University Archives

This study explores urban farming in Detroit through the lens of agroecology, investigating the city of Detroit's food systems as an interconnected "metabolism.” The research asks the following: how the concept of metabolism can be meaningfully applied to agroecological urban design, why contemporary urban food systems lack the self-resilience of earlier agricultural models; and what inefficiencies exist in current linear resource cycles. All of these questions working alongside the question of how agroecology might be able to restructure these toward circular, equitable systems.

Detroit hosts unique conditions in which some of the most extensive urban farming practices in the US have developed alongside (and due to) broader systemic challenges such as land vacancy, food insecurity, uneven access to fresh food, and more. While it is beneficial that these conditions have sprung up, specifically in resident-determined grassroots innovations, they also have produced fragmented systems that limit initiative-to-initiative integration.

This study employs mixed methods, including surveys and interviews with urban farmers and community organizations, spatial mapping of agricultural sites across the city, case studies of agroecological projects, policy analysis in Detroit, archival and historical research, and more.Through a multi-scale framework (at the city, neighourhood, and a single plot of land), the study proposes that agroecology-based additive interventions can promote a better integrated urban food metabolism, and strengthen connection.