Trust AAE Speakers Bureau for Booking Top Professional Speakers. Find a Keynote Speaker Today.
Trust AAE Speakers Bureau for Booking Top Professional Speakers. Find a Keynote Speaker Today.
Will Allen

Will Allen

Keynote Speaker: Pioneer in the Urban Farming Movement, Author & Founder of Growing Power

Will Allen Biography

In his “Good Food Manifesto,” urban farmer Will Allen summarizes the short and long-term consequences of America’s current food system:

…Many vulnerable people, especially in the large cities where most of us live, in vast urban tracts where there are in fact no supermarkets, are being forced to buy cheaper and lower-quality foods, to forgo fresh fruits and vegetables, or are relying on food programs – including our children’s school food programs – that by necessity are obliged to distribute any kind of food they can afford, good for you or not. And this is coming to haunt us in health care and social costs. No, we are not suddenly starving to death; we are slowly but surely malnourishing ourselves to death. And this fate is falling ever more heavily on those who were already stressed: the poor. Yet there is little action

As the founder and CEO of Growing Power, Will Allen is a leader in the action he seeks. Growing Power was a pioneer farm and community food center located half a mile from Milwaukee’s largest housing project and four miles from the nearest grocery store.

After a career in professional basketball and corporate marketing, Allen used the money from his retirement fund to buy the farm in 1995. Growing Power developed into a thriving non-profit. In addition to its work in food production and distribution, Growing Power pioneered programs in education, youth programs, training programs for urban farmers and food activists, world-wide community outreach, and advocacy for food and environmental policy changes.

Will Allen was born on February 8, 1949. His parents and grandparents were sharecroppers in South Carolina. Eventually, Allen’s parents bought their own farm in Maryland, where he was expected to work hard along with the rest of the family. Every day, he counted down the minutes until the work was done and he was free to play basketball. When he graduated from high school, he was happy to leave farm work behind and vowed never to do hard labor again. In college, he was the first African-American basketball player at the University of Miami. After graduating, he went on to play professionally in the United States and in Europe.

It didn’t take long for Allen to realize that he missed farming. While playing professional basketball in Belgium, he asked the team owners if he could live somewhere with space for a garden. He grew food for his family and cooked for his teammates. At the end of his ten-year basketball career, he moved to Milwaukee with his wife, Cynthia, and their three children. To pay the bills, he began a new career in corporate marketing, working for Kentucky Fried Chicken and Proctor & Gamble. In the off hours, he operated a small farm that he worked with his family, growing healthy food for themselves and to sell at the farmers market. He remembered how much he dreaded farming as a youth, but he required his children work hard so they would learn the same important lessons he did.

When he retired, Allen hoped to bring farming and fresh-grown healthy food to Milwaukee’s most underserved areas. To get started, he bought Milwaukee’s last urban farm and an abandoned greenhouse. He created education and beautification programs for youth, teaching them how to make compost and grow plants. Over the years, the project grew into a flourishing Community Food Center that employed 120 people and raised 20,000 plants and vegetables, thousands of fish, and a livestock inventory of chickens, goats, ducks, rabbits, and bees. Groups that toured the facility witnessed six traditional greenhouses in addition to nine hoop houses (two of which are aquaponic), a type of greenhouse where the ceiling is built as a half-circle from one side of the building to the other. They allow for longer growing seasons by containing warmth under the hoop. There was also a worm depository, where worms are stored for making compost, an apiary with fourteen beehives, three poultry hoop houses with laying hens and ducks, outdoor pens for livestock including goats and turkeys, a composting operation that includes thirty pallet compost systems, an anaerobic digester that turned that farm’s food waste into biofuels, a rain water catchment system, and a retail store that sold produce, meat, worm castings for fertilizer, and compost to the community.

The remarkable thing is that all this fit onto a piece of land about the size of a small grocery store. After successfully building this resource for the people of Milwaukee, Allen lead workshops so people from other communities could learn how to build similarly efficient farms in their urban spaces.

Allen’s book, The Good Food Revolution, was published in 2012. Through his writing and teaching workshops, Allen spread his message to communities throughout the U.S. and the world. Growing Power opened satellite locations in Madison, Wisconsin and Chicago.

Allen’s work pioneering urban agriculture and healthy eating has been recognized with major awards and grants. In 2008, he won a $500,000 MacArthur “Genius” award for his work. He also received a $100,000 Ford Foundation leadership grant and $400,000 from the Kellogg Foundation to create jobs in urban agriculture.

Even while overseeing Growing Power’s massive farming operation, Allen still farmed his own land outside Milwaukee. He encourages anyone who wants to live a healthier life to grow their own food. It could start with a small backyard garden or a few potted plants.

Although Allen formally disbanded the Growing Power organization in 2017, his daughter Erika, cofounder and CEO of Operations for the Urban Growers Collective, is carrying on the family tradition and the work of food justice.

Allen believes that the good food revolution can and should be a multicultural effort. Still, it is particularly poignant that the son of a sharecropper turned farm work, a longstanding tool of oppression, into empowerment: “It will be an irony, certainly, but a sweet one, if millions of African-Americans whose grandparents left the farms of the South for the factories of the North, only to see those factories close, should now find fulfillment in learning once again to live close to the soil and to the food it gives to all of us.”

Contact a speaker booking agent to check availability on Will Allen and other top speakers and celebrities.

Will Allen Speaking Topics

The Good Food Revolution

Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities

Will Allen Videos

Will Allen - Keynote Address - Common Ground Country Fair - 2016
Will Allen & Kate Duesterberg Keynote
Will Allen On Urban Farming

How do I book Will Allen to speak at my event?

Our experienced booking agents have successfully helped clients around the world secure speakers like Will Allen for speaking engagements, personal appearances, product endorsements, or corporate entertainment since 2002. Click the Check Schedule button above and complete the form on this page to check availability for Will Allen, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to discuss your upcoming event. One of our experienced agents will be happy to help you get speaking fee information and check availability for Will Allen or any other speaker of your choice.

How much does it cost to book Will Allen for a speaking engagement?

Speaking fees for Will Allen, or any other speakers and celebrities, are determined based on a number of factors and may change without notice. The estimated fees to book Will Allen are $10,000 - $20,000 for live events and $10,000 - $20,000 for virtual events. For the most current speaking fee to hire Will Allen, click the Check Schedule button above and complete the form on this page, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to speak directly with an experienced booking agent.

What topics does Will Allen speak about?

Will Allen is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics such as Environment, Agriculture, Authors, Food & Beverage, Nutrition, Health, Creativity, Environmental Science, Science, Sustainability, Earth Day, Animals & Wildlife, Conservation and Environmental Activism.

Where does Will Allen travel from?

Will Allen generally travels from Milwaukee, WI, USA and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances.

Who is the agent for Will Allen?

AAE Speakers Bureau has successfully secured keynote speakers like Will Allen for clients worldwide since 2002. As a full-service speaker booking agency, we have access to virtually any speaker or celebrity in the world. Our agents are happy and able to submit an offer to the speaker or celebrity of your choice, letting you benefit from our reputation and long-standing relationships in the industry. Please click the Check Schedule button above and complete the form on this page including the details of your event, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536, and one of our agents will assist you to book Will Allen for your next private or corporate function.

What is a full-service speaker booking agency?

AAE Speakers Bureau is a full-service speaker booking agency, meaning we can completely manage the speaker’s or celebrity’s engagement with your organization from the time of booking your speaker through the event’s completion. We provide all of the services you need to host Will Allen or any other speaker of your choice, including offer negotiation, contractual assistance, accounting and billing, and event speaker travel and logistics services. When you book a speaker with us, we manage the process of hosting a speaker for you as an extension of your team. Our goal is to give our clients peace of mind and a best-in-class service experience when booking a speaker with us.

Why is AAE Speakers Bureau different from other booking agencies?

If you’re looking for the best speaker recommendations, paired with a top-notch customer service experience, you’re in the right place. At AAE Speakers Bureau, we exclusively represent the interests of our clients - professional organizations, companies, universities, and associations. We intentionally do not represent the speakers we feature or book. That is so we can present our clients with the broadest and best performing set of speaker options in the market today, and we can make these recommendations without any obligation to promote a specific speaker over another. This is why when our agents suggest a speaker for your event, you can be assured that they are of the highest quality with a history of proven success with our other clients.


Will Allen is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics including Environment, Agriculture and Authors. The estimated speaking fee range to book Will Allen for live events is $10,000 - $20,000, and for virtual events $10,000 - $20,000. Will Allen generally travels from Milwaukee, WI, USA and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Sarah Frey, Gary Hirshberg and Jasmine Crowe-Houston. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling Will Allen for an upcoming event.

Will Allen Speaking Topics

  • The Good Food Revolution

    Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities

Will Allen Videos

Will Allen - Keynote Address - Common Ground Country Fair - 2016
Will Allen & Kate Duesterberg Keynote
Will Allen On Urban Farming
Urban Farmer Starting His Own Revolution
Will Allen Keynote Urban and Small Farm Conference, Growing ...

Will Allen News

BOOKING INFORMATION REQUEST
WILL ALLEN

We are happy to assist you with your interest in booking a speaker or celebrity for your event, your organization, and the type of talent you would like to secure, and an agent will be in touch shortly.

Fill out the form below to or call us at 1-800-698-2536 if need immediate assistance.

Tell us about your event!

We respond to most inquiries within 4 hours. Under special circumstances, it may take up to 24 hours.


This website is a resource for event professionals and strives to provide the most comprehensive catalog of thought leaders and industry experts to consider for speaking engagements. A listing or profile on this website does not imply an agency affiliation or endorsement by the talent.

All American Entertainment (AAE) exclusively represents the interests of talent buyers, and does not claim to be the agency or management for any speaker or artist on this site. AAE is a talent booking agency for paid events only. We do not handle requests for donation of time or media requests for interviews, and cannot provide celebrity contact information.