Will Allen is on a mission that begins with feeding Milwaukee. Through Growing Power, his urban farm in Wisconsin’s largest city, the zealous Allen spreads a gospel of urban renewal through growing and selling fresh, healthy food in a neighborhood where nutritious options are limited. Foodies and wannabe city farmers make pilgrimages year-round to learn about his successful methods.
In certain circles Allen is referred to as the father of "The Good Food Revolution," which is also the title of his 2012 book. In it he recounts a very personal story of reconnecting with the earth -- a reconnection he would like to see made across urban America, and especially in African-American communities. He writes,
"[T]he Great Migration transformed the African-American experience from a rural to an urban one. The generation of African-Americans born in the wake of that migration -- my generation -- would live in a very different world from that of our ancestors. In that transition, we lost the agricultural skills that had once been our birthright."
His parents moved to Maryland, near Washington D.C., in 1934, glad to leave their sharecropping lives behind in the South. They settled on a small farm where, while working other jobs, they nurtured their own hobby gardens and passed their agricultural skills on to Allen.
But Allen was never enthused about taking on the hard work of a farmer, "I said I would never go back to farming. I guess you should never say never."
