It all started in Macon, Michigan on a Conventional Farm when the founder of our group, Jamie, was an apprentice farmer at 16. Learning about conventional farming the “hard way” made Jamie forget about farming for much of his professional life. In 2001 he began to explore the city of Detroit by bicycle, (www.bikedetroit.com). This led to the discovery of the Virgin Oak-Beech Forest at Palmer Park and the History of its Indigenous land use. Further research included historical books written about Senator Thomas Palmer, Sponsor of the Farming Bill, Founder of the Department of Agriculture and Grand Master, 33rd degree, G.A.R, “Guardian of the Light”. These explorations introduced him to Detroit’s vast and sprawling Park System. The parks visited were filled with wondrous natural beauty including 7 virgin forests, that no car window or sunken freeway system had ever allowed anyone to see, most of which were completely abandoned by a materialistic and bankrupt culture, wrought with Self Absorption. Jamie toured each and every park, 643 in total back in 2009, spread out amongst the 143 square miles of Detroit. From there we began to study, question, and invent a new way forward. How could we help the City of Detroit reinvent and revaluate itself from the ground up? How could or would Urban Agriculture/Modern Day Homesteading work for everyone with no “Race” or “Class” system excluded? How could we motivate similar minded young progressives to move to Detroit and help change and heal the land and the city from centuries of Pain, Abuse, Abandonment, and Neglect?
In 2009, the curtain was drawn back, and corruption was fully exposed. Worldwide Media Coverage showed the Mayor of Detroit going to Prison and the ugliness of Detroit was made plain and clear for the World to see. The City of Detroit became the battle ground for the Idealists to confront Racism and the Entitlement that turned the “Paris of the Midwest” Into plastic rot and Spiritual decay. A new type of ‘Flag War’ ensued. Not only were the citizens and their families suffering from the 60 years of Differed Maintenance = Devaluation, but what was most apparent in the dilapidated infrastructure was the absence of Quality of Life. 100,000 homes were foreclosed, forcing families out onto the street, fast food containers and single use plastic were piled high and scattered all over the ground. The city’s once magnificent parks looked like landfills. Senator Palmer’s once Log Cabin Farm was abandoned decades ago. Nobody cared; drugs, prostitution, and crime were the normal “Park Life” in Detroit in 2009. What we saw everywhere we looked, were the ones who suffered the most were the children. The children of no hope, surrounded by materialism, fossil fuel raged consumerism and endless decay, imprisoned by a culture of self-absorption, processed food, and ‘single use everything’. Essentially a fast-food-drive-through-society filled with “an excess of Red Meat and Potatoes, leading to a dumbed down materialistic society” (Dr. R. Steiner, 1924) Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture.
Jamie, co-workers, family, and closest friends decided to take a stand, practice and prove out Dr. Steiner’s theories in plain sight for all to be witness of the transformation which ensued. Availing ourselves up for the Trails by Hardship, by practicing the ‘Great Work’ at the Log Cabin Farm turned abandoned and misused Palmer Park. We fixed and reopened the park in plain public view with our own money, testing, recording, and scientifically proved out Dr. Rudolph Steiner’s theories on Agriculture/Biodynamics. We redesigned a local-regenerative-sustainable homestead-economy for our family and for the citizens of Detroit and their Children too! Instead of growing up as little mesmerized consumers, what if we could help grow up strong kids (Trees) by infusing them with food that was as nutritional as possible? We started our journey formally in 2009 with Sgt. Erik Eide of the Detroit Mounted Police. After being led through the Racist and Corrupt Cronyism System of the Entitled Few, we made our way to the City’s Planning and Recreation Departments. Steered in many directions, we began our practice in Rouge Park, (the City’s Largest 1400 plus Acres). Next, we were “steered” into Owen Park on the Detroit River (the last original French Era Ribbon Farm to exist on either side) and finally, we landed in Palmer Park and took the necessary steps to create a foundation of Health and Vitality. “First unto our families, then onto our neighbors as well!” We established ROI Urban Farms to inspire, fix, and share the beauty that was waiting to be re-discovered outside of the automobile and its unsustainable planet killing fossil fuel agenda. We re-imagined what sustainability and farming could be in a world that consumed little to no fossil fuel. Our documented attempt to create our very own Permaculture located right in the Heart of the inner city. We did this in the place we felt needed it the most. Be deliberate deign we went in instead of out to some ideologic remote forested valley near a Stream up North, on the West Coast or better yet in New Zealand.
We went into and not away from what was wrong, we chose to commit our lives to living and practicing right here in Detroit, MI. The very same place where the Department of Agriculture, Urban Sprawl, Shopping Malls, and the Automobile Agenda started in the first place.
We were honored to recreate and bring the USDA NOP certification back to Senator Thomas Palmer’s Log Cabin Farm turned City Park (original sponsor of the Farming Bill, giving birth to the Department of Agriculture from. Our documented practice from 2009-2015 was the bases used for the USDA NOP Organic for the year’s 2015 to May 17, 2023). The second including the first and only Michigan Certified Biodynamic Farm and Biodynamic Compost Producer do be located in Detroit. We are humbled and honored to be the first and only Sun and Earth Certified Regenerative Organic Farm in Michigan (East of the West Coast) 2020-Present and the first Real Organic Certified Farm (2020 - 2022), to exist inside any city throughout the entire USA. Our farming practices have set new benchmarks in the forms of measurable weight and yields. We only grow 100% Heirloom traced, organic-open-pollinated-seeds, or our very own Farm’s Champion seeds, only in the Biodynamic compost that we create, allowing people of all colors the opportunity to consume fresh, living, elemental-enzyme-enhanced food 365 days a year. We encourage everyone to breath in the amplified and enhanced atmosphere that a living Biodynamic-Farm-Land-system creates, helping to build up children’s, “skeletal and lymphatic systems” (Dr. R. Steiner 1924). Fertility-Creation is never lost on a truly regenerative organic farm. There is no-waste, instead all by-products, (produce or Biomass) are managed cradle to cradle, regenerated year after year through the compost we make. We have created Detroit’s first Zero Carbon, Completely Closed Regenerative Spherical Circle from the storm water runoff we contain, to the compost we make, turned into the food we eat and then back again, and again, and again.
313-748-8971
ROI Biodynamic Benchmarks
State of Michigan, Ohio, and World Biodynamic Community
1st Sun and Earth certified Organic Vape-CART Processes Detroit, (2023 - Present).
1st Sun and Earth Certified Regenerative Organic Homestead Farm & Compost Facility East of West Coast, (2020 - Present).
1st Real Organic Certified Farm to be located inside a major USA city, (2020 - 2022).
2nd MI. Demeter Certified Biodynamic Farm, 1st in Metro Detroit. (Palmer Park and Homestead Farm), (2015 - May 17, 2023).
1st USDA NOP & Demeter Certified Farm-City-Park (Senator Thomas Palmer, Founder of the Department of Agriculture, Palmer Park), (2015 - May 17, 2023).
1st MI. USDA NOP & Demeter Certified Biodynamic Organic Compost operation, (W. Chicago Facility) Detroit, MI., (2015 - May 17, 2023).
1st USDA NOP & Demeter Certified Biodynamic Organic Zero Add Medicinal/Cannabis Compost, (W. Chicago Facility), Detroit, MI. (2015-May 17, 2023)
1st MI. Demeter Certified Biodynamic Organic Cannabis, (3rd cannabis certification in North America), (2015-May 17, 2023).
1st Demeter Biodynamic Organic Certified CBD, RSO, Cannabis Essential Oil, (Cure for Cancer), (2015 - May 17, 2023).
1st Demeter Biodynamic Organic Certified Bio-Hash, (Edible or Smokable Biodynamic Cannabis Concentrate), (2015 - May 17, 2023).
1st USDA NOP Demeter Certified Biodynamic Organic Mobil Farm, (above ground hills, parking lots studies), (2016 - 2018).
1st Ohio Demeter Certified Biodynamic Organic Farm, (Drummond Road) Toledo, OH., (2018 - 2021).
1st USDA NOP Demeter Biodynamic Organic Certified Truffles, (Philosophers Stone), (2015 - May 17, 2023).
1st USDA NOP & Demeter Biodynamic Organic Certified Mead, (Beet, Watermelon, Sweet Potato, Cucumber, and Carrot), (2018 - Present).