Q. There was a lot of controversy about the million-dollar gift Growing Power accepted from Walmart last year. Do you want to talk about that?
A. First off, that money came from the Walton Foundation — many companies have a separate foundation — like Kellogg’s and the W.K. Kellogg foundation. The Walton Foundation has done some good things. And there was some misunderstanding about the gift, because we actually passed on that funding to organizations around the country that were really struggling and need training and resources to be able to move forward.
I worked for a large corporate company and, believe me, you can always find many things you don’t agree with. But I think we need to really change our attitudes when it comes to getting everyone to the table. Because the reality is that Walmart delivers a great deal of the food in this country and we need to get our local food into their stores.
It’s easy to look at things in an idealistic way — but if you’re working with people in a disadvantaged community, you know the situation is dire.
Many insurance companies that we use today were the biggest supporters of slavery. So are we going to go back and say we’re not going to do business with you because we supported slavery?
I think we have to be more open if we’re going to change our food system — because this is really about our basic survival. People are getting sicker and sicker every day. The latest estimation I saw was that by 2030, 42 percent of Americans will be obese. We have the greatest resources of any nation in the world, so why is one out of six young people going to bed tonight without a meal? You go to native reservations and 50 percent of the folks have diabetes. So we have these terrible problems that are leading to our demise. And while it’s easy to complain, people need to jump off their computers, get out in their communities, and do something about it.
Q. Back to those early days of your project. Do you have any advice for those who are in debt and making their way through the early stages of an ambitious project?
A. You really have to have patience. It takes a long time to learn to farm. And it takes a long time to build an organization.
I hope [Growing Power] can cut the learning curve by passing on the lessons I’ve learned. I was naïve in ways. I didn’t even have a business plan. I bought a piece of property when I was still under-capitalized, and then I had broken boilers and buried gas tanks, etc., to deal with. But I was just so excited to get the property; excitement can blind you.
Growing Power has spawned a lot of similar projects around the country. More people under 40 want to do this work than they did 10 or 20 years ago. They have great ideas. But our responsibility as elders is to pass on what we’ve learned to this next generation, and that’s basically what I’m doing — trying to hand off as much as I can before I’m back on the farm, so to say.
