>>Ron Finley: Good morning. >>> Good morning.
>>Ron Finley: I really don't smell enough estrogen in this room.
[ Laughter ] >>Ron Finley: I really think we need to do
something about that. [ Cheers and applause ]
>>Ron Finley: And also, did anybody get this Google swag bag for the speakers? Because
I know -- I just knew they were going to compensate us with, you know, Google Glass and, you know,
Chrome Cast and, you know, the new wood phone, but I swear the stuff I got looked like the
stuff that's in the bathroom. You know, the toothpaste --
[ Laughter ] >>Ron Finley: Anybody -- no, really. Anybody?
I guess it's just me. [ Laughter ]
>>Ron Finley: I was raised in South Central, so I'm going to give you guys just a little
glimpse, you know, of my life, you know, what's happening there.
South Central is a place where it's easier to find a dialysis center than a supermarket
that serves food that's not impregnated with GMOs.
So it was some old dead white guy once said --
[ Laughter ] >>Ron Finley: -- "The land turns to gold in
the hands of the wise." I'm here to say everything's connected. Everything.
The frogs, the trees, the butterflies, you, me. Even that crazy-looking guy over there.
[ Laughter ] >>Ron Finley: Everything.
We all breathe the same air. We drink the same water. But yet we all share different
life experiences. Some people have never had the opportunity
to experience life that wasn't dictated to them by an unjust system. They live life with
limitations with invisible boundaries, unable to see the full spectrum of their spirit due
to the lack of exposure. Basically, I call these empty lots.
If a plant needs sunshine or water and it doesn't get it, it ceases to exist.
If a child has no access to healthy food or nourishing food, they cease to evolve.
We have to change this. No matter -- you can't -- I don't care how
much technology you throw at these kids. No amount of technology is going to ever fix
that, if they're hungry. I don't care how many computers you give them.
If they're hungry, it's worthless, so technology is going to do nothing.
These kids have no idea how their life is being deprived. They attend schools that are
nothing less than incubators for the prison system, the prison industrial complex. They're
fed food from the agro-industrial complex that will guarantee them membership into the
medical industrial complex, and they will get a pill for the rest of their lives.
Why are we allowing -- why are we sitting around allowing this to happen? We have the
power to change that. Maybe that convenient food that they're eating
is really not that convenient, because sooner or later they're going to pay. Sooner or later
we're all going to pay. Our inner cities and schools are under siege.
They're being occupied, terrorized by cheap fast food.
Food is the problem and food is the solution. I feel the school system needs to be demolished.
Children are not supposed to be in classrooms all day. Most are Tactile. They learn by doing,
not by listening. I was one of those -- I was -- I am one of
those kids. See, I'm dyslexic and I'm an artist, which is -- that's a recipe for failure in
the education system as we know it today. I couldn't read. Well, I -- I couldn't read
as well as, you know, most people. That made it real hard for me in school.
There was -- but I found out there wasn't nothing wrong with me. It was the way they
were teaching me with this spandex-pants, one-size-fits-all education system that we
have. Like I said, we all have different life experiences
but just like 26.5 million other Americans, I live in a food desert. Well, let me change
that. I live in a food prison. Okay? Because that's basically what it amounts to.
So what do I do? I grow food on the streets of South Central Los Angeles, which that made
me a criminal. And what I wanted to do, I wanted my neighborhood to -- I wanted people
to see, I wanted people to realize you can grow your own food. Your health is your responsibility.
It's not your Momma's, it's not your doctor's, not the chick down the street. Your health
is your responsibility. So with this food growing on my parkway, somebody,
one of the neighbors, complained. So I wound up -- the City came down on me and gave me
a warrant. Does anybody know anything about what I do?
Raise your hand. I want to see the three people in the room.
(laughing). So with this warrant, it was some beautiful
things happened. So the moral of that story is embrace your haters, because they make
you famous. [ Laughter ]
[ Applause ] >>Ron Finley: Fast forward. So the city council,
they vote 15 to zero to vote against to let people plant on their parkways. This is a
vision of -- this is a version of my parkway. This is a little girl from down the street,
just like the essence of life to me. I mean, she's just beautiful, and she's like, "Where's
this? What is this? Where did this come from? Who's your mother? Where's your mother?" And
it was like -- and her dad was like, "Shhh, don't." And I said, "No, that's who she is."
I mean, this girl is gonna run a country, you know, at one point. That's why we need
more estrogen in this room, dude. [ Applause ]
And also, the city -- now I've got the city council behind me, I've got the mayor behind
me. They want me to partner with them to bring more green spaces to Los Angeles, and community
gardens. So back in February, I did this Ted Talk which
was instrumental in spreading my gospel about global gardening.
We now have children in Austin, Texas all the way to India who are call themselves gangsta
gardeners, you know? And letting their shovels be their weapons to change their life, their
communities. And that's what we want to happen. Some empty lots, they don't start out like
that. Some are created. I was an empty lot. Most
start out with everything they need to prosper. You know, good water, good soil, and a gardener
to watch over it. The best thing you can do for an empty lot
is to have the gardener's shadow on it. I'm a gardener. Gardening is my graffiti.
I grow my art. Just like a graffiti artist paints a canvas,
I use the soil as my canvas. And I give the plants -- I cultivate the soil to give the
seed what it needs to grow. And it blossoms into something beautiful that can inspire.
What I found is it took Alice Waters Foundation, it took them $750,000 to figure out that if
kids grow kale, kids eat kale. Why didn't they give me that damn money?
[ Laughter ] I'm serious. Really?
Plants want to live, just like -- just like kids, but they adapt to their environment.
Just like kids want to live also. But if you place a kid in a dangerous, unhealthy environment,
devoid of green spaces or affirming stabilities, where all they see from birth is violence
and despair, and then we have -- the magic happens. Then at every turn they're assaulted
by these savvy food companies who hire these brilliant marketing firms, who make up these
wonderful campaigns, that seduce them into eating dead, processed, unhealthy, unfood
products that is delicious and addictive at the same time, how the hell do you expect
these kids to go out and be something else besides ADD? How do you expect them to -- then
you sit them in a room and expect them to excel? It ain't gonna to happen. That's why
we have hypertension, Type II diabetes, lack of opportunity. That's a disease where I'm
from. I don't think so.
Gardening is a gateway. Gardening is a metaphor for life. All of life happens in the garden.
I've seen people's perspective change from being in the garden. I've seen -- my garden
has become a tool for the transformation, a tool for the education, a tool for the emancipation
of my neighborhood. I've seen the soil seduce men, women and children
alike. And this thing about nature, where we have
this discord, where, oh, we're going to get in a car and we're going to go see nature.
We're nature. Look in the mirror. We need to realize that we decompose just
like soil. Nature is not something you get in the car and go to see. There should be
gardens, there should be gardens with schools in them, not schools with gardens in them.
The lesson happens in the garden. All of life happens in the garden. So what are we doing
with the Ron Finley Project? We're changing that. We want to bring a bounty of art, love,
education, and healthy food into these neighborhoods around the world where we're turning shipping
containers and making them into places where that have active, living gardens on-site.
I'm working with Alice Waters right now and we're working on this diabolical plan to take
over the world. [ Laughter ]
Huey P. Newton once said, "My fear was not of death itself but of death without meaning."
My fear is a life without meaning, a life without happiness, a life without art, a life
where I'm not able to express my spirit. People need to be inspired to rise up, to stand up,
to lift up so they can live up to a higher calling.
The same old white guy from earlier, he said educate and inform the whole mass of people
for they are the sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. His name just happened to
be Thomas Jefferson. So let us inspire. So let us be the inspiration
that lights the fire in their souls. My message is simple. Just plant some shit.
[ Laughter ] [ Applause ]
>>Ron Finley: I've run out of time so I've got to conclude this, I'm sorry.
[ Laughter ] It's time to be active, to leave your comfort
zone, change the game. Bring forth situations and solutions that -- and systems that will
flip the paradigm on its ass. Our country claims to be the greatest, the strongest,
the most developed in the world, so let's make it this. Let's make this country what
it claims to be. Let's make it the greatest. Let's not have
one of the sickest developed nations on the planet. Let us not have babies dying in the
street. Let us not raise our kids to go to prison, but to live engaging, inspiring lives.
Let us stop missing out on brilliance, no matter what color it is, no matter where it
comes from. We must give people a chance to blossom, to
shine, to give back to mother Earth. We -- We are all connected. There are empty
lots all around you. So ask yourself, how can I fill this empty
lot? How can I make it blossom? How can I help Ron make this happen? This
is my passion. This is my mission. This is what I'm here for.
I'm a catalyst for change on this planet, but I need help, because this mother is heavy.
Peace! [ Cheers and Applause ]