Could right-to-farm law harm efforts to feed the hungry with ‘urban farming’?

J.P. Swanson and Roy Finny plant carrot seeds at Growing Hope. Photo by Tom Perkins for AnnArbor.com

“Are we returning to an agrarian society?”

By: Rick Haglund
Ann Arbor.com
Dec 2, 2010

Excerpt:

Michigan farm output of $5.5 billion last year represented little more than 1 percent of the state’s gross domestic product of $368.4 billion.

But the state’s economic destruction over the past decade has put a new twist on agriculture-related issues.

For example, Michigan passed a right-to-farm law in 1981 designed to protect farming from urban sprawl that was creeping into lightly populated rural areas of the state.

Today, with a lack of jobs and the collapse of the housing market all but halting building growth, some are worried that the right-to-farm law could harm urban farming.

A 2000 amendment to the law prevents local zoning ordinance from limiting farming operations. Mogk said that could prevent Detroit, which is drafting an agricultural use ordinance, from enforcing rules unique to urban farms that may be located near high-population centers.

“Urban agriculture is a good thing for the city if it does not impact surrounding neighborhoods,” he told me.

A bill to exempt Detroit from the state’s right-to-farm act is pending in the Legislature. It is being opposed by the state Department of Agriculture.

Read the complete article here.

Link to story behind photo: “Growing Hope greens Ypsilanti, one seed at a time.”