Growing Urban Farms

By Karri Sandino, Associate Web Editor

“Will Allen is a big man. And he has a big footprint,” said Jim Embry, leader of the Sustainable Communities Network in Lexington, Ky., as he introduced founder and CEO of Growing Power Will Allen, who spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at the downtown Lexington public library recently.

Even more significant than Will Allen’s size–the 6′ 7″ former basketball player has a commanding presence–is the impact he’s having as he cultivates urban gardens in communities around the world.

Allen doesn’t need physical size to drive home his message of improving nutrition through urban farming–for him, it’s all about inspiration and passion.

And for about 90 minutes, Allen inspired with a no-nonsense approach to his mission.

“We don’t have a hunger problem in the world,” he said. “We have a nutrition problem. We need to do something about it … you guys have some work to do!”

Allen’s work is headquartered at his 2.5-acre Community Food Center Urban Farm, located in of one Milwaukee’s densely populated, working-class, retail-centric neighborhoods. There he and his team grow food for their neighbors, shoppers and restaurants and teach others how to do the same–and much more.

According to the Growing Power website: “In a space no larger than a small supermarket live some 20,000 plants and vegetables, thousands of fish, and a livestock inventory of chickens, goats, ducks, rabbits and bees.”

The organization has several other farm locations in greater Milwaukee, as well as farms in Chicago; it’s in the process of setting up national training centers in Arkansas, Massachusetts and Mississippi.

What Do You Need to Get an Urban Farm Started?
Allen surprised many when he announced the most important thing you need to start a successful urban farm: relationships.

“People aren’t just going to run out of their houses and say, ‘Yes, let’s grow some food,'” he said. “It’s about educating neighbors, enlarging their minds and engaging the community.”

It’s the responsibility of the urban farm organizers to develop relationships with nearby schools, youth, families and businesses–basically any person or organization in the area that could help support the goals of the urban farm.

“They all need to value what you’re doing as much as you do,” he said.

He says not to worry about the scope of your project. Start small and think bigger as things get going. Developing an urban farming skill set is not an insignificant accomplishment.

The Second Most Important Thing
Surely the plants and seeds are the next most important thing to starting an urban farm.

But according to Allen, it’s actually: compost.

LOTS of compost.

“You need to grow new soil because the soil that’s there (in cities) is contaminated,” he said.

Allen showed the crowd photos of enormous piles of composting materials that are being turned into soil over time–most piles about the size of a compact car and some as large as a house.

Much of the business of the farm he runs involves Olympic-sized efforts to grow soil through composting on the urban farm in Milwaukee and a 30-acre rural farm in Merton, Wis.

The secret ingredients in Allen’s compost: coffee grounds, wood chips, leftover produce from supermarkets and brewery waste (from Milwaukee’s nearby breweries).

Because the quantities of materials needed to grow soil are so large, collecting enough compost materials to feed the soil can be difficult–it’s important again to develop relationships with area businesses that can provide these vital materials.

Another key component: vermicompost. Vermicomposting is so essential that Allen refers to their worms as “livestock.” Growing Power harvests and cares for worms the way a chicken farmer cares for his prized, egg-laying flock.

The worms’ job is to grow healthy soil for the plants. Vermicomposting (intensive composting in boxes with worms) allows Growing Power to add a nutrient-rich, organic fertilizer and soil conditioner to its new soil. The vermicompost is so valuable that they also sell it at the Growing Power store and at farmers’ markets.

“To fundamentally change the food system, we need 50 million people growing food in this country alone, in their backyard, side yard, wherever. Will that happen overnight? I don’t think so. Will it happen in my lifetime? I don’t think so. But it will happen because now it’s a movement,” Allen said.

“All we have to do is open our minds. We can grow food almost anywhere. All we have to do is decide we’re going to do it.”

What role do you play in helping shape the public’s views about agriculture?

Small-scale farmers and large-scale corporate agriculture firms may not see eye-to-eye on many issues, but there’s one point that they need to unite on—shaping the public’s view of agriculture.

With every generation, more of the population is farther removed from the farm.

Not only does that mean that people don’t understand where their food comes from, it also means they don’t understand how it’s produced.

Around the world, “animal-rights” groups are taking advantage of this knowledge gap and capitalizing on the general lack of understanding. When they see pigs standing in a muddy lot (created from four straight days of rain) or pass by a farm with cattle that doesn’t smell as pretty as roses (on a humid August day), they can turn that normal farm scene into ammunition for their cause.

Agriculture—big or small—doesn’t need to be a victim of this war, but it’s time for farmers to start taking action of their own.

The Need for Discussion
“The Changing Face of Animal Agriculture” was the theme for the National Institute for Animal Agriculture meeting in Louisville, Ky., March 31 through April 1, 2009, and various aspects of this topic were discussed throughout the sessions.

In one session about food and nutrition policies made in Washington, D.C., food policy consultant Lisa Katic, R.D., named a list of people who are influencing nutrition—and, therefore, agriculture—perceptions.

Among them are Neil Barnard, M.D., a renowned nutritionist and vegan-lifestyle promoter; Kelly Brownell, Ph.D., director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity and anti-“big-food” author; and Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Ph.D., an author who opposes agribusiness and meat eating.

Also on Katic’s list of people who are making an impact on policies that affect the industry are three familiar faces to the small-farm movement: author and “real food” proponent Michael Pollan, restaurant owner and sustainable-agriculture supporter Alice Waters, and Food Democracy Now! co-founder David Murphy.

As visible figures for their cause, the people listed are generally regarded by the public as credible. They’ve created platforms that Americans (not involved in agriculture) can relate to, and they’ve gained their trust.

Animal agriculture, in turn, is largely left in a reactive—rather than proactive—position to defend itself against allegations of poor food safety and animal treatment.

Dan Sutherland of Johnsonville Foods stressed the public’s cry for more transparency in the industry. It’s not enough anymore to have high animal-care and facility-maintenance standards on your own farm. It’s time to prove your commitment to these standards to the public.

“The social issues of today are the issues we have to face for tomorrow,” Sutherland said. One prime example is the video from Hallmark Meat Packing in Chino, Calif., that was released by the Humane Society of the United States in early 2008. The footage of downer cows being sprayed in the face with hoses and pushed around with forklifts made international news headlines and understandably turned Americans’ view of agriculture sour, despite the processor’s and industry’s statements condoning the events.

“What are we going to do as an industry to prevent this?” Sutherland asked. “This is not a competitive issue. We need to band together. Everyone in [the industry] can be a target [of regulators, activists and boycotting consumers]. When are we going to start looking at it as producing food instead of producing pigs?”

The Need for Action: Make Yourself Visible
The common theme throughout the sessions was the need for better communication. It’s not often you meet a farmer who doesn’t hold his animals’ welfare as the highest priority, after all. With high values already in place, it’s just a matter of letting the public know about your commitment.

Chris Sigurdson, assistant vice president of external relations at Purdue University, points out, “We are a nation of meat eaters. … You enjoy a great deal of goodwill toward your product and your industry. Hang on to that goodwill. Start talking to that next generation of consumers.”

The next generation is all over the Internet. Having your own website is no longer enough.

It’s time to interact with the public through sites such as Facebook and Twitter. (Follow the HF editors on Twitter—KarenKAcevedo, Karri_Sandino, sjstaton, LisaMunniksma and KrissaSmith—and become a friend of Hobby Farms, Hobby Farm Home, HobbyFarms.com and editor in chief Karen Acevedo on Facebook.)

Also make yourself more visible in your community.

“Your job is to bridge the disconnect,” Sigurdson says. “They don’t really want to know how food is raised. They want to know you have their best interest at heart.”

Liz Doornink, co-leader of American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology, said producers should create a value statement to share with their customers and the public: “This is the most important way we can connect with our customers … they need to find out that you do care and have values.”

Farmers can do their part to improve the public’s view of agriculture by starting in their own communities, on their own farms.

By being good rural neighbors, and as these grassroots building blocks are put in place, the industry can better work together to present the truth and improve attitudes about agriculture. The longer it takes for the ag industry to pick up the pace in creating its public image, the farther behind it will be in the battle for the public’s favor.