Support Local Farming Archives - GreeningDetroit.com

RecoveryPark’s Social Mission

RecoveryPark is a collaborative effort by a number of non-profit and for-profit groups within the Detroit region. The focus of this collaboration is to drive sustainable neighborhood economic recovery based on agri-business. RecoveryPark is being developed as a job creation engine providing jobs throughout the entire food production value chain. This value chain is based on food grown in an urban farming setting within the Detroit region. Urban farming within the Detroit region will lead to the renewal of abandoned and blighted urban properties that would otherwise continue to decay.

The RecoveryPark is being driven by Self Help Addiction Rehabilitation (SHAR), a Detroit-based Therapeutic Community (TC) established in 1969. SHAR’s mission is to transform individuals with addiction and co-occurring disorders into recovering people, capable of living a full and productive life.

The Story of RecoveryPark

May 23 2010

VegMichigan

chee chee Environmental Education, Environmental Sustainability, Non-Profit, Support Local Farming

Organization’s Social Mission

To promote awareness of the health, environmental and ethical consequences of our food choices. We educate the public about the many benefits of a plant-based lifestyle, and we support our members as they transition to a vegetarian or vegan diet. Perhaps best known for hosting the annual Metro Detroit VegFest, VegMichigan also offers classes, lectures, dinners and social outings, plus an e-newsletter reaching thousands of subscribers monthly.

Description of Organization

In guiding the public and our members toward a vegetarian or vegan diet, VegMichigan fosters a more earth-friendly and sustainable lifestyle. According to University of Chicago Geophysicists Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin, “changing one’s eating habits from the Standard American Diet (SAD) to a vegetarian, or better yet, vegan diet does more to fight global warming than switching from a gas-guzzling SUV to a fuel-efficient hybrid car.” Animal agriculture is now the leading cause of the overall environmental degradation around the world. It is seriously implicated in soil erosion, water pollution, air pollution, desertification, rainforest destruction and species extinction, in addition to global warming. By providing not only the information about the benefits of a plant-based diet, but also the tools to explore or refine that diet, VegMichigan encourages more people to help the planet, reduce animal suffering and improve human health.