Ron Finley: The “Gangsta Gardner”…..he plants food and gardens in vacant lots in South Central L.A.- The GAIA Health Blog

Ron Finley: The “Gangsta Gardner”…..he plants food and gardens in vacant lots in South Central L.A.

On 09.25.13 • In Eat Smart, Featured Articles • by Doug Wallace

“Growing your own food is like printing your own money” –Ron Finley

“FOOD IS THE PROBLEM, FOOD IS THE SOLUTION!!!”, Says Ron Finley, a.k.a. the “Gansta Gardner” of South Central Los Angeles.

The story in one sentence…Ron started planting gardens and growing food in vacant lots all over South Central Los Angeles, which I’m sure most of us know…”South Central ain’t Beverly Hills”

Now he has “human waves” of volunteers, Black, White, Hispanics, young people, old people….. and they are starting a FOOD REVOLUTION!!!

I don’t want to write much, because I’m sooooooooo inspired!!! I have a ten minute video of Ron speaking and although I know most us only “skim” blog articles like this and skip the embedded video, WATCH THE VIDEO, IT WILL INSPIRE YOU AND MOTIVATE YOU.

This post will thus only be select quotes from the video embedded below and some of the Gangsta Gardener’s “Garden Graffiti”…………

Ron Finley Quotes from the video embedded below

“I got tired of driving 45 minutes to get an apple that was impregnated with pesticides”.

“LA leads the USA in vacant lots. That’s 20 Central Parks (New York). That’s enough space to plant 725,000,000 tomato plants”

“I grew up there , I raised my sons there. I refused to be part of this manufactured reality…I manufactured my own reality”

“I’m an artist…gardening is my graffiti, I grow my art”

“I use the soil like it’s a piece of cloth……you be surprised what the soil can do if you let it be your canvas”

“To change a community, you have to change the composition of the soil…we are the soil”

“You’ll be surprised how kids can be affected by this”

“It made me ashamed to see people this close to me that were hungry, and it reinforced why I do this”

(When asked “aren’t you afraid people are gonna steal your food?”) “Hell no I ain’t afraid, that’s why it’s on the street!!!!!”

“I want people to take it [the food], but at the same time, I want them to take back their health”

“If kids grow kale, they eat kale!!!! If kids grow tomatoes, they eat tomatoes!!!!” But if none of this is presented to them, they blindly eat whatever the hell you put in front of them”

“With gardening, I see an opportunity to train these kids, to have a sustainable life…”

“The funny thing about sustainability, you have to sustain it………”

“We gotta flip the script on what a ‘gangster’ is…..if you ain’t a gardener….you ain’t gangsta’ “

“If you want to meet with me, don’t call me if you wanna meet with me, and talk about doing some s%$#it, if you wanna meet with me, come to the gardens with a shovel,….AND PLANT SOME S@$%IT!!!”

I thought today would be just another generic day…..but my spirit got ignited!!!!

……after watching this first video below, I think the heavenly powers are finally revealing to me what they want me to do with my passion and obsession for health, wellness, and a holistic lifestyle

Ron Finley’s site can be found here at RonFinley.com

~stay healthy~

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check out all my articles in
“Sustainable Gardening, Eating, Living…..”
(…..and all that jaz”)

Doug Wallace

6 Responses

Patricia

02.08.14

WHOA. I had heard this gentleman before on NPR. He is definitely gangsta. Thanks so much for posting this. I am inspired. I'm going to plant some shit.

Doug Wallace

02.08.14

Thanks for commenting, I am so rarely inspired, but he inspired me immensely as well. ~stay healthy~

Andre Bouldin

04.25.20

I’m with you I’m going to plant some s*** to to be able to eat organically from home the best thing ever

Doug Wallace

04.25.20

Ron Finley Kinda looks a like you Dre….

Doug at GAIA Health Blog….

Lory

05.14.20

Doug, what an amazing story! Thanks for sharing. Guess it’s time to plant something.

Doug Wallace

05.14.20

Hi Lory,

Yeah I had one a few years back, because I worked out of town, I couldn’t take care of of. I’m gonna get it started back up but next fall and winter because spinach and other of my favorites love the cool rainy weather of Seattle Winters.

My boy Ron Finley was the guy who got me started. And his perspective makes a hell of a lot more sense in this Coronavirus Crisis in 2020, because it’s obvious that people are gonna have to learn to start growing their own food and taking better care of themselves (well, at least obvious to some…)

Ron Finley made me wanna be a Hip-Hop Gardener. Cant Wait to shoot my Gardening-cooking videos in my crib down in the Caribbean. That’s the dream!!!!

I wrote a few articles on my garden, here is one of them….

https://www.gaiahealthblog.com/2015/07/25/the-garden-of-eatin-episode-5/

Doug at GAIA Health Blog

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