Urban Farmer Wins Genius Grant
By Vanessa Richins
An agricultural oasis is nestled on two acres in Milwaukee.
The land holds 6 greenhouses, 8 hoophouses, goats, ducks and turkeys, beehives, a chicken coop, perch and tilapia, and a worm composting station.
They also have facilities that study how to use food waste to produce fertilizers and methane gas (for energy)
This is the dream of Will Allen, founder of Growing Power.
In the middle of one of Milwaukee’s poorest neighborhoods, he has managed, with the help of his staff of 3 dozen and 2000 local residents, to produce $500,000 worth of produce, meat and fish.
With the new grant of $500,000 from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, his dream can grow bigger.
As he says in an interview with the New York Times, “I’d like to see Growing Power transform itself into a five-story vertical building being totally off the grid with renewable energy, where people can come and learn, so they can go back to their communities around the world and grow healthy food.”
He began his journey in 1993 after leaving a job with Procter and Gamble. These days, in addition to the Milwaukee farm, there is a 40 acre farm in another town, projects in Chicago, and many school and community gardens.
“My parents were farmers, and I am passing on what they did,” he said. “They understood all of this way back when, and now we’re having to go back to when people shared things and started taking care of each other. That’s the only way we will survive.”
“What better way,” he muses, “than to do it with food?”
People like him make me want to try to start my own urban nonprofit gardening group. Perhaps someday soon, I will be able to do it.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
That is really, really cool! Congrats to Will Allen and good for him!!!
October 9th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
What a wonderful story, Vanessa. I would love to visit the area and have a look at his work. Thanks for sharing this!
October 12th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Indeed! As more people begin to realize that urban gardening campaigns offer solutions to many of the world’s problems, projects like this one will be very useful, both as a template and as inspiration. Excellent work! Cheers to the coming urban garden revolution.