Ron Finley, Urban Gardener

Why Growing Food is The Single Most Impactful Thing You Can Do in a Rigged Political System George Kao Follow Jul 17, 2016 · 5 min read

by Alex Pietrowski of Waking Times, re-posted with permission.

The most effective change-makers in our society aren’t waiting around for a new president to make their lives better.

They’re planting seeds, quite literally. Through the revolutionary act of gardening, they’re rebuilding their communities while growing their own independence.

Every four years when the big election comes around, millions of people put their passion for creating a better world into an increasingly corrupt and absurd political contest.

What if that energy was instead invested in something worthwhile, something that directly and immediately improved life, community, and the world at large?

The simple act of growing our own food directly challenges the control matrix in many authentic ways, which is why some of the most forward-thinking and strongest-willed people are picking up shovels and defiantly starting gardens. It has become much more of a meaningful political statement than supporting political parties and candidates.

“Propaganda gardening, a combination of guerrilla gardening and political protest, is about developing self-sufficiency while making a simple, yet bold statement about the world we all share, and the rules we choose to live by.” [Source]

Ron Finley talk: “Save Your Food, Save Your Life”

Take, for example, Ron Finley, the ‘Guerrilla Gardener’ from Los Angeles who inspires the world with no-nonsense truth about how the corporate food system enslaves us, while proving to us that the most effective weapon in this fight is fertile soil. He makes growing veggies cool again, as it should be, because food sovereignty is the very foundation of personal independence.

“I live in a food prison.. It’s all by design just like prisons are by designed. I just got tired of being an inmate. So I figured, let me change this paradigm, let me grown my own food. This is one thing I can do to escape this predestined life that I have unwillingly subscribed to.” — Ron Finley

Think about it. Creating your own food supply challenges the status quo in a number of important ways. Growing your own food:

Decreases dependence on a polluted corporate food system

Improves health and wellness by providing exercise and nutritious food, freeing us from dependence on a for-profit medical system

Undermines Monsanto and the agro-chemical industry that is polluting our world and killing bees

Highlights issues of political control by pitting homeowners and gardeners against government and ordinance makers

Builds and heals community by providing a place and activity worth coming together over

Works to repair the damage we are doing to the environment with our consumer lifestyles

Protects us against insecurity and food unrest

Facilitates a greater awakening by setting an example for others to follow

When united, awareness and action create the kind of changes that a rigid control system cannot tolerate, and when extraordinary people like Ron Finley take the lead, a meaningful movement can take hold. This is real action, it is very effective, and as it becomes more mainstream to set up gardens in your yard and on your block, we will witness the re-emergence of the kind of society we just cannot create by playing by the rules of a rigged system.

“I had sixty people putting in an urban garden while you all were marching. Now who do you think was more effective?” — Ron Finley

Here’s Ron in a recent interview with Marc Angelo of the Superhero Academy:

Just a few generations ago, gardening for sustenance was not the fringe activity that it has become in recent decades, because it was a basic daily act of survival. One that will rise again as a controlled economy and engineered economic collapse will make it imperative to join forces with your community and defend your personal sovereignty.

“Why don’t you churches get together instead of with your ‘my religion is better than yours’ bullshit, and get together and put in a healthy food market… isn’t that doing good business? If your people live longer, don’t you get more money?” — Ron Finley

What happens when you transform yourself by deepening your connection to nature? What happens when you then transform your community by bringing your neighbors together in the goal of providing something of immense value to all? What happens then when a nation of transformed communities sees their world without the boundaries of and limitations imposed on us by a corrupt system?

The four year cycle of presidential politics in the US is far more effective at stealing the constructive energy of motivated people than it is at bringing about meaningful change to our lives, communities and to the nation as a whole. Time to try something far more effective and rewarding. Let’s overgrow the system, and transform our health and communities in the process.

For a sign that this movement is spreading across the nation, check out this homegrown music video, ‘Gardening is Gangsta,’ by Mark Jankins and Sifu Paul Davis. “I don’t rely on new food stamps. Cuz’ every season got me harvesting some new plants.”

About the Author:

Alex Pietrowski is an artist and writer concerned with preserving good health and the basic freedom to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. He is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com and Offgrid Outpost, a provider of storable food and emergency kits. Alex is an avid student of Yoga and life.

This article (Gardening More Meaningful than Voting in a Rigged Political System) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Vic Bishop and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement. Please contact WakingTimes@gmail.com for more info.