Detroit’s Mayor Mike Duggan appoints new director of urban agriculture
“When we talk about food deserts, particularly in African American communities, what our urban farmers have done here in the city of Detroit have connected our residents to resources right in the community.
By Dana Afana
Detroit Free Press
Sept 11, 2012
Excerpt:
Mayor Mike Duggan appointed the city’s first director of urban agriculture, he announced Monday at Keep Growing Detroit, a farm in Eastern Market.
Urban farming activist Tepfirah Rushdan, who began Sept. 5, will work directly out of Duggan’s office to shape city policy on urban farming, and serve as a farming community liaison.
Duggan created the position after meeting with Detroit’s agricultural community in developing the Land Tax proposal, which, if approved, will hike taxes on vacant lots. Activists pushed for an exemption on urban farm land. During the mayor’s unveiling of the proposed law in August, Duggan announced his plan to hire a director for the new role.
“The urban farmers and the gardeners in this city have created such beauty and put the vacant land to such good use, and I didn’t realize till the last month or so, when we proposed the Land Value Tax, I knew I wanted to keep the urban farm movement progressing,” Duggan said.
Rushdan, whose salary is $112,000, served as co-director of Keep Growing Detroit, which supports urban farming through educational programs and grows and distributes starter crops to community gardens and households to promote using locally-grown fruits and vegetables.
