Milwaukee urban farmer Will Allen has a few million volunteers working on his farm. If you count the worms, that is.
Allen, one of TIME Magazine’s “100 most influential people in the world,” spoke to a large crowd gathered Thursday at Indiana U.
He was the keynote speaker of the “Food in Bloom” conference organized by Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society, the Association for the Study of Food and Society and the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition.
Daniel Block, president of the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society, introduced Allen, discussing the pair’s 10-year relationship.
“I’ve always been amazed by Will’s warmth and generosity to people of all walks of life,” he said.
Allen, a former professional basketball player, injured his knee just hours before the talk and gave the two-hour lecture from a large, floral-patterned armchair. He began by discussing his upbringing as a son of two sharecroppers-turned-vegetable farmers.
He also informed the crowd that he once visited IU many years ago when he was still deciding what college to attend in the late 1960s.
“Being from a small town, this campus actually scared me,” he said. “I haven’t been here since I was 18 years old, so it’s good to be back.”
Allen then presented a 600-slide demonstration, providing commentary on the history, purpose and inner workings of his innovative urban farming project, Growing Power, Inc.
He also illustrated what he called the “agriculture of now and the agriculture of tomorrow” and informed the audience of cutting-edge farming techniques.
He said that in the early days of his mission, convincing people in urban areas — particularly minorities — to farm and start community gardens was a challenge due to stigmas created by history.
“Ten years ago, African Americans would come up to me and say, ‘Why are you doing this?’” he said. “‘This is slavery.’”
Allen said changing these perceptions has been just one of the many challenges of what he calls “the good food revolution,” a wide-ranging attempt at providing healthy, locally grown food to communities across the country. He referred to the movement as an example of social justice through food.
Growing Power grows crops, creates energy, collects storm water, raises fish, keeps bees and provides national and international outreach and education. It also engages in several large-scale community projects all around the country.
At the main facility alone, Allen said, he and his staff take in more than 20,000 pounds of unopened food waste at a given time, as well as waste from Milwaukee’s brewing companies. This is turned into compost and, eventually, high-nutrient soil — a process made possible through millions of worms.
“People always ask me how many I have on staff,” Allen said. “And I tell them, ‘Well, we have 42 humans, but we have a few million non-humans.’ The one thing I like about this part of our staff is that they don’t talk back.”
Allen concluded his presentation with a reminder.
“You have to remember it’s all about the soil,” he said. “And it’s about engaging the community in a multicultural and multigenerational way.”
Allen received a standing ovation.
Alicia Woodbury, an Arizona State U. graduate student who was attending the conference, said she admires Allen and enjoyed hearing him speak.
“He does a fantastic job of merging all these aspects in a very real way that can be replicated not just domestically, but also internationally,” she said.
“We, as academics, talk about food systems theoretically, but Will Allen and Growing Power are actually implementing real change.”