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I I i state was eager to sell the property for upscale housing. A grassroots community effort, in which Kaufman participated, recently persuaded the state to maintain a significant portion of the site for gardening while allowing a dense cluster of cottages for mixed- income owners. In the summer of 2000, Kaufman and his colleague Martin Bailkey released a report called Farming Inside Cities: Entrepre- neurial Urban Agriculture in the United States. Funded by the Lin- coln Institute of Land Policy, the report expresses a vision "where many of the vacant lots in lower - income neighborhoods are transformed into working farms —where inner -city residents grow food in the soil, in raised planting beds, or in green- houses, then market their produce at farmers' markets, to local restaurants, or to city and suburban residents eager for fresh, locally grown food." Kaufman sees American cities of the future where inner -city youth, who might otherwise have felt disaffected, can work intimately with the soil and nature. "This is my vision, based on my optimism," he said. "But at this point, realism would say, `Show me.' ' S ITS TRUE COSTS HAVE BECOME evident, the culture of the post -World War II era that brought suburban development patterns to rural areas — and gave us fast food, strip malls; pop - up residential communities, and six- lane highways —has come under question. In Fast Food Nation, writer Eric Schlosser shows how juggernauts like McDonald's have often been the "shock troops of sprawl, landing early and pointing the way." McDonald's and similar multinational corporations have also caught increasing flak from the antiglobalization movement in recent years. Young people in particular have resisted the disconnection of a world in which one generally has no idea where, and under what conditions, one's shoes and food are produced. "Communities should increase their self - reliance on local resources, workers, and capital," says activist Michael Shuman in his book Going Local, "fully appreciating that they cannot unplug from the global economy altogether." The impulse that drives the localization movement underlies the aspirations of socially conscious urban farming enterprises known as "community- supported agriculture" projects, in which farming operations and local consumers pledge mutual help and share the risks and fruits of food production. "Most people think that rural areas are there to produce the food while urban areas are there to consume it," says Will Allen, who with Hope Finkelstein runs a Milwaukee organization called Growing Power. "We're trying to demonstrate that on a community level you can control the production, marketing, and distribution of food while also strengthening your community." Allen stands at a hulking six feet seven inches but emanates preternatural gentleness. He played professional basketball in 62 PRESERVATION Belgium as a young man, then worked as a corporate manager for Kentucky Fried Chicken and a salesman for Procter & Gam- ble before returning to his parents' occupation of farming. He became dismayed by the rise of such agricultural conglom- erates as ConAgra, Iowa Beef Packers, and J.R. Simplot, which he thinks increasingly neglect environmental concerns while placing significant financial pressures on the farmers who serve them —even as corporate coffers grow. In 1993, he bought a two -acre plot with five greenhouses in a working - class neighborhood that used to be part of the flower - growing district in northwest Milwaukee. He has since renovated four of the greenhouses and turned them and a back lot into the last farm within the city. Fish, worms, chickens, and scores of crops all have taken up residence. Some of the food grown here is sold at a stand out front. A massive composting operation uses food waste from local supermarkets. At afterschool and summer programs, children learn horticulture skills they can use to establish com- munity gardens in their own neighborhoods. Each week, Allen and Finkelstein also sell boxes of seasonal local produce priced at $10 to sub- scribers in central -city neighborhoods. 0 O WILL ALLEN, MILWAUKEE Growing Power, a nonprofit umbrella _ organization, is funded partially from the farm's sales and mostly from grants and contributions, though the group is working toward self - sufficiency. Finkel- stein sees such local food systems as a x s= " - k.. _ .��. ° _A�.J yam.' t �' > . 2i. �. x . i � , v� A�l - _; , �...'..�...�.��./�_ -`� ;t._�,�. CYO �:1,.1.h _,ji., o:✓ x s= " - k.. _ .��. ° _A�.J yam.' t �' > . 2i. �. x . i � , v�