmers, the Record Eagle reports. Kimberly Dante, who lives in the Central Neighborhood of the 14,500 resident town, told the Record Eagle, “Urban farming is one of the fastest-growing trends in the U.S. today. People [...]
Detroit is already making big plans that would help them cash in on President-elect Barack Obama’s proposed $150 billion economic stimulus package. The bill package will have a designated amount of money earmarked to fund energy conservation and sustainable living projects. That could be why Detroit Mayor Kenneth Cockrel announced Wednesday that the city will [...]
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