Grow some shit

When I first saw Ron Finley's TED talk about a year ago, I was so pumped the entire time I watched it. I loved his realism, his passion, his low tolerance for bullshit, and a profound love for his community and how people in his community live.

I shared the video with friends and family on facebook and loved the responses I got.

He is right, you know, "food is the problem and food is the solution". With nearly 49,000,000 people living with food insecurity in the United States, 21% of that population is children. 1 in 5 individuals Families cannot afford food, may not have reliable access to food pantries, and may not be able to sustain themselves on SNAP benefits.

Not only are we not providing enough food for people in our country, but the food we are providing is not necessarily healthy. You may be wondering how obesity and poor health like diabetes is related to poverty. The answer is that people who live in impoverished regions, or "food deserts"

 like Ron accurately described them, are areas where individuals have incredibly low access to fresh foods. Lack of fresh foods means more reliance on canned goods or non perishable items that have preservatives and high levels of ingredients that I can't even pronounce. 

Worse than not providing food is the WASTING of food. To demonstrate the amount of food waste in America, an environmental named Rob Greenfield set off on a cross country bike ride and relied on only eating food out of dumpsters behind grocery stores. Read more here! Rob learned that 

"$165 billion worth of food thrown out each year, 

or about half of all the food we produce"

Those numbers are hard to fathom. THAT much food waste and we have how many people living with food insecurity? Rob argues that through the Good Samaritan Food Act, supermarkets should be able to donate their food without fear of repercussions.

Ron Finley's plan to create urban oasis is an excellent way to provide the fresh fruits and vegetables that are hard to come by in food deserts, but donations from stores is another way to combat food insecurity.