Will Allen Inspires the Next Generation of Seattle Farmers

Hundreds of folks gathered in Mercer Middle School’s auditorium tonight to hear Will Allen speak about the importance of growing healthy communities with healthy food.

Will Allen, founder and President of the internationally acclaimed urban farming program, Growing Power, calls himself a revolutionary. He believes if people have access to land and clean water to grow food, the effects will be transformative. He spent the day touring around Seattle meeting with different groups to talk about the local food system. Tonight’s community forum was the capstone event.

Photo by Catherine Anstett

Allen opened his talk with some staggering numbers. Growing Power has been able to turn 3,000 square feet of floor area into more than 25,000 square feet of growing space using vertical farming technologies. This proven small-scale, intensive agricultural model generates between $5 and $30 per square foot, grossing about $200,000 per acre.

Allen cites these numbers to demonstrate that his organization is economically viable and providing jobs to people of all ages and cultural backgrounds. “We’re growing farmers of the future,” he says. “As I travel, I see more people of color, immigrants, young people and old people, involved in the food system.”

When asked about transforming concrete jungles into areas for food production Allen says, “it’s a natural thing for us to touch the soil and grow food. We’ve proven we can grow food on rooftops and concrete. And now that more people worldwide are moving into cities, we need to grow food closer to where we live, as a practical matter.”

More than five million people die annually around the world because they don’t have access to clean water and fresh food. In his travels Allen says the United States gets blamed for the failed food system. “If we weren’t subsidizing cash crops such as corn and soy, they wouldn’t be flooding the market. There are no subsidies for vegetables or healthy foods. We have no choice, we have to step forward and change the broken industrial food system.”

Photo by Catherine Anstett

Allen says the most disappointing thing with the current political situation is that no one is talking about the food system. As Allen says, “food is so cheap–or rather the things that look like food, but aren’t real food are so cheap–people don’t know there’s a problem. Politicos have pushed the issue aside, but local cities and states are taking up the issue.”

We love to sit around a table and talk, says Allen. “The reason urban agriculture hasn’t taken off is because we haven’t taken action. We’ve funded a number of planning studies, but where have they gotten us? We need to start using that funding to develop infrastructure for urban agriculture.” Growing Power’s concrete farming model is a great start. It allows people to come in and say ‘we can do that.’ Allen says, “we made more changes by just developing this concrete model than through doing studies. I can bring the politicos and corporations to our farm–let them see and touch the results. And by forging partnerships with universities, we can quantify the results.”

Allen encouraged the audience to join him in growing the next generation of farmers. As he says, being a farmer is much tougher than becoming a professional athlete and he’s very encouraged by the fact that more than 50% of folks involved in Growing Power are under 40 years old. “We have a new generation that will take this movement forward. I have all of the confidence in the world that this is going to happen.”

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