Will Allen
An urban farmer who is transforming the planning, cultivation, production and delivery of organic, healthy food to urban and rural populations. As the son of a southern sharecropper and former professional basketball player, ex-corporate sales leader and longtime farmer, he is recognized as a national/international leader in urban and rural agriculture and food policy.
After a career in professional basketball and a number of years in corporate sales and marketing at Proctor & Gamble, Will returned to his roots as a farmer in 1993 and purchased the last remaining registered farm in the City of Milwaukee, where he established and functions as farmer, Founder and CEO of the world’s preeminent urban farm and for-profit organization Will’s Roadside Farms & Markets.
In 2008, Allen was a John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow and “genius grant” winner. In 2010, Time Magazine name Allen to its list of 100 World’s Most Influential People. A member of the Clinton Global Initiative, he was invited to the White House and to join First Lady Michelle Obama in launching “Let’s Move!” – her signature leadership program to reverse the epidemic of childhood obesity in America. In 2010, Allen received the Key to the City of Milwaukee, presented by Mayor TomBarrett. In 2011, Allen received The James Beard Award. In 2015, he was selected to the National Organic Standards Boards’ Hydroponic/Aquaponic USDA Taskforce. Allen also attended the Milan Expo 2015 in Italy as part of the U.S. Professional Delegation led by First Lady Michelle Obama. In 2016, the Good Food Award was given to Lakefront Brewery’s Growing Power Farmhouse Pale Ale.
Allen’s autobiography, The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People and Communities (C. Random House, Penguin/Gotham Books) was published in 2012 and received the Silver Medal Award from Axiom Business Books. The book was nominated for Outstanding Literary Word for a NAACP Image Award in 2013. The Good Food Revolution is being used as a college textbook across the nation