Will Allen, Founder of Growing Power, Wins the MacArthur Fellowship

Like you, I normally don't pay much attention to who wins the MacArthur Fellowship, also known as "the genius award." But in 2008 the $500,000 award went to a Wisconsin resident who is part of the solution to the inherent problems of our commercial food production and food distribution systems.

Will Allen is the founder and CEO of Growing Power, an organization that produces lots of food year-round on two acres in Milwaukee. Since supermarkets are reluctant to build in our inner-cities, inner city residents are often forced to subside on the highly processed foods they can get at corner stores.

So Growing Power is doing a great service to inner city residents by making good food available to them.

But I think that those of us who don't live in inner cities would be making a huge mistake to assume that the Growing Power model is not relevant to our own needs. As you may remember, the price of food has gone up over the last few years. It is no coincidence that it went up at the same time that the price of oil skyrocketed.

As you may have already seen in King Corn, or read in books like The Party's Over, or articles like "Eating Fossil Fuels", commercial food production in our country is largely dependent upon fossil fuels. Oil and natural gas are the main ingredients in the fertilizers and herbicides that the system is based on. Even the seeds are produced by chemical companies like Monsanto. And did you know that the agricultural system as I have just described it is literally ruining the soil of our great land? The American food production system is unsustainable.

On the other hand, Will Allen and his people at Growing Power work with nature. They grow fish in tanks and the water is cleaned with aquatic plants. Worms consume the garden waste and make it into compost. The greenhouses and hoophouses have multiple levels so that growing space is maximized.

We have more than enough land to start our own community gardens at Moraine Park Technical College. Let's be ahead of the curve and become leaders in sustainability!


Watch a two-minute-plus video of Will Allen based on an interview he did for the MacArthur Foundation after winning their award.




Read Street Farmer, an article about Will Allen that appeared in the New York Times Magazine.






Visit the Growing Power website.