Ron Finley and Urban Gardening as Food Desert Relief

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“You can't imagine how amazing a sunflower is and how it affects people. To change the community you have to change the composition of the soil. We are the soil.” - Ron Finley

At the beginning of his TED talk, Ron Finley sardonically points out that the city of Los Angeles' solution to the rampant poverty in what was known as South Central– “This is South Central: liquor stores, fast food, vacant lots”– was to rename the area South Los Angeles– “This is South Los Angeles: liquor stores, fast food, vacant lots.” Finley's delivery got a laugh, but it gets to the heart of a pervasive problem in poor urban areas, and the institutional inability, or lack of interest, to solve it. Los Angeles, along with other cities, are watching food deserts threaten to decimate many of their at-risk communities, and their official response is frequently ineffective at best.

While there are many factors that contribute to the phenomenon of the food desert, generally low-income areas with limited access to nutritious food, Ron Finley sets an example that a great deal can be done literally at the street level to mitigate a problem that affects approximately 26.5 million Americans. He began by converting the parkway in front of his house (the strip of land often found between a curb and the sidewalk, frequently covered in patchy grass and weeds) into a food garden. After a brief tussle with the city over whether this activity is permitted, Finley's form of “guerrilla” farming (“Get gangsta with your shovel, and let that be your weapon of choice.”) took off. Finley's foundation went on to grow dozens of gardens in South Los Angeles, and his advocacy has inspired many such projects across the country.

For more information on urban farming, Finley's riveting TED talk is a great place to start, along with Can You Dig This (2015), a documentary feature produced by musician John Legend that streams free on Amazon Prime. See also Finley's website and the site for L.A. Green Grounds, a network dedicated to expanding front-yard gardening in the Los Angeles Area.

- Jubel Brosseau




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