In Detroit, urban farmers, frustrated with buying their groceries at Party Stores now that the grocery chains have largely pulled out of the city, have begun to reclaim Detroit’s vast empty spaces for grow-your-own operations, complete with livestock and tractors.
After decades of blight, large swathes of Detroit are being reclaimed by nature. Roughly a third of this 139-square-mile city consists of weed-choked lots and dilapidated buildings. Satellite images show an urban core giving way to an urban prairie.
Rather than fight this return to nature, Mr. Weertz and other urban farmers have embraced it, gradually converting 15 acres of idle land into more than 40 community gardens and microfarms — some consuming entire blocks.