Detroit receives a fair amount of black eyes in the national press, but its urban farming scene has made it a darling of green thumbs and environmental bloggers.

Despite that growing reputation, Detroit zoning laws do not actually allow urban farming. While small-scale and neighborhood farms operate without interference, city leaders have resisted commercial projects that state law precludes them from regulating.

That could change.

Detroit Democratic state Sen. Virgil Smith is preparing to introduce legislation later today that would exempt the city from a provision in the state's Right to Farm Act restricting municipalities from exercising regulatory authority over agriculture.

Urban farming advocates say the law, intended to ensure all Michigan farmers operate under the same rules, is discouraging Detroit from allowing farms that would otherwise generate jobs and food.

"I see this as something that can bring real economic activity to the city of Detroit," Smith told MLive.com. "I don't think think there's any other large urban area that has something like this going on. So we can be very innovative, and I really think this could help feed families and put people to work."

Smith believes the legislation is needed to allow people like Gary Wozniak, whose long-planned

project would put addicts and ex-cons to work, to create jobs in the city. Or

, which has slowed its plan to create the world's largest commercial urban farm in Detroit as city leaders delay rewriting zoning ordinances.

The Michigan Farm Bureau is fighting any changes to the Right to Farm Act, not because they are opposed to urban farming, but because the law was designed to protect farmers engaged in accepted practices from the whims -- or sensitive noses -- of local residents and their elected representatives.

"Rather than viewing the Right to Farm Act as a barrier to urban farming, the city should consider how the act could assist an urban farmer," Andrew Kok, general counsel of the Michigan Farm Bureau,

in a Free Press editorial. "For example, an urban loft dweller could one day object to the organic compost used by the neighboring community garden."

But Detroit, Smith argues, needs the ability to zone farms and fine-tune regulations because urban areas are not an appropriate venue for all types of agriculture.

"The biggest problem is that we do not want folks having, say, pigs right next door to somebody trying to raise a normal family," Smith said. "We want to make sure this is an organized process that can truly bring economic development to the city."

"I think there's a lot of potential in the city of Detroit. I look at the glass half full. We have a lot of open land. Most cities don't have that. We need to advertise that and tell the world we're open for business."

Smith's legislation, co-sponsored by Whitmore Lake Republican Joe Hune, is expected to head to the Senate Agriculture Committee for discussion and analysis before a potential vote next year.