Original version

BBC World Service Australasia

The Food Chain

Factual: Food & Drink

Examining what it takes to put food on your plate

The Food Chain examines the business, science and cultural significance of food, and what it takes to put food on your plate.

Detroit's urban farmers

No Master Brand

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC Afghan Radio

The Food Chain: Detroit's urban farmers

Magazines & Reviews

08/02/2024 GMT

BBC World Service - The Food Chain, Detroit's urban farmers

Meet the people growing food on vacant land in this US city

Meet the people growing food on vacant land in this US city.

The city of Detroit in the United States has a lot of vacant space – as much as a quarter of residential, commercial and industrial sites lie unused today.  

In this programme Ruth Alexander meets the people who are growing food in their neighbourhoods, creating urban farms and community gardens where houses once stood. Mark Covington is the founder of Georgia Street Community Collective, and Tyson Gersh is the co-founder of the Michigan Urban Farming Initiative.  

Ruth learns why so much land stands empty from the city’s official historian Jamon Jordan. Jamon explains the role of the automobile industry in bringing jobs and people to Detroit in the early 1900s, and the circumstances that led to decades of population decline, job losses and debt for the city government, culminating in bankruptcy in 2013.  

Tepfirah Rushdan is the newly appointed, first Director of Urban Agriculture for the city of Detroit. She explains how she hopes to bring urban farmers and politicians together to find a way for food to be grown alongside new developments as investment returns to the city.  

If you’d like to contact the programme you can email thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk  

Presented by Ruth Alexander. 

Produced by Beatrice Pickup.  

(Image: the Michigan Urban Farming Initiative a farm in downtown Detroit, surrounded by roads and buildings. Credit: Michelle and Chris Gerard/BBC)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Food Chain

Detroit's urban farmers

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Australasia

About BBC World Service