学进去

One day, while Will Allen was driving home from work, he spotted a For Sale sign on the last remaining farm in the city of Milwaukee. The place was small, only two acres (英亩), just a few greenhouses on a plot of land. An idea flashed through Will’s head. He could grow food here, without using chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

Will hired some neighborhood teenagers to help him get started. Their first job was to “grow” new soil by composting(堆肥).Will collected different kinds of food waste and piled it up until it rotted(腐烂) and turned into soil. Then he spread layers of worms between layers of compost. Amazingly, this worm poop(粪便) makes the best fertilizer in the world. With the preparations made, Will started growing food.

Today, years later, Growing Power Community Food Center becomes a strikingly productive model farm, growing enough food to feed 2,000 people on just two acres in the middle of a city. As Will’s organization, Growing Power, expands gradually, he hires more people and opens an office to manage three city farms. Will and his staff teach young people how to grow more than 150 varieties of vegetables. They also run garden projects in schools, where kids learn the basics of growing food and then get to farm their own plots. Will also travels across the world to help people grow food more efficiently.

“We’re in a worldwide food crisis right now,” Will says. “A lot of people are hungry. We need to grow food everywhere we can—in backyards, on rooftops, and even in buildings. Will’s vision for the city farm of the future is a multi-storied building, angled toward the sun. This idea, called” vertical farming”, is a new way to help feed more people.

“Growing food is powerful,” he says. “It can change the world!”