0:00:00.191,0:00:03.664 I live in South Central. 0:00:03.664,0:00:05.807 This is South Central: 0:00:05.807,0:00:08.677 liquor stores, 0:00:08.677,0:00:11.052 fast food, 0:00:11.052,0:00:13.396 vacant lots. 0:00:13.396,0:00:15.078 So the city planners, they get together and they figure 0:00:15.078,0:00:18.324 they're going to change the name South Central to make it represent something else, 0:00:18.324,0:00:21.492 so they change it to South Los Angeles, 0:00:21.492,0:00:25.374 like this is going to fix what's really going wrong in the city. 0:00:25.374,0:00:29.084 This is South Los Angeles. (Laughter) 0:00:29.084,0:00:31.252 Liquor stores, 0:00:31.252,0:00:33.564 fast food, 0:00:33.564,0:00:36.205 vacant lots. 0:00:36.205,0:00:39.676 Just like 26.5 million other Americans, 0:00:39.676,0:00:42.236 I live in a food desert, 0:00:42.236,0:00:44.300 South Central Los Angeles, 0:00:44.300,0:00:48.501 home of the drive-thru and the drive-by. 0:00:48.501,0:00:53.940 Funny thing is, the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys. 0:00:53.940,0:00:56.441 People are dying from curable diseases 0:00:56.441,0:00:59.276 in South Central Los Angeles. 0:00:59.276,0:01:01.877 For instance, the obesity rate in my neighborhood 0:01:01.877,0:01:05.144 is five times higher than, say, Beverly Hills, 0:01:05.144,0:01:08.744 which is probably eight, 10 miles away. 0:01:08.744,0:01:12.204 I got tired of seeing this happening. 0:01:12.204,0:01:14.312 And I was wondering, how would you feel 0:01:14.312,0:01:17.600 if you had no access to healthy food, 0:01:17.600,0:01:20.480 if every time you walk out your door you see the ill effects 0:01:20.480,0:01:24.140 that the present food system has on your neighborhood? 0:01:24.140,0:01:26.808 I see wheelchairs bought and sold 0:01:26.808,0:01:28.877 like used cars. 0:01:28.877,0:01:32.901 I see dialysis centers popping up like Starbucks. 0:01:32.901,0:01:36.296 And I figured, this has to stop. 0:01:36.296,0:01:42.122 So I figured that the problem is the solution. 0:01:42.122,0:01:45.846 Food is the problem and food is the solution. 0:01:45.846,0:01:48.776 Plus I got tired of driving 45 minutes round trip 0:01:48.776,0:01:52.984 to get an apple that wasn't impregnated with pesticides. 0:01:52.984,0:01:57.536 So what I did, I planted a food forest in front of my house. 0:01:57.536,0:01:59.928 It was on a strip of land that we call a parkway. 0:01:59.928,0:02:03.312 It's 150 feet by 10 feet. 0:02:03.312,0:02:05.760 Thing is, it's owned by the city. 0:02:05.760,0:02:08.336 But you have to maintain it. 0:02:08.336,0:02:12.848 So I'm like, "Cool. I can do whatever the hell I want, 0:02:12.848,0:02:16.691 since it's my responsibility and I gotta maintain it." 0:02:16.691,0:02:19.592 And this is how I decided to maintain it. 0:02:19.592,0:02:22.578 So me and my group, L.A. Green Grounds, we got together 0:02:22.578,0:02:24.930 and we started planting my food forest, fruit trees, 0:02:24.930,0:02:27.040 you know, the whole nine, vegetables. 0:02:27.040,0:02:30.011 What we do, we're a pay-it-forward kind of group, 0:02:30.011,0:02:34.850 where it's composed of gardeners from all walks of life, 0:02:34.850,0:02:37.179 from all over the city, and it's completely volunteer, 0:02:37.179,0:02:39.011 and everything we do is free. 0:02:39.011,0:02:42.113 And the garden, it was beautiful. 0:02:42.113,0:02:44.563 And then somebody complained. 0:02:44.563,0:02:46.939 The city came down on me, 0:02:46.939,0:02:51.251 and basically gave me a citation saying that I had to remove my garden, 0:02:51.251,0:02:53.879 which this citation was turning into a warrant. 0:02:53.879,0:02:56.411 And I'm like, "Come on, really? 0:02:56.411,0:02:59.155 A warrant for planting food on a piece of land 0:02:59.155,0:03:02.567 that you could care less about?" (Laughter) 0:03:02.567,0:03:04.907 And I was like, "Cool. Bring it." 0:03:04.907,0:03:08.102 Because this time it wasn't coming up. 0:03:08.102,0:03:13.114 So L.A. Times got ahold of it. Steve Lopez did a story on it 0:03:13.114,0:03:16.231 and talked to the councilman, 0:03:16.231,0:03:17.827 and one of the Green Grounds members, 0:03:17.827,0:03:20.645 they put up a petition on Change.org, 0:03:20.645,0:03:23.498 and with 900 signatures, we were a success. 0:03:23.498,0:03:25.574 We had a victory on our hands. 0:03:25.574,0:03:29.071 My councilman even called in and said how they endorse 0:03:29.071,0:03:31.717 and love what we're doing. 0:03:31.717,0:03:34.241 I mean, come on, why wouldn't they? 0:03:34.241,0:03:39.086 L.A. leads the United States in vacant lots that the city actually owns. 0:03:39.086,0:03:44.444 They own 26 square miles of vacant lots. 0:03:44.444,0:03:47.466 That's 20 Central Parks. 0:03:47.466,0:03:54.785 That's enough space to plant 725 million tomato plants. 0:03:54.785,0:03:59.738 Why in the hell would they not okay this? 0:03:59.738,0:04:03.853 Growing one plant will give you 1,000, 10,000 seeds. 0:04:03.853,0:04:06.562 When one dollar's worth of green beans 0:04:06.562,0:04:10.120 will give you 75 dollars' worth of produce. 0:04:10.120,0:04:13.797 It's my gospel, when I'm telling people, grow your own food. 0:04:13.797,0:04:16.938 Growing your own food is like printing your own money. 0:04:16.938,0:04:23.938 (Applause) 0:04:23.938,0:04:26.810 See, I have a legacy in South Central. 0:04:26.810,0:04:31.539 I grew up there. I raised my sons there. 0:04:31.539,0:04:35.802 And I refuse to be a part of this manufactured reality 0:04:35.802,0:04:38.666 that was manufactured for me by some other people, 0:04:38.666,0:04:41.274 and I'm manufacturing my own reality. 0:04:41.274,0:04:43.786 See, I'm an artist. 0:04:43.786,0:04:47.890 Gardening is my graffiti. I grow my art. 0:04:47.890,0:04:52.466 Just like a graffiti artist, where they beautify walls, 0:04:52.466,0:04:55.898 me, I beautify lawns, parkways. 0:04:55.898,0:04:59.808 I use the garden, the soil, like it's a piece of cloth, 0:04:59.808,0:05:02.003 and the plants and the trees, 0:05:02.003,0:05:05.685 that's my embellishment for that cloth. 0:05:05.685,0:05:11.726 You'd be surprised what the soil could do 0:05:11.726,0:05:13.261 if you let it be your canvas. 0:05:13.261,0:05:16.781 You just couldn't imagine how amazing a sunflower is 0:05:16.781,0:05:19.789 and how it affects people. 0:05:19.789,0:05:22.461 So what happened? 0:05:22.461,0:05:27.532 I have witnessed my garden become a tool for the education, 0:05:27.532,0:05:30.558 a tool for the transformation of my neighborhood. 0:05:30.558,0:05:35.439 To change the community, you have to change the composition of the soil. 0:05:35.439,0:05:39.979 We are the soil. 0:05:39.979,0:05:45.522 You'd be surprised how kids are affected by this. 0:05:45.522,0:05:49.756 Gardening is the most therapeutic 0:05:49.756,0:05:52.700 and defiant act you can do, 0:05:52.700,0:05:55.192 especially in the inner city. 0:05:55.192,0:05:57.936 Plus you get strawberries. 0:05:57.936,0:06:01.394 (Laughter) 0:06:01.394,0:06:03.772 I remember this time, 0:06:03.772,0:06:06.081 there was this mother and a daughter came, 0:06:06.081,0:06:09.548 it was, like, 10:30 at night, and they were in my yard, 0:06:09.548,0:06:13.012 and I came out and they looked so ashamed. 0:06:13.012,0:06:16.700 So I'm like, man, it made me feel bad that they were there, 0:06:16.700,0:06:19.436 and I told them, you know, you don't have to do this like this. 0:06:19.436,0:06:21.447 This is on the street for a reason. 0:06:21.447,0:06:24.938 It made me feel ashamed to see people 0:06:24.938,0:06:27.521 that were this close to me that were hungry, 0:06:27.521,0:06:30.660 and this only reinforced why I do this, 0:06:30.660,0:06:33.629 and people asked me, "Fin, aren't you afraid 0:06:33.629,0:06:35.116 people are going to steal your food?" 0:06:35.116,0:06:37.317 And I'm like, "Hell no, I ain't afraid they're gonna steal it. 0:06:37.317,0:06:39.910 That's why it's on the street. 0:06:39.910,0:06:42.620 That's the whole idea. 0:06:42.620,0:06:44.415 I want them to take it, but at the same time, 0:06:44.415,0:06:48.418 I want them to take back their health." 0:06:48.418,0:06:50.961 There's another time when I put 0:06:50.961,0:06:56.404 a garden in this homeless shelter in downtown Los Angeles. 0:06:56.404,0:06:59.355 These are the guys, they helped me unload the truck. 0:06:59.355,0:07:01.980 It was cool, and they just shared the stories 0:07:01.980,0:07:04.836 about how this affected them and how 0:07:04.836,0:07:07.628 they used to plant with their mother and their grandmother, 0:07:07.628,0:07:11.054 and it was just cool to see how this changed them, 0:07:11.054,0:07:16.759 if it was only for that one moment. 0:07:16.759,0:07:19.622 So Green Grounds has gone on to plant 0:07:19.622,0:07:21.373 maybe 20 gardens. 0:07:21.373,0:07:25.638 We've had, like, 50 people come to our dig-ins 0:07:25.638,0:07:28.403 and participate, and it's all volunteers. 0:07:28.403,0:07:32.030 If kids grow kale, kids eat kale. 0:07:32.030,0:07:33.294 (Laughter) 0:07:33.294,0:07:38.270 If they grow tomatoes, they eat tomatoes. (Applause) 0:07:38.270,0:07:41.604 But when none of this is presented to them, 0:07:41.604,0:07:45.230 if they're not shown how food affects the mind and the body, 0:07:45.230,0:07:49.774 they blindly eat whatever the hell you put in front of them. 0:07:49.774,0:07:51.679 I see young people 0:07:51.679,0:07:54.790 and they want to work, 0:07:54.790,0:07:56.911 but they're in this thing where they're caught up -- 0:07:56.911,0:08:00.518 I see kids of color and they're just on this track 0:08:00.518,0:08:03.453 that's designed for them, 0:08:03.453,0:08:05.486 that leads them to nowhere. 0:08:05.486,0:08:08.161 So with gardening, I see an opportunity 0:08:08.161,0:08:10.307 where we can train these kids 0:08:10.307,0:08:13.304 to take over their communities, 0:08:13.304,0:08:17.148 to have a sustainable life. 0:08:17.148,0:08:19.267 And when we do this, who knows? 0:08:19.267,0:08:22.491 We might produce the next George Washington Carver. 0:08:22.491,0:08:24.776 but if we don't change the composition of the soil, 0:08:24.776,0:08:26.385 we will never do this. 0:08:26.385,0:08:29.327 Now this is one of my plans. This is what I want to do. 0:08:29.327,0:08:33.327 I want to plant a whole block of gardens 0:08:33.327,0:08:36.715 where people can share in the food in the same block. 0:08:36.715,0:08:38.976 I want to take shipping containers 0:08:38.976,0:08:41.672 and turn them into healthy cafes. 0:08:41.672,0:08:44.064 Now don't get me wrong. 0:08:44.064,0:08:46.342 I'm not talking about no free shit, 0:08:46.342,0:08:49.695 because free is not sustainable. 0:08:49.695,0:08:51.600 The funny thing about sustainability, 0:08:51.600,0:08:53.357 you have to sustain it. 0:08:53.357,0:08:57.514 (Laughter) (Applause) 0:08:57.514,0:08:59.752 What I'm talking about is putting people to work, 0:08:59.752,0:09:02.855 and getting kids off the street, and letting them know 0:09:02.855,0:09:07.807 the joy, the pride and the honor in growing your own food, 0:09:07.807,0:09:10.145 opening farmer's markets. 0:09:10.145,0:09:12.238 So what I want to do here, 0:09:12.238,0:09:14.944 we gotta make this sexy. 0:09:14.944,0:09:19.184 So I want us all to become ecolutionary renegades, 0:09:19.184,0:09:20.903 gangstas, gangsta gardeners. 0:09:20.903,0:09:25.239 We gotta flip the script on what a gangsta is. 0:09:25.239,0:09:27.092 If you ain't a gardener, you ain't gangsta. 0:09:27.092,0:09:31.512 Get gangsta with your shovel, okay? 0:09:31.512,0:09:34.696 And let that be your weapon of choice. 0:09:34.696,0:09:41.640 (Applause) 0:09:41.640,0:09:47.263 So basically, if you want to meet with me, 0:09:47.263,0:09:50.396 you know, if you want to meet, 0:09:50.396,0:09:54.193 don't call me if you want to sit around in cushy chairs 0:09:54.193,0:09:57.999 and have meetings where you talk about doing some shit -- 0:09:57.999,0:10:01.227 where you talk about doing some shit. 0:10:01.227,0:10:04.381 If you want to meet with me, come to the garden 0:10:04.381,0:10:07.661 with your shovel so we can plant some shit. 0:10:07.661,0:10:10.845 Peace. Thank you. 0:10:10.845,0:10:14.989 (Applause) 0:10:14.989,0:10:18.989 Thank you. (Applause)