If I wasn’t boycotting American travel for fear of my personal safety then I’d want to go see Detroit’s new farming revolution first-hand.

The major commercial player is a collector of things besides cheap land:

Twice divorced, Hantz, 48, lives alone in clubby, paneled splendor, surrounded by early-American landscapes on the walls, an autograph collection that veers from Detroit icons such as Ty Cobb and Henry Ford to Baron von Richthofen and Mussolini, and a set of Ayn Rand first editions.

I just wish his plans included an organic dimension like the community-based efforts, but Hanz is hitting the “local food” fad hard, hoping to make Detroit the first food-secure American city.

And make a fortune doing it.