Farming in Foreclosures

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.

"Turns out that urban farms do attract people, says Gail Carr, one of Detroit's city managers. She has houses boarded up nearly every day and sees what a dramatic difference the gardens have on communities.

'People are coming out of their homes who wouldn't come out under other circumstances because they didn't think there was still a community or a neighbor or a friendly person nearby,' she says."

The last time I looked at vacant property here, Shelby County was the "proud" owner of about 3,000 parcels it couldn't get rid of. There was talk of creating a land bank with the city — part of the problem is that when property owners default on their taxes, they default to both the city and the county.

The other part of the problem is that those properties weren't earning taxes for anyone, but were actually a drain on the coffers because of maintenance, mowing, and in some cases, demolition. But the alternative, letting them deteriorate even worse, is even more expensive.