One Man’s Way to Save the World

I read a story at the end of the day, handed to me by editor Steve Hartshorne. This is a great way to end the day, to read about Will Allen and how he thinks we can save the world. It starts with his ‘small but remarkable’ farm in the city limits of North Milwaukee. He grows a huge bounty of vegetables and raises livestock; goats, chickens, turkeys, ducks and bees. Neal Peirce wrote a column about it in the Gazette.

He advocates and has been successfully propogating the idea that urban, year-round indoor farming in greenhouses is a key to making it work. They generate heat in his greenhouses by composting. The result is heat that pours forth from the decomposing bio wood chips. coffee grinds and other trash. They sell fertilizer featuring the important handiwork of the worm, castings that are the most valuable part of the mix.

Fish is another food that Allen believes we should be growing like mad. Thousands of perch and tilapia live in the bottom layer of his green houses, in an interlocking system with filtering micro greens. An inspiring tale for anyone who ever wondered how self-sustainable we might ever be able to be.