Growing Power, Inc. | urban-gardens-rev

Growing Power, Inc. [Click graphics to watch videos]

Will Allen is the founder and CEO of Growing Power, Inc. in Milwaukee which he started in 1993 (and now has an outlet run by his daughter in Chicago). The book Food and the City describes Allen as “undeniably the world’s biggest urban-farming celebrity”.

Allen is not just a prolific urban farmer, but a technology innovator who is pioneering not only in gardening, but in raising fish, the use of worms, and solar energy. He's also a teacher on a world scale. The videos below show how comprehensive Allen's vision is for the future. Allen is a uniter of people from all walks of life even as he calls for a far-reaching revolution.

Allen's aquaponic system allows plants, fish, and worms to work together to support each other and feed the community. As he point outs, this is a "grassroots revolution". Violent revolutions that pit one class or race against another often fail in various ways. However, the urban garden revolution is a an Evolution that is based on love -- love of food, the land, other species, health, clean water, other peoples, and protecting the coming generations. There is no one to fight. Everyone is invited because it's good for everyone. Allen is helping all people -- including Native Americans and people around the world.

Growing Power uses Tilapia and Yellow Perch in its aquaponics systems because they are relatively easy to raise and because they can market them to restaurants, and market basket customers. Yellow Perch, a favorite in the area, are in short supply. Lake Michigan’s Yellow Perch numbers have decreased 80% since 1990. Wisconsin banned commercial fishing for Yellow Perch in Lake Michigan in 1997. Allen says that he can sell as many Yellow Perch as he can grow.

By using gravity as a transport, water is drained from the fish tank into a gravel bed. Here, beneficial bacteria break down the toxic ammonia in fish waste to Nitrite and then to Nitrogen, a key nutrient for plant development. On the gravel bed, they also use watercress as a secondary means of water filtration. The filtered water is pumped from the gravel bed to the growing beds, where they raise a variety of crops from specialty salad greens to tomatoes. Finally, the water flows from the growing beds back into the tank of fish. Growing Power uses this type of aquaponics system because it is easy to build and only needs a small pump and heat to get the system running.