GROWING POWER

I went to Mound Bayou, Mississippi, this weekend to attend a conference by Mississippi's Sustainable Agriculture Working Group. The keynote speaker was Will Allen, pictured above. Allen is a former basketball player and businessman who now works full time at Growing Power, a nonprofit that he founded. He's one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people, and he's also involved in the White House campaign to fight childhood obesity and bring better food to schools.

From their website: Growing Power is a national nonprofit organization and land trust supporting people from diverse backgrounds, and the environments in which they live, by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities. Growing Power implements this mission by providing hands-on training, on-the-ground demonstration, outreach and technical assistance through the development of Community Food Systems that help people grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable manner.

Check out their website to see all the good work they're doing with youth, teaching them values of hard work, sustainable agriculture, and food justice.