 I wanna take a picture of this bullshit that's happening to my and your brothers and sisters for over 400 years. So I want everybody in the house to stand up and raise your hand up and we're gonna take a picture for Ferguson. Pass this back, somebody back there, hold the sign. Cool, good luck. How y'all doing this morning? Mad four, make some noise. Man, I want to tell y'all that we're all connected. And that's kind of the reason that I wanted to do that. Cause injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere and this shit needs to change. It's just been going on for way too long. We're all connected. Same water, same soil, same blood. But what I really want you guys to know is mother nature don't waste nothing. If you look at earth systems, all the waste is done by us and we need to stop that. A leaf falls for a reason in a particular season. It's all by design, it's earth's plan. I feel that the solution, it's not necessarily a revolution. It's an evolution. It's an evolution back, back to when we did shit, when we built shit, when we made our own food, when we supported ourselves, when we cooked our own meals instead of driving up to some box and talking into it and ordering a Mac double with some super fries and some other shit like that. And you drive 15 feet and somebody hands you another box with some shit that's supposed to be food. We gotta change that. We need to, we need to, an evolution in the way that we raise, slaughter, grow, harvest, buy, store, prepare, eat, share, dispose of our food and our so-called waste. Change your food, change your life. See here you have an example of what we used to do and what we do now. And it's not a good look. I got here to Matt basically because I was a criminal. But in some places I'm still a damn criminal, but what I did, I planted food on the street in front of my house because there was no healthy food to be had in front of, in my neighborhood. You just could not buy any kind of food. You can buy all the alcohol you want, but you try to buy our organic apple and you shit out of luck. And I needed to change that. So I had this grass that was basically weeds and I thought, why not put some food here? Why not just change? Why not change the way this looks? And I did that and I got an arrest warrant issued for me. But it was cool because with that arrest warrant came a lot. And I did it a while ago, I did it years before and I wound up taking it back because they were gonna put me in jail. And I waited probably seven years later and I did it again. Because I figured they wouldn't know. Like I said in the video, nobody complains about the condoms and the couches and the toilets. So what I did, I planted food and I planted beautiful flowers. I wanted people to come by and I wanted them to be inspired. I wanted them to be assaulted with smells of lavender and jasmine and butterflies and dragonflies. So I did this and all this stuff just happened. All of it came. There was no hummingbirds in my neighborhood. And apparently they told their cousins that this crazy black guy planted some pineapple sage. And they would come every day and every morning. And then the bees came. The bees took over a trash can that I was using to make compost. And they've been there for like two and a half years and I actually gave them a new condo. I built them a new condo with a view window a couple of weeks ago. These slides ain't necessarily in order because a lot of the stuff I did, a lot of this is off the top of my head and I always change everything. Anything, it pisses me off that I do this. But that's the way it goes. So I got the law changed now. That's the big part of this. And basically because I'm, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the city, they supported and loved everything I did after I embarrassed their ass, you know? And because it was like, look at this guy plants food and people can come and take it and you have a problem with that. And so now it's terrible because the neighborhood just has no, it's just bad and that is by design because I've driven, you know, across the United States now and I see these areas and if there is black and brown in the area, it's the same. So it's not a perfect storm. That's just by design and we have to change that design. So with this law changed, I didn't, you know, because I just like, hell, I'm not taking my garden out the hell with y'all. Do what you gotta do. And with that, I did this Ted talk and it went kind of viral. And after the Ted, they really loved me because they didn't want me to go on Ted and talk bad about the city. Basically that's what it was. And so after the Ted, everything was cool and now it's legal to plant food on your parkway in Los Angeles. And I didn't see it as at first as that big of a thing because, you know, we're talking about this grass strip right in front of your house. I'm like, yeah, I want lots. But it made me realize like maybe a month ago I saw this guy that has hundreds of acres of property in Orange County, California. And he says, you know, we were at this function and you know, so it was a dinner for all these mucky mucks. And the guy, and you know, I introduce myself and you know, they had us go around this table and introduce and so he says, oh, you're that Ron Finley. And I'm like, yeah, right, you know me. He said, yeah, we know you. He said, you got land use laws changed. I didn't see it as that. And that's exactly what it was. This was illegal for who knows how many years, you know. And you guys, feel free to chime in, you know, if you want, if you got a question or whatever, you know, I like this to be interactive. So I mean, so good things came out of that. You know, and then I get to hear how I changed people's lives and I get letters from North Korea to South Africa about people being inspired. That's what I wanted to do. I started an organization and we put gardens in people's homes for free in South Central. I just wanted people to like, we don't, you don't have to live like this. You can grow your own food. This is what we did now. And you will be able to know what's in your food if you grow it yourself. This, I live in an area in Los Angeles. It's basically designed to kill me or keep me very unhealthy. I live in a community designated, it should be designated as a open crime scene, that continues the open crime scene. Cause, cause they're killing people. South Central Los Angeles, that's where I'm from. You know, LA is known for its car cultures, driving, movie theaters. It's, you know, drive through restaurants. And unfortunately, thanks to a lot of violence and some rappers, it's drive-bys. But it turns out that the drive-throughs, they're killing more people by leaps and bounds than the drive-bys. And they get away with it. This place, this is a place where lots of people get their food from liquor stores or the gas station or fast food restaurants. A place where they close supermarkets to open drug stores. And the drug store will have a sign that says, drugs and liquor. You know, you don't see that in Brentwood or Beverly Hills. These places are being occupied by churches that are not doing what they're supposed to do. They're being terrorized by fast food and drug companies that do whatever the hell they wanna do. I see this as genocide. What I did, I took something like this, which they don't have a problem with, you know, for years, we have stuff that's been since the riots in 65 that have not been developed. So I take places like that and turn them into that. And the schools, well shit, we'd be here all day if we started talking about the schools. You know, I call it the spandex, one-size-fit-all education system. You know, you gotta learn their way or you're not gonna learn. There's nothing more than incubators for the prison industrial complex. Make no mistakes, you are what you eat. Good in, good out. If a child eats shit from the beginning of their life and continues to eat the same shit, how do you expect them to develop? How do you expect their minds or bodies to develop? It's not gonna happen. It's by design. You can't find any form of nutritious food in these areas if your life depended on it. And guess what? Your life does depend on it. Change your food, change your life. This is like my part of my garden where I have guys come and I show them how to get down in the garden. This is one of the kids with the pomegranates off the tree. And basically, I'll sit those out front. I'll just let people take them. I don't believe you should pay $4 for a pomegranate. And in doing this, it made me think, what are the main corner stones of life? What's the most important thing to your life? Good food? Eh. What's the most important thing to your life? Good food? Good food? No, hell no. Air is the most important thing to your life. Try doing without it. I'll give you 30 seconds. Let's go, let's go. Nobody ever, nobody says we take air for granted because we think it's there. Okay, air before anything. You can do without food. You can do without water, but try doing without air, it ain't gonna happen. So, and we fucking air up too. We fucked that up. Food? Fucking that up too. So I mean, to me it's like air, soil, water, and good sex. I mean, these are the corner stones of life, but most of those, we fucking most of them up and one of them is fucker, so you know. You guys figure that out. Save your food, save your life. Okay, show of hands. Who got into food? Because you couldn't do anything else. You were dyslexic and you figured this is tactile when you do it. Raise your hand. Okay. Frank. Okay, who got into food because you wanted to change someone's changed people's lives? Okay, that's it. Okay. Who got into food because you thought it would be easy to get laid? Y'all lying, y'all lying, y'all liars. And I had these kids work for me that they'd go to these chef's schools. And I'm like, why don't they teach them where food comes from? You know, okay, you can cook. So where does shit come from? You know, and they get over it. What is that? It's carrot, you clown. You know, and you wonder what are they learning? You know, and my thing is the lesson is in the soil. All of life's lesson, you can't come out of the soil. And we, so that's what my whole, that's the evolution, the devolution. We need to get back to the soil. We need to build our soil. You know, soil is one of the most important things. I mean, like I saw Paul when he was cooking the lambs other night, did you guys see? I saw how excited, I mean, I think his nipples got hard from cooking that lamb, you know? And I'm like, wow, because it took me back because when I make compost, I think my nipples get hard, you know? And it was like, anybody else's nipples get hard when they make compost? Figured, y'all nasty. That, this is Korean natural, I took a class in Korean natural farming and it's like some Jedi mind shit, you know? It's magic and this is a compost pile, this is from a compost pile and we collect this Marsalis and all kinds of stuff from the forest and they do it with rice. It's all based on fermentation. But we had a pile, we made a pile and the pile's six inches high and it would heat up to like 130 degrees in a day, you know? So we would have, you would have to turn these piles like six times a day to cool them off. That's something that, it's not everywhere, you know? They, it's not being taught everywhere and it's all based on science, on soil science and it's crazy. We have to continue to make what we do, especially you guys, we gotta continue to make this sexy. That's the only way it's gonna translate to a lot of people is to make, I mean like we're gardening, we gotta make gardening sexy, you know? We gotta make food sexy, you know? Right now, right now, especially with you chefs, I mean you guys are some of the most powerful people on the planet, you know? You guys, some of you fuckers even superheroes, you know? So it's like, you guys are like X-Men, you know? And I guess that would make what Pierre Kaufman, he would be like Professor X of some shit. So why don't you use your powers? We need to use our powers to transform this world. You guys are the eyes, you have the eyes, the ears, the taste buds of the whole planet. So let's use this access. Let's use this exposure to change the world, to change the palette of the world. We're all connected. People always ask me why I started to grow food. What was my inspiration? And I tell them. Hypertension, diabetes, high blood pressure, di-obesities, I invented that one. It's di-obesity and obesity to go. And you know, things like this, asthma, chronic disease, alcoholism, drug abuse, those were my, those were my, that was my inspiration. So do me a favor, people won't know my inspiration. This is a big part of my inspiration. If you know someone, or if you've gone through, or if you know someone that had like a cancer or some kind of chronic disease that you don't know where they held it came from, I want you to stand up. If you're going through it, I want you to stand up. You wanna know my inspiration? That's my inspiration. That's my inspiration for change. Most of this shit is being done to us. These are high numbers, thank you guys. I tell people, you don't need meds, you need a garden. The benefits of gardening are too far to count. I mean, from improving mental health to promoting self-sufficient and self-reliance. Food is an art, and you guys are the Picasso's, the Miro's, the Rembrandt's, the El Max, the Dustin Yellen's, and the balance of the food world. Let thy food be thy art, and that art be the nutrition that sparks a flame that will burn in the souls of men. We're all connected. With all the abundance in this world, with all the food that is thrown away every day, why in the hell should anyone be hungry? We got a distribution problem. We don't have a food problem. I tell people, you know, I tell people like, why'd you, how'd you start? How'd you grow food? Like, it's some magic or some shit, you know? And I tell people, I don't grow food. I grow people. They grow, and they grow food, and they teach somebody else to grow food, and that's how this is gonna continue. You know, again, the lesson is in that soil. Once you get people in the soil, it's almost like a seducism. You know, and you find yourself at five in the morning, and then your pajamas checking on your trees and shit, and like, something's wrong with you, you know? You know, it's the first thing you do before you take a shower or anything. We gotta start building better cities. And a better city starts with a seed. Everything starts with a seed. Leading healthy lives starts with seeds. Leading healthy lives starts with good, nutritious food. Growing healthy communities start with food. With the right food options, you can watch communities thrive and prosper. Like, this is my street. This is with the garden, my garden that I maintain. And the stuff you see on the side, that's stuff out of my garden, you know? That tastes better than anything, you know, that I've tasted ever. And you almost think, like, oh, my baby is beautiful, and more pretty than everybody's baby. You know, it's like, you do like, I guess your fruit's like that too, you know, I don't know. I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. We have the opportunity to design communities for health and well-being. Communities where the healthiest choices are the easiest choices. Where the fresh organic food is more sexy and accessible than the fast food. I mean, just look at this city where we're at. I mean, Copenhagen. I mean, who the hell wants, I don't want to leave here now. You know, and I mean, and all the bikes and the pretty people and the pretty stuff, and I mean, it's, it's successful. And I think every city should, you know, should be like that. What I did, I created an ecosystem in my neighborhood that brought people from around the world of it. I had kids from Harvard would come to my house. And, I mean, Harvard, you know, the university, and I'm like, really? I'm like, wow. I said, you white folks must be really bored, huh? I'm like, I mean, really, really? I mean, really, you know, some random black guy plants a carrot and you, oh my God, we got to get on a plane. You know, I'm sorry, I don't get it. And we, you know, we got to realize that we are part of the ecosystem. We're no different. You know, we are part, we are, you know, there's what they say, 97% bacteria. I mean, we're no different. And that's why I say, you heal your mother, you heal yourself. I created this ecosystem and I read something recently and it said, it is necessary to distinguish between the virtue and the vice of obedience. That was deep to me, you know, because sometimes obedience is some bullshit. You know, a lot of times, especially in this world, we must change this food system throughout the world. And what I'm working on and we need to stop wasting resources. I mean, there should be no food waste, you know. And I have proof of concept that this works. So what I'm doing now, I'm working on this project. It's at this library in Los Angeles and it's a Carnegie library and it's the oldest operating library in Los Angeles and it has an acre behind the library. And I want to make this the sexiest urban garden on the planet. I want it to represent, to LA, what the high line represents to New York. I don't know if any of you guys have seen the high line. And you know, we're teaching people how to grow their food. We're teaching people how to cook their food. We have a container cafe that's gonna go up, a greenhouse and people can farm stand where you can trade or sell your food. We're teaching people marketing without even them knowing. You know, where we have a gleaming program where we're gonna mark all the trees in the neighborhood that have fruit that just every season, it just dies because the people don't pick it or they might be too old. So this is gonna be a major project. This is one of the things I'm working on. Um. Right. Um. My, this is from, this is the only piece of fruit that my apricot tree gave me. And it was the most perfect apricot I've ever seen in my life. You know, and it tasted like sunshine. Let's just leave it there. And I mean, look at it. It was perfect. So hopefully next year, I'll get more apricots. You know, but what we do, I mean, to me, everything is art. All this is art, you know, and that's how we need to treat it. I want to see beauty in everything I do, everywhere I go. And the thing about it, beauty doesn't necessarily cost any more money than ugly, you know. And if you get an opportunity to look at beauty every day, you know, it's going to change your mindset. I mean, I have people that come by to look at the garden every day because they say what it makes them feel. Because I got these, you know, 12-foot sunflowers, you know, and I keep sunflowers growing. And I even give people, I keep sunflowers always in pots and I give them to people. Here you grow it and save the season, you pass that on. And I want them to, I start, we're going to start, we start a hashtag, I love sunflowers. So every time they grow it, they take a picture and they post it. So with sunflowers, I want to see how far that's going to go. But I just want to say I'm honored, you know, to be here. And what you guys have, thank you guys, Ox and Renee, it's, I mean, it's incredible. And I have memories that will last me my whole life. And I just want to, I like to leave with, you know, we all can do something. And what I do is what we all should do when you leave here is just go plant some shit. Peace.