A day after the first National Urban Agriculture Conference took place in Detroit to foster collaboration between the United States Department of Agriculture and urban farmers, the director of Detroit's highly anticipated USDA urban farming office resigned.
The USDA's Detroit Urban Service Agency was established earlier this year as one of 17 in cities around the country to host centers focused on connecting urban farmers to federal resources. In July 2022, USDA officials held a listening session at Eastern Market to hear from Detroit farmers about what they wanted from the office. Farmers said it should be centrally located in Detroit and accessible by public transportation.
In February 2023, the office launched with the hiring of Jamal Thomas to direct the center. But since then, the office has operated out of Ann Arbor with no timeline for moving to Detroit, and has fallen short on expectations for local farmers, including Thomas. "It wasn't what I thought it was and I wasn't prepared to wait for it to catch up to the narrative," said Thomas, who is also Highland Park City Council President. Four days a week Thomas said he found himself having to commute to Ann Arbor to do the job.
Detroit farmer Malik Yakini also expressed concern about the location in a keynote address during the three-day conference last week, which organizers noted was hosted in Detroit because of its importance in the urban agriculture movement.
Read more at planetdetroit.org