World Ark Magazine - March/April 2009 - (Page 33) H will allen the urban farmer from Milwaukee believes fresh food can be grown locally and inexpensively, even in the city. Greenhouses, worms and compost are just a few of the tools he uses to grow produce in frosty Wisconsin all year round. this year his innovative thinking, combined with a knack for sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm with young people, earned allen a Macarthur Genius award and the top spot on our list. of which allen designed and built himself, and includes tanks of hydroponic produce and fish and bins of worms. The training facilities are intended to show visitors what the possibilities are; they are not set up to offer step-bystep instruction in intensive farming. “The thing that we do best,” he says, “is inspire folks.” allen sees the macarthur award as an opportunity to teach a much wider audience about the need for reform in our food systems. while the issues have been getting lots of attention from writers and thinkers, allen believes that as someone who practices what he preaches, he can be a powerful instigator of change. “everybody wants all the food, but they don’t realize what it’s going to take to make it happen,” he says. “it’s like, everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” The timing could not be more critical for the changes allen hopes to see. “i think we’re in a new era of agriculture,” he says. he says that as economic prospects dim worldwide, and large-scale farming continues to fail to feed the world’s hungry, “these smaller models of intensive agriculture, a more communal kind of participation and partnershipping, make a lot more sense.” g By Lauren Wilcox etting blockbuster news in the middle of the harvest was the last thing urban farmer will allen expected when he headed into the field last September. “i thought it was a prank caller,” he says, of the cell-phone call that he took as he was cutting heads of lettuce. But the news was no joke. The John d. and catherine T. macarthur foundation awarded him one of their so-called genius grants—$500,000 to be spent any way he chooses. The foundation took notice of his work as founder and director of growing power, the milwaukee-based nonprofit that teaches urban farming techniques to city residents, primarily those who are poor and have little access to fresh produce. allen laughs off the award’s prestige. “No one’s ever called me a genius before,” he deadpans. But for a man who spends most of his days knee-deep in topsoil, working to share his good food and intensive-farming techniques, the award is a gratifying sign that his message is being heard. allen’s work began in 1993 when he developed a youth farming program on the north side of milwaukee to teach teens the basics of local food systems and farming methods. That effort, fueled by allen’s passion for sustainable farming and his natural rapport with the kids who worked for him, grew into a thriving collection of programs and training sites in the chicago and milwaukee areas that host interested visitors from all over the world. allen’s practical, hands-on approach drives his success. (he measures the youth program’s progress in pounds of worms—they started with 30 pounds, he says, and have more than 5,000 pounds now.) But he is also an innovative and ambitious thinker who has fired up many a prospective urban farmer. The training farm in milwaukee is a rambling assortment of composting projects, most “These smaller models of intensive agriculture, a more communal kind of participation and partnershipping, make a lot more sense.” —will allen LEFT: Will Allen takes a break from shoveling compost at an urban garden project in Wisconsin. w w w. h e i f e r. o r g for now, allen is balancing his new role in the public eye with continued efforts on the ground at home. Just weeks after receiving the award, the 59-year-old farming phenomenon was wrapping up a 10-day trip through the South to help other urban farmers plan their progress. growing power is taking stock of its own progress, too. “we’ve been at this a long time, and trained a lot of people,” allen says. for the last year, growing power has been working with an independent evaluator to better understand how effective the training has been. while the publicity will no doubt be a boon to growing power’s work, allen is determined to stay focused. people have even started to ask him, he says, about a possible role for him as agricultural secretary in the new presidential administration, a notion he dismisses. “i can’t let it interfere with my work,” he says. “i’ve still got work to do.” march/apri l 2009 | worl d ark 33 http://www.heifer.org
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