Mark Spitznagel, the founder of the $6 billion hedge fund Universa Investments, on Thursday brought 20 billy goats to graze among abandoned homes and general detritus in Detroit's Brightmoor neighborhood, Alexandra Stevenson reports in the New York Times.
Not to be outdone by JPMorgan Chase, the country’s biggest bank, which recently pledged to invest $100 million to help Detroit over the next five years, Mr. Spitznagel says he is contributing directly to the community.
“It’s an urban farming experiment,” he told The Times. “Goats are an effective way to do landscaping.”
The goats will number as many as 60 this summer and come from Mr. Spitznagel’s farm in Northport, where he rears goats and makes cheese.
Mr. Spitznagel will enlist the help of the community — paying previously unemployed adults and enlisting the help of local youths to herd the baby goats — and he plans to build portable housing for the goats in addition to pens and electric fencing. At the end of the summer, Mr. Spitznagel said, he will sell the goats to Detroit butchers and give the proceeds back to the community.
Raising goats is against the law in Detroit, but so are a lot of things that happen on a daily basis, out in the open. A Corktown resident had a herd of goats in his side yard several years ago, but they are long gone.
