June 14, 2008 Opinion » Viewpoint

Here's an Idea: Grow Food on Memphis' Vacant Lots 

by John Branston
click to enlarge Urban farming in Detroit
  • Urban farming in Detroit
Here's an idea that could take root in Memphis. So to speak.

A nonprofit group in Detroit -- Memphis' unofficial sister city -- is farming derelict land to grow food for the needy.

NPR's "Morning Edition" says Urban Farming has a 20-plot pilot program in which volunteers tend the gardens and the city of Detroit picks up the water bill. The plots aren't fenced off, so anyone can pick the produce for free and anything leftover is donated to a food bank.

If that weren't enough, the program fights blight in a city that last year, with more than 7,000 idle properties, topped the nation in foreclosures ...

Read about urban farming, virtual scavenger hunts, and more interesting stuff in Mary Cashiola's In the Bluff blog.

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