New York Times Magazine Covers Will Allen of Growing Power

It's been another big week of press coverage for Will Allen, the larger-than-life former basketball star and founder of Milwaukee's Growing Power urban farm. First, Fast Company named Allen one of the 100 most creative people in business (a no-brainer), and now the New York Times Magazine is publishing a 3,000-word story by Elizabeth Royte about Allen and his urban farms.

Royte does an excellent job explaining how Growing Power came to be so powerful, but also capturing Will Allen's charisma and his ability to convince people to do things that they otherwise wouldn't dream of:

Suddenly, I got it: Allen was a genius at selling — fried chicken, Pampers, arugula, red wrigglers, you name it. He could push his greens into corporate cafeterias, persuade the governor to help finance the construction of an anaerobic digester, wheedle new composting sites from urban landlords, persuade Milwaukee’s school board to buy his produce for its public schools and charm the blind into growing sprouts.

She also addresses why Growing Power's business model hasn't yet been replicated elsewhere:

Employing locals to grow food for the hungry on neglected land has an irresistible appeal, but it’s not clear yet whether Growing Power’s model can work elsewhere. “I know how to make money growing food,” Allen asserts. But he’s also got between 30 and 50 employees to pay, which makes those foundation grants — and a grant-writer — essential. Growing Power also relies on large numbers of volunteers. All of which perhaps explains why other urban farmers have not yet replicated Growing Power’s scale or its unique social achievements.

So no, Growing Power isn’t self-sufficient. But neither is industrial agriculture, which relies on price supports and government subsidies. Moreover, industrial farming incurs costs that are paid by society as a whole: the health costs of eating highly processed foods, for example, or water pollution. Nor can Growing Power be compared to other small farms, because it provides so many intangible social benefits to those it reaches.