The Long-Lasting Impact of the Garden of Ron Finley

Preface

My name is Marisa Karam, and the title of my work is “The Long-Lasting Impact of the Garden of Ron Finley.” The license I will be using is CC BY-NC-SA.

Introduction

Ron Finley’s Garden has inspired people all over the world to start up their own garden because it will eventually go a long way and has long-term health benefits. Finley’s goal is to inform people on what is nutritious and be completely open on what he grows in his garden and how he does it. He wants people to believe that gardening is “gangsta,” meaning people show their strength in whatever impactful way they want. In his case, it is gardening to provide healthy food although he and many others are living in a food desert. 

Themes

The first theme that is displayed by Finley and his garden is food scarcity. Living in a food desert means that there aren’t any grocery stores or healthy foods near certain populations, or they don’t even exist in that city. A problem that Finley and many others in his area faced was a lack of healthy food. He decided to grow vegetables in the spaces available near the road and throughout his neighborhood. The second theme that I have discovered is nutrition as a priority. Because there is no healthy food around South Central, which is where Finley lives, no one there receives all the nutrition that they need in order to live a healthy lifestyle, which has led to higher rates of obesity. Nutrition was a main factor in Finley’s reasoning to start a garden.

Analysis

This photo displays Finley tending to a garden. His goal when he gardens is to provide healthy foods for his community and ensure that everyone living in that food desert right there with him is getting the nutrients they need. He allows people to take whatever food they need from everything he plants. Another goal of his is to spread his gardening idea to people all over in hopes that they will start their own, especially those living in food deserts. The absence of healthy and nutritious food is what prompted him to start a garden.

Finley started his garden in 2010 right in front of his house, on a patch of land right in front of the street. After battling to continue to garden because of a lack of a permit, his garden of fruits and vegetables began to expand and he made it known that he was gardening for everyone, not just himself. He was influenced by people in his community getting sick due to their health, and the only access to healthy food being at least 45 minutes away. His garden allowed people to have fresh fruit and vegetables right in their neighborhood, and the fact that they stood up for him and helped him fight to keep his garden going proves that the people love it and need it.

In 2013, Finley gives a TED talk about what it’s like to be living in a food desert and defines it for the audience. He explains how that is what sparked his interest in creating a garden so that people have healthy food options. A notable statement he says is that “drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys.” This quote emphasizes how unhealthy peoples’ lifestyles were becoming and how their lives have become at risk. After this speech, it was evident that Finley knew his garden would continue to be beneficial in the future, and that his community has a better understanding of nutrition because of him so he must share his knowledge.

Application

It is important to understand the society from which within this garden was created because there are millions of people in the U.S. that also live in food deserts. Many people do not know how to garden, or think to simply start with small patches of dirt and grass, such as right by the road like Finley did. Finley’s speech and all the stories about him have spread to millions of people and allowed them to gain the knowledge they need in order to start their own garden, and escape the health related issues that come with living in a food desert. Ron Finley has made it easy for people to understand the importance of eating healthy by explaining what it’s like to be living in a food desert, explaining to people how they can start their own garden and showing his as an example, and by explaining the impact it has as on his community and beyond.

Media Attributions

• “File: The Gangsta Gardener, Ron Finley, August 17-20 2018” is licensed under CC-BY-2.0
• “”File: The Gangsta Gardener, Ron Finley” is licensed under CC-BY-2.0
• “Ron Finley at TED2013: South Central’s renegade gardener” is licensed under CC-BY-3.0