There’s a move afoot to spread urban farming and its healthful benefits to folks without their own plots for planting.
Will Allen is gaining national attention for Growing Power, a Milwaukee program that’s growing food in the city for 10,000 urbanites (including schools and low-cost market baskets delivered to neighborhood drop off points); trains want-to-be growers in the ways of intensive farming on small plots; turns organic waste into rich soil; and employs local residents, including some from public-housing project.
His inspiring efforts were profiled in a great piece in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. For Allen, it’s about more than helping the environment by supporting organic, local foods. For him, it’s also a matter of equality. Low-income city ‘hoods tend to have limited access to good grocery stores and are dominated by fast-food restaurants and convenience stores, creating what Allen calls a “food desert.”
As Allen told the NYT:
“It’s a form of redlining. We’ve got to change the system so everyone has safe, equitable access to healthy food.”
via Worldchanging: Bright Green: Urban Farming Takes Root in Surprising Ways.
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