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In Ron’s words ... What inspires me Air inspires me every day. It’s the most important thing in life and it doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Best advice Use the garden as your canvas, to tell the story you want to tell. BUCKING THE SYSTEM It was 2010 and Ron Finley was sick of the sight of the lawn on the verge in front of his home. He was sick of mowing it. Sick of picking up rubbish. Ron wanted to create something beautiful, somewhere he could seek refuge, that pleased the eye. So he ripped up the grass and planted a garden. “It became a meditation,” he recalls. “It became my solace. I was seduced by it.” But the LA authorities were not so smitten. They demanded he remove the garden, claiming the sidewalk was not his to beautify. Ron refused. They insisted. He ignored them. They issued a warrant for his arrest. “I just said ‘bring it’,” Ron recalls. “This was the second time it had happened – I’d taken it out before and I was not taking it out again. It was ridiculous – what was wrong with beautifying the verge?” Supporters rallied to Ron’s side, gathering 900 signatures on a petition. But it was the media interest that sparked change. Ron’s bid to beautify his verge and bring the community together through gardens stirred public interest. The bureaucrats buckled. Ok, they said, but you need to buy a $400 permit. “I just said ‘I want to beautify it and now I have to pay you?’” Ron says. “I didn’t have to pay them when there was trash there and I picked it up, I didn’t have to pay them to mow it. I just said, ‘no I’m not subscribing to that’.” POWER OF A MOVEMENT Ron’s stubbornness prevailed and he eventually received permission to continue his garden. But the public stand-off led to far more than a pretty verge. For Ron had realised the power of a movement. He began planting gardens – particularly vegetable patches – in unloved pieces of dirt across the neighbourhood. Other people joined in. This was an area where you had to travel half an hour to buy a piece of fresh fruit. No wonder the kids were fat, the adults were sick. Why not surpass the obstacles to healthy living by taking it into your own hands and planting your own food, Ron questioned? Why not help kids understand what real food is? Why not eat food that’s not made up of ingredients so complicated they are near impossible to pronounce? “If kids grow kale, they eat kale, if they grow tomatoes they eat tomatoes,” Ron says. A VISION SPREADS Ron dreamed of a world where everyone planted foods and started sharing their produce – I’ll give you a lettuce in return for your carrots. He dreamed of people taking their health into their own hands, and at the same time saving money, meeting neighbours and forging a sense of community. “I want to open people’s eyes,” he says. “I want kids to know that a lettuce doesn’t come out of 50 RON FINLEY
the stores. I want them to have the opportunity to make the choices they want to make. I want people to realise they don’t need meds, they need a garden.” Ron’s vision spread. Others started to plant veggie patches in median strips, along sidewalks, in vacant blocks. Soon dozens, then hundreds of gardens and veggie patches had sprung up across LA. Ron gave a TED Talk on the Gangsta Gardening movement and his vision spread still further. Soon people in other American states caught on. Before long people in the UK, Africa and Korea were taking part. LIFE IS A CANVAS So what next? “World domination,” Ron quips. “This is not about food. It’s about people. Soil is the catalyst to get people together, to change them, to let them see another way. It’s a way of getting them to see that life is a canvas and they can paint it in any way they want.” Opposite and this page, all The Gangsta Gardening movement is not only beautifying areas, but forging a new sense of community. Get involved Find out more at the Ron Finley Project www.ronfinley.com. RON FINLEY 51
Page 1 and 2: ISSUE 2, 2016 $14.95 HEALING ORPHAN
Page 3 and 4: Issue 2, December 2016 FOUNDER/WRIT
Page 5 and 6: 44 48 52 60 66 Cristal Logothetis R
Page 8 and 9: Bottom Research has proven that lov
Page 10 and 11: In Jenny’s words ... Who inspires
Page 12 and 13: Anne Carey
Page 14 and 15: EBOLA - A WORLD PROBLEM Meanwhile,
Page 16 and 17: day at the treatment centre. Or the
Page 18 and 19: If people have purpose and connect
Page 20 and 21: Leif Cocks
Page 22 and 23: Previous page A baby orangutan clin
Page 24 and 25: loggers took to the orangutan with
Page 26 and 27: Give it a crack! LUCAS PATCHETT AND
Page 28 and 29: Lucas Patchett and Nic Marchesi LAU
Page 30 and 31: “Fired up about making a differen
Page 32 and 33: In Lucas and Nic’s words ... Who
Page 34 and 35: Love Bomb Spread the love ... At In
Page 36 and 37: Anja Ringgren Loven
Page 38 and 39: Top Anja cradles Hope in a blanket
Page 40 and 41: Top Victims often need support to o
Page 42 and 43: Have the courage to be kind. ANNE C
Page 44 and 45: Cristal Logothetis
Page 46 and 47: Donations of baby carriers and fund
Page 48 and 49: Ron Finley
Page 52 and 53: Carina Hoang Carina Hoang fled Sout
Page 54 and 55: Above Carina has gone searching for
Page 56 and 57: Someone overhead them talking at th
Page 58 and 59: MAGIC LESSONS PODCAST Elizabeth Gil
Page 60 and 61: Alex Cearns
Page 62 and 63: Alex Cearns had recently started vo
Page 64 and 65: transformed. It started ‘high fiv
Page 66 and 67: Maggie Dent - Parenting educator an
Page 68 and 69: Previous page Maggie is all about e
Page 70 and 71: Above Maggie and her husband Steve.
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