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New Departures
Food & Agriculture, Social Justice
Erika Allen is Chicago Projects Manager for Growing Power, a nationally acclaimed non-profit organization and land trust providing equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe, and affordable food, especially in disadvantaged communities. She helps food producers of limited resources strengthen their farm businesses and work in partnerships to create healthy and diverse food options in inner city and rural communities.
Erika and her father, Growing Power founder Will Allen, have recently received significant attention for their work, including a feature article in The New York Times Magazine. Erika is co-chair of the Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council, and was appointed by Governor Pat Quinn in 2008 to the Illinois Local and Organic Food and Farm Task Force. In 2007 she was honored by Family Focus for her work in community food systems, and in 2006 she received the Good Eating Award from the Chicago Tribune. Erika has a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MA in art therapy from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Post Carbon Fellow Erika Allen speaks on two innovations developing at Growing Power projects in Chicago and Milwaukee.
Post carbon Fellow Erika Allen, Chicago Projects Manager for Growing Power, a nationally acclaimed non-profit and land trust that provides equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe, and affordable food, joins ZOOM’D to explore the concept of “urban farming.” The goal is to convert vacant plots of land in underused parts of our cities into productive farms. As our population grows exponentially, our resources for growing food—including oil (for fuel), gas (for fertilizer), fresh water, and topsoil—are rapidly depleting around the world. How do we grow food-resilient communities, and how do we do this in disadvantaged communities? This conversation with Erika points to the potential at hand, with Chicago’s urban farming community as a model for the rest of the nation and world to consider. This episode begins a ZOOM’D focus on food and resilience, to be continued with a variety of topics over coming months.
In an effort to broaden the conversation about the horrific Gulf Coast oil spill, nine Fellows of the Post Carbon Institute offer their perspectives on largely underreported aspects and outcomes of the disaster. ERIKA … >>
EXCERPT: The idea of a community food system is much larger than just urban farming. It deals with everything, all the components that are needed to establish, maintain, and perpetually sustain a civilization. Urban … >>
How do population, water, energy, food, and climate issues impact one another? What can we do to address one problem without making the others worse? The Post Carbon Reader features essays by some of the world’s most … >>
Post Carbon Fellow Erika Allen was featured in this post on the challenges around food education and distribution in the US. From the article: Erika Allen, who runs the Iron Street Urban Farm, also spoke at the lunch. … >>
Richard Heinberg explains why we've hit the end of economic growth as we've known it, and what life can be like after growth.
what is pci?Founded in 2003, Post Carbon Institute is leading the transition to a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable world. The Institute has gathered 29 of the world's leading experts on a wide range of interdependent social and scientific issues.
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