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, and 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.
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.
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.
