Erika Allen is the founder and CEO of Urban Growers Collective, a Black and women-led 501(c)3 nonprofit based in Chicago that cultivates nourishing environments that support health, economic development, healing and creativity through urban agriculture.
The Packer: Congratulations. What does this recognition mean to you as someone working in the urban farming space?
Allen: It means so much because I think there’s still a disconnect between where food is grown and where it can be grown — and how deeply involved women are in all forms of agriculture. So, it means a lot to be able to be doing this work for 25 years in Chicago and seeing it expanding to not just urban communities, but peri-urban and rural communities, and that people are seeing the need for and importance of growing food for people directly and building local food systems, really connecting and building culture around food.
Urban agriculture often operates on a different scale with different goals than conventional farming. How do you see your work contributing to the broader produce industry, whether through community food access, innovation, sustainability, etc.?
The work I do with Urban Growers Collective started first with education, then focused on supply, growing enough to be able to sell and growing enough to be able to connect young people with the idea of revenue from produce. Now we’re at the point where we’re growing into procurement, so we’re becoming large enough where we are developing procurement channels. I’m part of a national fund, Growing Justice, where we’re supporting funding infrastructure for urban and rural farms that are entering into the wholesale, the packing, the supply chain and contributing to the supply because the supply chain is critical.
So, whether it’s small-scale, having a garden on the block that can feed folks if grocery prices go up, or a larger-scale business that is able to support a staff, we’ll be able to supply our local wholesalers with a consistent local supply of produce seasonally, and then eventually be able to do vertical farming.
What advice do you have for other women interested in farming or food justice?
My advice is this: Make sure this is something you’re passionate about, because it’s a lot of work. Find a mentor. Find a farm, a farmer who is doing the kind of work that you want to be doing, and apprentice, learn under them. It takes a long time to become a farmer.
I was lucky that I grew up on a farm, so I knew how to farm. Even so, I had to go back and learn under my dad — relearn things. I had a foundation, so I was able to quickly absorb information, then I had to practice, innovate and practice more.
Even if you take classes or already know how to do a few things, you’re always learning as a farmer. Farmers are humble, and when we lead in that way, we learn so much from the earth, from nature. Nature will always humble us. But finding that farmer who is willing to teach — most of us are willing and excited to have young people come to us who really want to learn, because it’s a lineage. We can’t do it forever, and while we’re in it, we want to pass on our knowledge.
So, my advice is to find a good mentor, learn by doing, understand the business plan and what your economic needs are. If you need to make half a million dollars a year, then this is probably not something you want to go into from scratch. You most likely want to look at more of a corporate type of approach or some other kind of approach. You can, of course, make a lot of money farming, but it is definitely a career pathway that requires training, planning, capital and land.
The act of farming and being able to participate directly in markets is something that’s healing and powerful at whatever scale. Just get involved.
Read more about The Packer’s 2025 Women in Produce:
- Rebeckah Freeman Adcock — vice president of U.S. government relations, International Fresh Produce Association
- Lori Bigras — communications manager, Ocean Mist Farms
- Kelly Hale — vice president of sales and marketing, Highline Mushrooms
- Angela Hernandez — Vice president of marketing, Trinity Fruit Co.
- Kristyn Lawson — president and CEO, Preferred Sales and Marketing
- Tina Lee — CEO, T&T Supermarket
- Robin Narron — marketing director and sales support, Nash Produce
