Taking a Tour of Growing Power in Milwaukee
Monday, December 7, 2009 at 7:30AM 
Over the years, we've read and heard a lot about Growing Power, a large urban farm on the northwest side of Milwaukee, but until this weekend I had never been there. So on a trip to Milwaukee, I set aside a couple of hours and took a tour of the farm (tours are given every day, and they cost $10). Growing Power was started by Will Allen, a former pro basketball player who grew up on a farm. Allen bought the property in the early 1990s, and it has since grown into a Milwaukee institution that attracts hoards of visitors and volunteers and produces loads of organic vegetables.
The thing that struck me most about Growing Power is the sheer amount of food production that takes place on the less than three-acre plot. Aquaponic grow beds that are rigged up with two-by-fours are layered, with the top beds capturing the UV rays from the sun and grow lights hanging over the lower levels. Beneath them, fish are grown and harvested, and hanging baskets hang from the sides, growing more vegetables. No space is wasted, inside the greenhouses or out.
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Will Allen didn't guide the tour, but he had a brief cameo, swooping in to spread a few handfuls of worms in one of the big compost bins in the middle of the greenhouse.
The rub on Growing Power is that it isn't a business model that could easily be replicated elsewhere, because they depend heavily on various grants (Allen recently was awarded a MacArthur "genius" grant) and volunteers. Additionally, Milwaukee allows Growing Power to keep fish and livestock on-site, because agricultural zoning was grandfathered in when Allen acquired the site.
That all may be true, but Allen and Growing Power still set a good example of the potential that unused urban spaces hold, and Growing Power is currently doing outreach, helping people in other cities, like Buffalo, Louisville, and Detroit, to set up similar urban farms. In fact, my tour group included a few guys from Reno to study some of the techniques used at Growing Power in hopes of replicating it back home.
In the course of the week, I'll post some more photos and take a closer look at some of the techniques used at Growing Power. For more about Growing Power, check out this recent New York Times Magazine article about Will Allen.
-Mark
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Reader Comments (4)
Great photos... and great idea. It reminds me of "Earth-ships" for some reason. Its not the same but they do a great job at utilizing resources like water and stuff. Check it out... http://www.earthship.net/
Thanks for the link, Chris. I'd never heard of earthships before. Very cool stuff.
Nice photos!Seems a great trip for you all.I haven't seen such a large farm and haven't heard about this.I will look around for more details.Keep up sharing.
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hey. thanks for this. the photos are great. i've written about what aquaponics is all about on my water sustainability blog (www.bluegranola.com) if anybody is interested in learning more.