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A note from Will Allen -Farmer, Founder and CEO
December 7, 2010 | Author: Growing Power | 14 Comments
December 10th 2010
Dear Friends,
Over the last two years, we have experienced one of the worst economic periods of our lifetimes. We have seen people lose their homes, deplete their savings, and struggle to afford basic necessities.
Who is to blame? It is easy to take shots at people, but I don’t think that will help. I choose instead to think about how we are going to lift ourselves up.I think ahead to a new economy that is good for all the people. And I feel this process of renewal is going to begin with the most important thing in our lives: food.
It’s something that we all share as human beings—black or white, young or old, rich or poor.
We all must eat to sustain ourselves. Our industrial food system has led us down the wrong road. It has brought us fewer jobs, unhealthier diets, and a centralized system that makes people feel powerless over their food choices. I think we all feel this. There are more food-related illnesses in this country and in the world than ever before.
We can’t rely alone on governments or large corporations to fix our bad food system. We can’t rely on others to improve access to healthy food in communities of need. We all have a responsibility to work together.
As I travel this country, I am filled with hope. I have seen young, middle-aged and elderly people taking control of the food systems in their communities. I see people growing food on balconies, side yards, back yards, and community plots. I see new gardens and farms in urban, suburban and rural communities. I see people raising fish and plants inside buildings, and people who have employed creative techniques to grow food year-round in even the harshest climates, as we do at Growing Power in Milwaukee.
We need everyone at what I like to call the Good Food Revolution table. We need corporations. We need medical folks. Universities. Politicos. Planners. Educators. Dieticians. We need architects to design our new small farms and community food centers, and we need planners to design sustainable communities to transform food deserts into healthy neighborhoods for all the people. We need people with expertise in the areas of public policy. We need technical experts. Contractors. Composters.
And most importantly, we need our wonderful farmers.
What encourages and inspires me in the progress of this good food movement is that more young people have embraced farming. More people of color have also been willing to enter agriculture once again. However, to truly change our food system, we must have 50 million new people growing food in their local communities. This will take time and patience is one of the keys, but we must commit to action now.
Image – Nigel Parry/CPI Syndication
Let’s set some goals together: In the next year:
• We will build over 100 hoop houses to grow food without chemicals in the city of Milwaukee.
• We will train over 1,000 new farmers in 2011—and over 5,000 in the next five years.
• We now have 52 employees at Growing Power. We will hire over 50 in the next year.
• We will host over 20,000 people at our training center on Silver Spring Drive in 2011—helping to spread our knowledge of intensive growing both nationally and internationally.
• We will take the lead in developing a new local food system industry.
This effort will, in time, create thousands of jobs of all types.
As the First Lady Michelle Obama says, “Let’s make sure that everyone in our communities and in our nation has access to good food. (Let’s Move!)” It can be done, and it must be done for our survival. This movement is about creating healthy people and a healthy world. It is about social justice.
This year, please give what you can.
Donate online through paypal
Donate by sending personal check in the return envelope
Please send personal checks to the Growing Power Milwaukee facility:
Growing Power, Inc
Attn: Financial Manager
5500 West Silver Spring Drive
Milwaukee, WI 53218
Sincerely,
Will Allen
Farmer, Founder, and CEO of Growing Power
“The Good Food Movement is now a Revolution”
Please check out our 2010 accomplishments and highlights this year.
Category: Uncategorized
JUST WANT TO TAKE THE TIME TO THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU ARE DOING IN MILWAUKEE. OLD HIGH SCHOOL CLASSMATE OF MINE, CHRIS TAYLOR, REFERRED ME TO THIS SITE VIA FACEBOOK. AM SO PROUD OF WHAT YOU ARE DOING. DID NOT KNOW A THING ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
AM INTERESTED IN REPLICATING OR SPREADING YOUR MODEL.
LIVE IN BALTIMORE, BUT, ODDLY ENOUGH, HAVE INTERESTS IN THE GREATER MILWAUKEE AREA.
WOULD LIKE TO VISIT YOUR ‘SHOP’ NEXT MONTH. WILL DROP BY WHEN IN MILWAUKEE NEXT MONTH.
I THINK THAT I CAN HELP YOU ATTAIN YOUR OBJECTIVES, AND PERHAPS, HELP WITH THE REPLICATION OF YOUR MODEL MORE NATIONALLY, IF IT IS NOT ALREADY DONE.
WOULD CERTAINLY LIKE TO DO SO ON THE EAST COAST, STARTING HERE IN BALTIMORE.
LOOK FORWARD TO ENGAGING YOUR INTEREST BY PROFFERING HELP I THE WAY OF WRITING SOME GRANTS FOR YOU TO RESEARCH, DESIGN, AND IMPLEMENT THE GROWTH THAT YOU ALREADY PROJECT.
ALL GOD’S BLESSINGS AND GRACE….
YOUR HUMBLE SERVANT,
GCC, JR.
I whole heartedly agree. I teach this in my medical center, The Ommani Center of Integrative Medicine where organic food and eco dynamics is the central theme of my practice of medicine. It is the heart of health and illness.
Thank you for following your mission to unfold this in the community. It is the most important thning we can do to reverse the damage that has been done to our bodies and the earth.
Rose Kumar M.D.
I enjoyed touring Growing Power, and remain inspired by your mission. I hope to be among the 50 in 2011 that you employ!
12/7/10
GreetingsWill,
On behalf of SERA Inc./ROOT1 (Recognizing Our Own Talent 1) a community garden endeavor of Raleigh NC. We appreciate and thank you for your urban farming vision and your relentless efforts to educate the world with using composting,traditional and aquaponic techniques, to grow food and soil, by maximizing precious space. My tour, the volunteers and staff were wonderful. Count us in on this revolution.
Sincerely,
Ajuba
Hi Will,
Great challenge! We are in a revolution and we have to make sure we do it right, quickly, and for the long term.
Thanks for leading the charge. Let me know if there’s more we can do from the farm down here.
Best of luck, happy holidays,
Wes and Leslie
Dear Mr. Allen:
You are saying exactly the same thing I am trying to say. I may have conveyed this in my letter of application for an internship. I have been an advocate for living off the land since the late 1970s. It seems like my infantry training gave me a can do attitude which i have to draw upon more. Since the economic downturn I have made an increased effort to advocate people raising their own and supporting local agriculture over big business. At the same time it has become increasingly difficult for me to do these things myself. i lost my dad’s house to my brothers bankruptcy and the big banks. I now live in an apartment complex that does not allow gardens and limits what we can do on our balconies. Rent has gone up and so have utilites. I have thought about doing some of the things you do at the Growing Power Center until I saw them in action on a tour. I like what you are doing and want to be a part of it badly. Even from just a tour I learned something or at least it gave me the confidence to try it. I constructed hoop houses in my garden. I raised spinach inside them. I am excited that I harvested the last of the spinach on December 6 after two nights in the single digits. I know what i can do to make this even better but i will have to try it next time. My spinach has finally succumbed to the elements. I am sorry I can’t get more out of it but I am proud that I got this far. I wish i could contribute money to Growing Power but at this time I am unemployed and living off savings. If I am to continue to walk in this direction I will have to tighten my belt. I have to survive more training and a period of waiting to find a farm where I can practice my knowledge. I am not trying to use this opportunity take advantage of being considered for an internship at Growing Power and hope I can be considered to serve under my own merit. I am using this as an opportunity to get to know a great man that has similar ideas as my own. I made it up there last month to volunteer at Growing Power but for now I haven’t enough to travel on. I am expecting another deposit from my annuity soon. I would like to make it up there a few more times so you and your staff can get to know me. I have another power that actually helped me pull up myself from being about to be discharged from the Army to successful completion at Fort Benning,Ga. Of all places I found Jesus Christ at Infantry School. It was the lessons I learned from Him that gave me this can do attitude. I can do all things through Him who strengtheneth me. When I started Army Basic I couldn’t do one wrung on the overhead ladder I could barely do a 20 minute mile. At the end of Infantry I could do 72 wrungs and 2 miles in 12 minutes. I used to be near failing at math and in my infantry training I became quite good at indirect fire which requires geometry and trig calculations. I am no longer a warrior, shall we say I beat my sword into plowshares. At times I have pulled myself up from nothing and finished successfully. Right now, I have to do that again.
Will,
Thank you so much, for putting your energy and resources into farming and the community. You are an inspiration to people in general, especially those of who recognize how important food is, not just to ourselves, but to the whole planet.
April
I just wanted to say that “The Good Food Revolution” is at the heart of what must become a human movement towards an advancement of civilization. A progression that decentralizes power bases and empowers individuals and communities. In an age where every aspect of life, and even life itself is often reduced to nothing more than a dollar amount, we as a compilation of communities who share the common vision of living free from the control of big business must choose to find a better way. Why should any human’s ability to eat, or have utilites,or a place to live depend on whether he/she can make the payments. Why should we continue to work fingers to the bone to pay for that which God provides to all His children? Why should we spend the majority of our lives away from the families we seek to provide for while our children suffer from our lack of presence. There is a better way. That’s why I feel that Growing Power and organizations like it are absolutely essential to real social progress and as such, I commit to learning as much as I can from you and the work you’ve done. I also commit to working toward the development of urban farms and community gardens in the Dallas, Tx area as well as green energy systems. Thanks for all that you’re doing Mr. Allen. You are definitely changing more lives than you will probably ever be aware of.
Billy,
This is fantastic! We wills end in a check very soon! Keep up the good work and looking forward to seeing you and Cindy! Love your cuz, Sharon
To Mr. Allen or to anyone else at growing power who handles PR stuff. I recently posted an article on the Permiculture Forum and I want to make sure that it is all accurate…..
……The article………..This is going to sound weird. One of my favorite people on this earth is someone who I just met this week. And I didn’t meet him in person, I met him on YouTube. His name is Will Allen and he is the founder and spokesperson for Growing Power, an aquaponics green house operation in Milwaukee Wisconsin. It’s a huge operation that also has a farm and has expanded to Chicago. They raise,fish, vegetables, worms, chickens, mushrooms and just about anything else you would want to see in a greenhouse. They go to extremes to use every available niche. There are hanging baskets everywhere, fish tanks under plantings and compost bins covered with plant pots. Even the pathways are sometimes covered in vegetables.
The place has many employees and many more volunteers. It’s a nonprofit organization which is not something I would not usually come out in favor of. But the educational nature of this facility outweighs any negative from its drain on public funds. Thousands of people who may have never considered growing their own food are exposed to the idea. Will tries to get every customer to take a tour so that they can learn how everything works. Although this operation is worth millions, he explains to them that it can be easily scaled down to fit into their own home situation and budget.
They also do more in-depth tours and classes for those wishing to set up a commercial sized operation. While many large operations advertised to the world that they are doing something so unique that only they are qualified, Will constantly pushes the idea that everything visitors see is within their own reach. If they can’t afford long-term in-depth classes, they can volunteer and learn everything for free. He also works to encourage duplication of his success throughout the United States and in impoverished places around the world.
Aquaponics and vermiculture are the two most obvious deviations from the norm in greenhouse production. They also raise chickens and goats. Compost piles are managed to produce free heat and compost is piled against the side of greenhouses to insulate the lower walls and foundation from the frozen ground in winter.
Dietary education is an important facet of the work done at growing power. People of lesser means are quite often malnourished due to income and poor food choices. A fast food culture relying heavily on pork, beef and chicken has fostered a culture which chooses unhealthy food over fruit vegetables and fish. Will exposes young people from the inner-city to healthy foods that they are unlikely to encounter in their day-to-day lives. This will have a long-term positive effect which could go on for generations. —————————————————————————————————-
Not everything they do is permaculturey. They use plenty of propane and electricity and because of various grant monies and unpaid labor it could be argued that it is not sustainable. But when compared to other cold climate greenhouse operations, his is by far the lesser evil when looking at inputs. This operation is in an area of high unemployment where many people have found that their skill sets are no longer wanted by industry. So, I think it has to be looked at as a training facility or school within an urban farm. Schools gobble up public money all the time. In the long run Will’s work will save vast quantities of resources and could possibly employ thousands of displaced workers. His work on international projects will literally save some from starvation. ———————————————————————————————————————————–
BIOGRAPHY
Will is 62 years old. His parents were South Carolinan sharecroppers who saved their money and bought a farm near Rockville Maryland. He grew up on the farm and learned from his parents. I imagine frugality and the value of hard work and sacrifice would be part of the upbringing of any child whose parents worked their way from landless poverty to owning a successful market garden.
He was the first African-American to play basketball for the University of Miami. Although he never made the NBA, he did play professionally for a few years but had the good sense to move on to other things when he was 28 years old.
He bought the Growing Power facility in 1993. It was a former plant nursery which was in foreclosure. He also bought 100 acres which belonged to his wife’s parents and another farm. His daughter is currently running a newer facility in Chicago.
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Will has received numerous accolades for his work in urban farming. He received a Ford Foundation “Leadership Grant”, a MacArthur foundation “Genius Grant” and the Kellogg foundation has given him a grant to create jobs in urban agriculture. ———————————————————————————————————————–
The Allen family have been involved in agriculture for generations. First as slaves, then as sharecroppers, then as owners of a vegetable operation and now Will is at the forefront of food security, urban farming and aquaponics development both in the United States and internationally. His daughter is furthering this good work in Chicago.
There are very few people whose opinions I value after knowing them only a short time. Will is one of those people.
Check him out on YouTube and Wikipedia. You can search him by name or any search including “Growing Power” will lead his way.
I hope to take my tour bus to Milwaukee one day, filled with others who wish to learn from Will.
— Will Allen—one of the good guys —
Thank you: Dale Hodgins — leaning slightly to the left today.
…………………..end of article ……………………………… I only decided to make reference to the family history and slavery stuff when I discovered that on several internet sites young black men were against being involved in agriculture because of your country’s history in that regard.They are thus limiting their own employment options in some sort of convoluted solidarity with their ancestors. If my article contains any errors or ommissions please let me know and I will make corrections Thank you. Dale
I can also be reached at 250 588 3366 I live in Victoria BC Canada
Let’s support our farmers! if we want change, we can be the change. I hope this project be pushed through so they will be more jobs for people and more healthy foods in our table.
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