About the Book & Author
The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities is a memoir by Will Allen, a former professional basketball player who became an urban farmer focusing on growing healthy food at lower costs, as well as educating people on how they can grow food. Hear Will Allen summarize his mission in this 2-minute video produced when he was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2008 (AKA MacArthur Genius Grant winner) — https://www.macfound.org/fellows/70/.
The book tells the inspiring story of how he overcame the many obstacles that life and society through at him. He is the son of sharecroppers from South Carolina, who grew up in 1950s-60’s Maryland and excelled at basketball. He was a state champion and in 1967 earned a scholarship to University of Miami – the first African-American to play basketball there. While at the University, he fell in love and married Cyndy Bussler, a white woman from Wisconsin. After graduation, he played professionally (though not NBA), including several seasons in Belgium. After retiring from basketball, he moved to the Milwaukee area and worked for corporate America (KFC, then Proctor & Gamble). While working full-time, he also farmed his in-laws small plot in Oak Creek and sold produce at local farmers markets. In 1992, he faced having a 2-hour commute when Proctor & Gamble restructured and moved to Illinois. Then in January 1993, he drove by a set of dilapidated greenhouses in North Milwaukee that had a “for sale” sign on them. His new life as an urban farmer and educator was about to begin…
The book chronicles his ups and downs in going from a small business to forming the nonprofit Growing Power, which not only perfected intensive greenhouse farming for growing affordable food in the city, but held workshops about gardening, composting, and cooking healthy meals and encouraged others to grow food in urban areas.
The book touches on a number of issues, including:
- African American history and agriculture
- Segregation/desegregation & African American life in the 1960s/70s (Allen married a white woman in 1969)
- Basketball in the 1960s/1970s
- Economics of farming
- Healthy food and inner cities
- Urban farming
- Community gardens
- Sustainability as it relates to healthy food
- Building and sustaining a nonprofit
- Grit and determination in overcoming obstacles
Watch Growing Power in Action
- For a 2-minute taste of what his greenhouse operations look like, see: https://vimeo.com/15997939
- For a longer tour, see the 2009 documentary Fresh via Kanopy Streaming Videos https://ewu.kanopy.com/video/fresh. The greenhouse tour starts around :38.
Recent Events
If you go to Growing Power’s website, growingpower.org, you find a dead site. Why? Because after 18 years of operation, Growing Power had some severe setbacks. Allen was reported to have retired in
November 2017, and Growing Power ceased operations in 2018 because of debts.
But in May 2018, Will Allen started his main operation back up, going back to how he started his intensive urban farming under the name Will’s Roadside Farms and Markets, as a small for-profit business. (See https://www.facebook.com/Willsroadsidefarmsandmarkets/.)
The book is a joy to read because it is an uplifting story about building a nonprofit that makes a difference in people’s lives. But the recent events add complexity to the story. How do you sustain initiatives like Growing Power?
For more information, see:
- Hauer, Sarah. “Growing Power Founder Will Allen to Retire as Nonprofit’s Debts Mount.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 20 Nov. 2017, www.jsonline.com/story/money/business/2017/11/20/growing-power-founder-allen-retire-nonprofits-debts-mount/881139001/.
- Satterfield, Stephen. “Behind the Rise and Fall of Growing Power.” Civil Eats, 13 March 2018, civileats.com/2018/03/13/behind-the-rise-and-fall-of-growing-power/.
- Sussman, Mary. “Will Allen Returns to His Roots.” Milwaukee Shepherd Express, 12 June 2018, shepherdexpress.com/news/features/will-allen-returns-to-his-roots/#/questions/.
