Ron Finley's Guerilla Gardener

In the largely manufactured city of South Central LA, as illustrated by Ron Finley in the video ‘Guerilla Gardener’, people are suffering. Obesity rates are skyrocketing, people are dying from diseases that could be easily treated, all because of produce that is not only expensive, but also unfresh and overwhelmed with pesticides and insecticides. Ron Finley sees this happening in his community and is determined to do something. He explains in his video how gardening is not only a solution to the ongoing food crisis, but is also therapeutic, revolutionary, and life-changing.

First of all, gardening has been proven to ameliorate the wellbeing of an individual. As Finley says, “we are soil”. Since we are creatures of the earth, it makes sense

that we feel a boost in both mental and physical health when working in the sun, touching the earth. When we work in the soil, we are improving the quality of it, and in turn, ourselves. In addition, gardening involves patience and gentleness, qualities that bring a sense of peace when built upon, even beyond the garden. By immersing ourselves in nature, even if for a little bit each day, we can possess a peace of mind most people crave.
Secondly, gardening is an act of defiance, especially within the city. It is fighting against the artificiality of today’s society. With soup mixes and microwaveable meals, even eating at home isn’t really eating these days. In this industrial age, people are ingesting chemicals and empty calories instead of food, contributing to the rising obesity levels Finley mentions in the beginning of the video. By growing our own food, we are stepping around the corrupted, profit-based food system and opening the door to healthy, affordable food options, a privilege we thankfully already enjoy. In these ways, Finley destroys the stereotypes of gardening being boring and bland and paints it to be revolutionary instead.
In addition to being therapeutic and an act of defiance, authentic gardening is also life-changing, in every sense of the term. Firstly, it builds character. Unlike working for profit, like large-scale food companies such as Dole, real gardening is planting for the people, building courage and leadership. “…with gardening, I see an opportunity [to] train kids to take over the community,” Finley expresses. If people are working for their food and helping to organize volunteers to plant gardens, naturally they will develop leadership, the courage to speak up, and self-motivation. Also, growing food gives people a purpose instead of mindlessly wandering through a systematic lifestyle designed to keep people compliant. Furthermore, by eating local food grown organically, fresh produce can flush out toxins from the body and deposit desperately-needed vitamins and minerals. There’s a reason mothers tell their children “you are what you eat”. If we eat fresh, we feel fresh. However, if we eat food shipped from across the wold, drowning in chemicals, that is what we feel like: unhappy and unhealthy.
Overall, Ron Finley presents the benefits of gardening in a way that is easy to relate to and learn from. He opens the eyes of many to the wonders of healthy eating and working with the earth, proving that it is good for the mind, revolutionary, and life-changing. In the end, this is the only body we’ve got, so isn’t it in our best interest to take care of it the best we can?