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From ‘Three Sisters’ to 3200+ gardens: The long history of growing food in Detroit

October 19, 2026

Detroit's urban farming movement has deep historical roots, from Anishinaabe peoples growing the Three Sisters crops centuries ago through various municipal programs designed to help residents grow food during economic crises. The modern resurgence began in the 1970s with Mayor Coleman Young's Farm-A-Lot program and continued through grassroots organizing by groups like the Gardening Angels and Detroit Summer, eventually leading to the formation of organizations like Keep Growing Detroit and the Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network. Today, over 3,200 farms and gardens operate across Detroit, where 70% of households face food insecurity, though the movement grapples with ongoing challenges around land access, funding equity, and whether urban agriculture alone can adequately feed the city.

Who is affected

  • Anishinaabe peoples (Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa) whose traditional foodways are being reclaimed
  • 70% of Detroit households struggling to access healthy food
  • Rosebud Bear Schneider, Anishinaabe farmer and Keep Growing Detroit co-director
  • Malik Yakini and members of the Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network (DBCFSN)
  • Black Detroit farmers working with the Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund
  • Tepfirah Rushdan, Detroit's first director of urban agriculture
  • Members and shoppers of the Detroit People's Food Co-op in the North End
  • Greg Willerer, co-founder of Brother Nature Produce
  • jøn kent, founder of Sacred Spaces and co-founder of Sanctuary Farms
  • Ashley Atkinson, co-director of Keep Growing Detroit
  • Shakara Tyler, co-founder of the Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund and co-executive director of DBCFSN
  • The 1-2% of Detroit's population participating in urban agriculture
  • John Hantz and Hantz Farms
  • Detroit Land Bank Authority
  • Growers receiving blight tickets for growing food on formerly vacant lots

What action is being taken

  • Keep Growing Detroit supports 3,277 farms and gardens across the city through the Garden Resource Program
  • Rosebud Bear Schneider plants Cherokee White Eagle corn with soup beans and winter squash in the Three Sisters Garden at KGD's Eastern Market farm, alongside foodways gardens for Puerto Rican, Venezuelan, African diaspora, and Filipino communities
  • D-Town Farm offers free solar panel installation training programs
  • Sanctuary Farms composts thousands of pounds of food waste annually
  • Brother Nature Produce grows subtropical fruits in a glass greenhouse in Corktown
  • The Detroit People's Food Co-op operates in the North End, stocking produce from Detroit's Black farmers and local growers (though struggling with cash-flow problems)
  • Detroiters are keeping chickens, ducks, and honeybees following 2025 legalization
  • Apiaries across the city are supporting 12 million honeybees that pollinate Detroit and produce thousands of pounds of local honey
  • The Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund is helping Black farmers secure land and technical support
  • Farmers are pushing the city to adopt a composting ordinance
  • Oakland Avenue Urban Farm is working to raise $10 million to turn a vacant former grocery store into a solar-powered food resiliency hub

Why it matters

  • This story matters because it demonstrates how urban agriculture serves as both a response to food insecurity affecting 70% of Detroit households and a vehicle for addressing historical injustices and reclaiming cultural identity. The racial equity dimension is particularly significant—Black-led organizations formed specifically to counter the "overwhelming whiteness" of the urban agriculture movement in a city that is 85% Black, raising fundamental questions about who controls food systems and land access. The movement's success or failure has implications beyond Detroit, as the city has been a national leader and model for urban farming since Mayor Pingree's potato patches in the 1890s influenced cities worldwide. However, experts warn against overstating urban agriculture's impact, noting that even with 3,277 gardens, only 1-2% of Detroit's population participates, and the city lacks the infrastructure for farming alone to solve food insecurity. The movement also highlights broader systemic issues including inequitable land deals (comparing Hantz's favorable terms to those available to Black farmers), climate change's increasing toll on growers, and the instability of philanthropic funding for food justice work.

What's next

  • The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has awarded the Detroit Food Policy Council $494,960 to distribute more than 1 million pounds of food annually through local food hubs, create an educational guild for the animal-keeping community, and build on Detroit's compost pilots
  • Oakland Avenue Urban Farm coalition is seeking to raise $10 million for the food resiliency hub project (shifting away from expected federal funding due to Congress's failure to pass a farm bill)
  • Farmers are pushing for city adoption of a composting ordinance
  • The Detroit People's Food Co-

Read full article from source: bridgedetroit.com

From ‘Three Sisters’ to 3200+ gardens: The long history of growing food in Detroit