Emerging Future
The Reimagining Work gathering was an extraordinary step toward the future. More than 300 people gathered in Detroit to talk about what kind of work we can create as jobs disappear. They came from California, Colorado and the Cass Corridor. They were high school and graduate students, university professors and returning citizens, artists, bike builders, brew masters and gardeners. They came from Occupy Detroit and Put the Neighbor Back in the Hood. They were entrepreneurs and musicians. People talked, listened, laughed, sang and were hopeful about our ability to create a new economy that restores communities and celebrates sustainability.
People shared a sense that we are living in a time of unprecedented change as the old industrial empire dies away. Many people from Detroit, Milwaukee and Toledo talked about how the death of the old ways of living is opening new opportunities to develop very different kinds of cities.
At the heart of the emerging vision is the idea that cities of the future will be restored through local production of the necessities for life. Open land and abandoned factories can become sources of food production. Glass, furniture, homes, transportation, clothing and energy can all be locally produced and consumed.
One of the strengths of the gathering was that it was based on more than imagination. Over the last 40 years, as industry after industry has left Detroit, people have been faced with the necessity of building new lives and livelihoods. This slow, patient work has reached a stage where it provides real world possibilities of what our cities can become.
The strength of the urban agricultural movement was a central feature of the gathering. Wayne and Myrtle Curtis of Feedem Freedom Growers talked about the evolution of their neighborhood as their gardens grew from a few raised beds to a three-season hoop house and surrounding lots. Malik Yakini of D-Town Farms and the Black Food Security Network shared his experiences of the role of local farms and food sovereignty.
The gathering also emphasized that urban agriculture and local production are bringing together ancient practices of land stewardship with 21st Century technologies. The Detroit Futures workshop challenged everyone to think about Digital Justice in much the same way as we think about Food Justice. They explored the possibilities of new economies woven together in unexpected ways by our advancing technological capabilities.
The best example of the melding of new technologies and old practices came from the Sweetwater Foundation in Milwaukee. There they have created the first for profit Aquaponics facility in the U.S. Aquaponics is an intensive urban agricultural hybrid of hydroponics and fish cultivation. In 2009 Sweetwater took over an old crane and mining equipment factory. Today it is filled with five 10,000-gallon tanks for fish, each topped with two-tiered vegetable grow beds. Water from the tanks is pumped into the beds where a variety of greens, like watercress and other herbs filter it and pull out nutrients, purifying the water that flows into fish runs and surrounding green houses. The complex holds 54,000 perch and tilapia and produces 160 pounds of greens for local restaurants every week.
As the Sweetwater folks refine production they expect to produce 400 pounds of greens per week. Along with their for profit effort, Sweetwater is working with local middle schools and high schools, introducing aquaponics into classrooms to give young people living examples of science, technology, math and ecology.
These practical ideas were given depth by conversations about new possibilities. How do we create new economies that foster democracy? How do we move away from a belief in unlimited growth toward an ethic of care for one another and our earth? These are the conversations for all of us as we move toward creating a better future.