RFD...Detroit? John Hantz, whose $100 million net worth could buy up half his home town, has an ambitious plan for turning Detroit into an agricultural phenomenon. Where others see abandoned neighborhoods, crumbling infrastructure and a hopeless future, Hantz sees abandoned neighborhoods, crumbling infrastructure and a unique opportunity to turn the city into a miracle of urban farming. 
  And he's willing to put up a third of his net worth to make the miracle happen. Hantz drives a Volvo, but he's not giving up on Detroit. He lives in the city and his company, Hantz Financial Services, is headquarterd in Southfield, a northern suburb on the far side of Eight Mile Road (whose most noted homey is Marshall Mathers III).
  It takes Hantz 30 minutes to drive to work, and along the way he passes blocks and blocks of blight, likes the photos here. The once bustling city of two million people now has 900,000 residents, and urban planners expect the eventual population to sink to 700,000. Hantz wants to farm abandoned land, and he wants others join in. He wants zoning breaks, tax breaks and preservation easements. It's about money, of course, but maybe not all about money. If he does wind up owning downtown farmland, he's told his 21-year-old daughter, his only heir, that she's not allowed to sell it.
  Hantz is creating a stir. Some people like him, others think he's headed nowhere. But he expects to have seed in the ground this coming spring.
  It's a fascinating story, reported earlier today by Fortune Magazine editor-at-large David Whitford. You can read it here: http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/29/news/economy/farming_detroit.fortune/index.htm 


     Dreaming small about the meat business. Justin Severino would like to have a small business with a core of dedicated customers who appreciate the artistry and the history of charcuterie, a method of cutting and curing meat that goes back to Roman times. He's a chef now, in Pittsburgh, but has other dreams which he shared with attendees at a PASA-sponsored pastured pork field day in October. There's a story in our current issue, or you can read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2706 


     Revenge of the prairie dog. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/dramatic-prairie-dog-breaks-out/1abgbi77f