Will Allen, founder and CEO of Growing Power, Inc. (Photo courtesy of the MacArthur Fellows Program)
Experts say there’s plenty of food around the world, but nearly a billion people go hungry because of poverty, politics and rising prices. One man is working to change that by teaching people how to grow healthy food, in any climate, anywhere. Erin Toner has more:
Transcript
Experts say there’s plenty of food around the world, but nearly a billion people go hungry because of poverty, politics and rising prices. One man is working to change that by teaching people how to grow healthy food, in any climate, anywhere. Erin Toner has more:
There’s one farm in the whole city of Milwaukee, and it’s
not much to look at.
In the front, there’s a small farm stand and some grungy old
greenhouses. Out back, you’ll find turkeys, chickens and
goats – and all over the place, big piles of compost are
steaming in the cool morning air.
Will Allen runs this inner-city, non-profit farm, called
Growing Power.
We walk into a greenhouse that’s heated by compost, and
Allen pulls back a long sheet of plastic.
“I just opened up a bed and you see this beautiful
spinach growing here, and it’s Wisconsin,” Allen says.
This 59-year-old is a big guy.
He’s 6-foot-7, and ripped from his days playing pro
basketball.
Allen started Growing Power 15 years ago.
It’s a measly two acres, but it’s incredibly productive.
The staff makes compost to heat the buildings, they use
raised plant beds to maximize space, and they grow greens
and raise fish using the same water.
The farm sells a ton of food to restaurants and grocery
stores. It also gives food to local pantries, and sells fruits
and vegetables to neighborhood families at reduced prices.
“We have minorities that are eating processed foods
and getting diabetes and people aren’t living very long
because of you know the negative effects of poor eating
and poor lifestyle and so forth. So we’ve got to change
that,” Allen says.
Allen travels all over the world showing people how to
make what he’s done in Milwaukee work in other places.
The farm’s also become a training ground for local school
kids, interns and backyard farmers.
Last fall, Allen won a half-million-dollar “genius” grant
from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
He also gets invited to conferences by former presidents.
So, he’s become a sort of urban farming celebrity.
But you wouldn’t know it.
Allen says he still gets his hands in the dirt every day in
Milwaukee, and he’s always looking for ways to help
people who live here.
Growing Power’s newest project is with Rockwell
Automation, an industrial parts company in Milwaukee.
Every day, 1000 employees eat in the company’s cafeteria,
and that produces a lot of food waste.
Growing Power’s started hauling it away for free.
We’ve arrived at the loading dock of Rockwell Automation
and there’s lots of stuff in here that actually looks like its
still pretty good. There’s a couple buckets full of celery and
onions and a big trash bag full of lettuce.
When we get back to the farm, co-director Jay Salinas
starts unloading the Rockwell scraps.
“Of course a large part of it is compost, but there’s
always something in here that we can feed to the
animals, especially the chickens,” Salinas says.
Growing Power founder Will Allen says his passion for
food comes from his parents.
They made a meager living as sharecroppers near
Washington D.C.
“We fed people – our family and extended family – and
we sold food. So what I’m doing today, when people say
so how do you feel about this McArthur thing you won,
or this Ford Foundation thing or whatever you got, it’s
really my parents. They should be the recipients of
those,” Allen says.
He says it’s really getting back to the way things used to
be, when people ate healthy food that was grown or raised
in their own community.
For The Environment Report, I’m Erin Toner.