Hero #048: Ron Finley … (04/16/16)
Ron Finley is a Los Angeles-based activist and proponent of urban gardening. He is perhaps best known for giving a widely viewed 2013 TED talk on guerilla gardening (link to video in first comment box below) …
Finley had success in his first career, as a fashion designer whose clothes were in Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Saks. And yet after the recession hit he was out of work. He decided to take a gardening class – and then he decided to start growing the vegetables he got tired of driving 45 minutes to find. SO he planted a small vegetable garden in the median strip between his front sidewalk and the street — an exceptionally creative, cost-effective, and simple solution, yes, and yet it was also an act of spirited rebellion that led to a run-in with the authorities. When he was later told by the city to stop gardening, instead of getting scared, Finley got inspired, and soon his “Gangsta Gardener” persona grew — along with the garden in the median strip in front of his house, and the much larger garden he planted inside his empty backyard swimming pool. He started a petition with fellow green activists, demanding the right to garden and grow food in his neighborhood, and the city eventually backed off.
Soon thereafter, he turned his newfound passion into the Ron Finley Project, a gardening training facility that has since turned into a mission: namely, to bring urban gardening not only to South Los Angeles, but to urban centers all over the entire world.
“In my neighborhood I can get alcohol faster than I can get an organic banana. Why are communities of color designed like that? Some places, you can be at a dialysis center and look down the street and see another dialysis center. You can’t tell me that’s not by design. Why aren’t you telling me how to get healthy? This is so much bigger than just the food … It ain’t about food; it’s about food justice. If you aren’t eating healthy, nutritious, vibrant food, how’s anything in your life gonna grow?” ~ Ron Finley
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