On Saturday, August 16, the main branch of the Detroit Public Library hosted a lecture by Rashid Nuri. Nuri is Boston-born and Harvard-educated, and served as USDA Deputy Administrator under the Clinton Administration in his lifelong career in the promotion of urban agriculture. His work with agricultural policy revealed to him the historic inequities visited upon black farmers—both the obvious injustice of colonialism, slavery and the false progress of the Reconstruction period, but also the more insidious, categorical discrimination by the USDA, which Nuri researched and compiled into a document that led directly to his dismissal.

But his work has not been in policy-making alone. Nuri is a huge proponent of field experience and the direct spiritual benefits of working with the land. He has managed mass production and pocket garden operations in Nigeria, Asia, San Diego, and got his big break to manage thousands of acres when he joined the Nation of Islam. He has organized agricultural cooperatives in eight Southern states, including Truly Living Well, an organization he built from scratch in the heart of Atlanta, Ga., in the very neighborhood that is the birthplace of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nuri lectured on the history of black land ownership and land loss, his personal voyage, and his current work in Atlanta, Ga.

Truly Living Well combines the 65-year-old Nuri’s lifetime of study and experience in agriculture and soil science with what he calls the “pedagogy of transformation.” Leading by example and altering landscapes with simple tools and hard work—much of it on a volunteer basis—TLW has transformed the parking lot of what was once the country’s first church-owned, low-income housing project into an urban agricultural facility that produces 35,ooo lbs. of fresh, organic produce annually.

The near-capacity crowd at the Detroit Public Library gave Nuri a warm reception and included some of Detroit’s premier future growers.

Always looking to carry the message, Nuri brought his positivity and perspective to a receptive audience in Detroit, and will be presenting at TedXPeachtree in a few months. His presentation emphasized that the benefits of urban agriculture cannot simply be measured on a profit/loss spreadsheet, and that the key to good food is good soil. “I don’t grow food,” he said. “I build soil. Let God grow food.”

Right on.