by Olivia Murphy
Nominated by Julie Halpert for ENVIRON 320: Environmental Journalism: Reporting About Science, Policy, and Public Health
Instructor Introduction
For the Environmental Journalism class I co-teach with Emilia Askari, Environ 320, Olivia Murphy chose to write a news feature entitled, “Tepfirah Rushdan: an Unprecedented Appointment Gives Urban Agriculture in Detroit New Hope.” The article epitomizes all of the elements of outstanding writing. It is
centered around an important, recent development: the appointment of Tepfirah Rushdan as the first Director of Urban Agriculture for the city of Detroit. The fact that Olivia as a student was able to secure an interview with Rushdan, a public figure with a demanding schedule, was in itself a huge accomplishment. She beautifully captured the passion that Rushdan has for this new job and the inroads that she hopes to make in addressing food insecurity in Detroit. The quotes she used effectively communicated that drive, including this one: “We can re-envision what a city can look like. We can go from being this very pollution-based city to feeding ourselves.” Olivia also included other prominent experts, communicating their important perspectives about the significance of Rushdan’s appointment. The writing is exquisite, explaining the complexities of food insecurity in a way that is easily understood by the average reader. Olivia’s article contains all the elements of a superb piece of writing. The article is comparable to the quality of those written by professional journalists.
— Julie Halpert
Tepfirah Rushdan: an Unprecedented Appointment Gives Urban Agriculture in Detroit New Hope
Tepfirah Rushdan was living on a block in Detroit that was experiencing rapid decline during the housing crisis. She was watching properties foreclose and be demolished over and over again. At one point she could look out of her window and see about 20 vacant lots on her street. The lots became dumping grounds. As the economic crisis worsened, food started running out in the grocery stores.
“It’s the first time I had this epiphany that our system is not guaranteed to us. There are a lot of vulnerabilities in our food system, especially in urban centers. I started trying to figure out what I could harvest off those vacant lots,” she said.
After more than a decade of grassroots activism and urban farming in Detroit, Rushdan is no longer just harvesting off of vacant lots. She is the Director of Urban Agriculture for the city.
A New Department
With a strong network of urban farms, Detroit has long been a leader in the urban agriculture movement. “A lot of advocates, practitioners, and scholars have looked at Detroit for the last 10-15 years as a hot bed and leader in urban agriculture,” says Lesli Hoey, the Director of Doctoral Studies in Urban and Regional Planning, and an Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning in the Taubman College at Michigan. In September of 2023, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced that Tepfirah Rushdan would be first Director of Urban Agriculture for the City of Detroit, an act that formalized the City of Detroit’s support for its extensive Urban Agriculture network.
Mayor Duggan follows the lead of various other major US cities in its creation of an Urban Agriculture Department. According to the City of Detroit, Detroit has joined a department network that includes Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C.. Detroit follows in the creation of a department but it leads in numbers. The city currently has 1,400 urban farms and community gardens within its city limits. Philadelphia and Atlanta have 450 and 350, respectively.
Rushdan’s appointment redefines what the expansive practice of urban agriculture has the potential to do for the city of Detroit to address pressing issues affecting Detroiters, namely food apartheid and blight. Rushdan has extensive experience in urban agriculture after years working for organizations such as the Detroit Black Farmers Land Fund which helps Black farmers access land in the city and Keep Growing Detroit, a prominent urban farm. “They’ve appointed someone who comes from grassroots work and worked with important urban agriculture organizations. She’s embedded in the urban agriculture work there,” said Hoey.
Addressing Food Apartheid
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, in the year 2022, 22.4% of Black households in the US were food insecure compared to 9.3% of white households. The city of Detroit acutely feels the effect of the larger food apartheid experienced by the rest of the country. “A part of why I wanted to grow food was because I was already analyzing systemic barriers and systemic inequities. I was already slightly convinced that we as a nation have a lot of work to do to square up relationships with Black and brown people,” said Rushdan.
In the year 2021, the Detroit Food Policy Council reported that 69% of households in Detroit were food insecure. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became increasingly evident that food insecurity was strongly linked to a dependence on outsourcing food. Supply was not keeping up with demand, and the city simply could not sustain the needs of all its citizens. “Covid demonstrated that we need places where cities can access healthy food on their own,” says Rushdan.
Like Rushdan, Executive Director of the Detroit Food Policy Council, Winona Bynum, believes in the necessity of urban agriculture to help address food insecurity. “If an individual family has a family garden, it helps to subsidize food dollars” and provides a “modest addition to income,” she says. The food produced by families and urban farms in the city can be sold locally at one of Detroit’s various farmers markets providing locals with fresh fruits and vegetables. “You’re growing what the community wants, which means less waste,” says Bynum.
Tackling Blight
Detroit has about 19 square miles of vacant land within its total 139 square miles. Rapid suburbanization coupled with a devastating housing crisis has left the city noticeably empty. Abandoned properties left to fall into disrepair have been labeled blighted properties. According to a survey from the University of Michigan, about three-fourths of Detroit residents report that their neighborhoods contain blighted properties. In her time as Director, Rushdan hopes to see a strategy for the intentional use of vacant land. In particular, she said, “I would like to see farming and greenspaces included in that strategy.”
“We can re-envision what a city can look like. We can go from being this very pollution-based city to feeding ourselves,” says Rushdan. In order to do this, instead of looking at what the city lacks, “you have to look at things that the city does have, such as vacant lots,” Bynum says, and “approach it as more asset based than need based.” To use those assets, Rushdan hopes to streamline processes to make it easy for farmers and greenspace operators to access that land.
Hopes for the Department
Experts in the fields of food systems and Urban Agriculture expressed excitement at the prospect of having a formal department of Urban Agriculture in Detroit. In the year 2010, Katherine Lynch Underwood of the Detroit Planning Commission fought to pass an Urban Agriculture ordinance to allow the practice in the city, but now those partaking in Urban Agriculture have someone to formally fight for their needs.
Kami Pothuchuki, a professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at Wayne State University said of the appointment, “I hope it will be impactful, but it is very, very meaningful. It signals that the city government is paying attention. It is an acknowledgment by the city that urban agriculture is important and merits involvement by the government.”
Rushdan’s appointment is already a step forward in gaining support for urban agriculture. Tim Boring, Director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), said of the appointment, “This position is a recognition of the value local food production brings to communities, as well as Tepfirah’s long-standing advocacy on behalf of Detroit farmers. She will be an important resource for us at MDARD as we expand our efforts supporting urban agriculture.”
At the end of the day, the impact of Rushdan’s department is yet to be seen. Depending on what “power, funding, and additional staff support she gets, the position could be symbolic if her hands are tied,” Hoey said. “I hope she has a similar level of authority as urban planning and other departments. She has all of the ideas, capabilities, capacity, and networks; it would be a shame if the resources, autonomy, and authority are not given to her.”
