Will Allen

...Is a badass.  Elizabeth Royte, who went to Bard College and wrote Garbage Land and Bottlemania, wrote an article in the NY Times about him.  My friends who have been studying and practicing in environmentalism fields for awhile say Allen has gotten extremely popular recently and that he did not ask for it; I owe my knowledge of him to this craze.  He is just a guy on a mission that is now getting press.

The article talks about his recent grants from well known foundations.  "So no, Growing Power isn’t self-sufficient. But neither is industrial agriculture, which relies on price supports and government subsidies."  This is an odd comparison to me.  Royte is saying that industrial ag. and Will Allen are on the same playing field because neither source of food can support itself financially.  Earlier in the article she reported that the Kellogg Foundation gave him $400,000 this year.  Kelloggs!  A company that makes billions off of the fossil fuel driven, subsidy driven industry of cheap corn production is giving a minute fraction of their profits to this man.  However, the story that interests me is scarcely reported.  To what extent did Allen start his company without grants?  When did the grants come in?  Why does he need to rely on the profits of extractive industry to fund his mission?  It sounds like he just reached out to the community for volunteers and grew lots of good food by harnessing the energy of ecological systems.

  

To what extent has he created community wealth, health, and education with his personal confidence and wisdom?