I live in South Central. This is South Central: liquor stores, fast food, vacant lots.
Žijem v South Central. Toto je South Central: obchody s alkoholom, rýchle občerstvenie, nevyužité pozemky.
So the city planners, they get together and they figure they're going to change the name South Central to make it represent something else, so they change it to South Los Angeles, like this is going to fix what's really going wrong in the city. This is South Los Angeles. (Laughter) Liquor stores, fast food, vacant lots.
Mestskí projektanti sa stretli a usúdili, že premenujú South Central na niečo iné. Zmenili ho teda na South Los Angeles, akože to vyrieši problémy mesta. Toto je South Los Angeles. (Smiech) Obchody s alkoholom, rýchle občerstvenie, nevyužité pozemky.
Just like 26.5 million other Americans, I live in a food desert, South Central Los Angeles, home of the drive-thru and the drive-by. Funny thing is, the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys. People are dying from curable diseases in South Central Los Angeles. For instance, the obesity rate in my neighborhood is five times higher than, say, Beverly Hills, which is probably eight, 10 miles away.
Ako 26.5 milióna Američanov aj ja žijem na potravinovej púšti South Central Los Angeles, domov drive-thru a drive-by. Zaujímavé, drive-thru zabíja viac ľudí ako drive-by. Ľudia v South Central Los Angeles zomierajú na vyliečiteľné choroby. Napríklad miera obezity v mojom susedstve ja päť krát vyššia ako, povedzme, v Beverly Hills, čo je asi 8-10 míľ ďalej.
I got tired of seeing this happening. And I was wondering, how would you feel if you had no access to healthy food, if every time you walk out your door you see the ill effects that the present food system has on your neighborhood? I see wheelchairs bought and sold like used cars. I see dialysis centers popping up like Starbucks. And I figured, this has to stop. So I figured that the problem is the solution. Food is the problem and food is the solution. Plus I got tired of driving 45 minutes round trip to get an apple that wasn't impregnated with pesticides.
Bolo to únavné. Veď ako by ste sa cítili bez prístupu k zdravému jedlu pozerajúc sa na škodlivé následky súčasného stravovacieho systému na vaše susedstvo? Invalidné vozíky sa kupujú a predávajú ako použité autá. Dialyzačné strediská pribúdajú ako Starbucks. Podľa mňa to musí skončiť. Napadlo ma, že problém je riešením. Jedlo je problém a jedlo je riešenie. Unovavovala ma 45 minútová okružná jazda za jablkom bez pesticídov.
So what I did, I planted a food forest in front of my house. It was on a strip of land that we call a parkway. It's 150 feet by 10 feet. Thing is, it's owned by the city. But you have to maintain it. So I'm like, "Cool. I can do whatever the hell I want, since it's my responsibility and I gotta maintain it." And this is how I decided to maintain it.
Vysadil som si teda pred domom les potravín. Bol na páse zeme, ktorý voláme parkway. Je to 150 stôp krát 10 stôp. Vlastní ho mesto. Ale vy sa oň musíte starať. Povedal som si: "Cool, môžem spraviť čo chcem, je mojou zodpovednosťou sa oň postarať." A tak som sa rozhodol oň postarať.
So me and my group, L.A. Green Grounds, we got together and we started planting my food forest, fruit trees, you know, the whole nine, vegetables. What we do, we're a pay-it-forward kind of group, where it's composed of gardeners from all walks of life, from all over the city, and it's completely volunteer, and everything we do is free. And the garden, it was beautiful.
Spojil som sa so skupinou L.A. Green Grounds (Zelené pozemky) a začali sme sadiť môj les s potravinami, ovocné stromy, viete, presne deväť, zeleninu. Sme skupina zaplať-to-dopredu, zložená zo záhradníkov zo všetkých oblastí života z celého mesta, úplne dobrovoľnícka a všetko, čo robíme, je zadarmo. A záhrada bola krásna.
And then somebody complained. The city came down on me, and basically gave me a citation saying that I had to remove my garden, which this citation was turning into a warrant. And I'm like, "Come on, really? A warrant for planting food on a piece of land that you could care less about?" (Laughter) And I was like, "Cool. Bring it." Because this time it wasn't coming up. So L.A. Times got ahold of it. Steve Lopez did a story on it and talked to the councilman, and one of the Green Grounds members, they put up a petition on Change.org, and with 900 signatures, we were a success. We had a victory on our hands. My councilman even called in and said how they endorse and love what we're doing. I mean, come on, why wouldn't they? L.A. leads the United States in vacant lots that the city actually owns. They own 26 square miles of vacant lots. That's 20 Central Parks. That's enough space to plant 725 million tomato plants. Why in the hell would they not okay this? Growing one plant will give you 1,000, 10,000 seeds. When one dollar's worth of green beans will give you 75 dollars' worth of produce. It's my gospel, when I'm telling people, grow your own food. Growing your own food is like printing your own money.
Potom sa niekto sťažoval. Mesto išlo po mne s príkazom odstrániť moju záhradu, tento príkaz sa stal sankciou. A ja: " No tak, naozaj? Sankcia za výsadbu potravín na kúsku zeme, do ktorej vás nič?" (Smiech) Povedal som si: "Super. Prinúťte ma." Pretože tentokrát to nesedelo. Chytili sa toho noviny L.A. Times. Steve Lopez o tom napísal, hovoril s členom mestskej rady a s jedným z členov Green Grounds, spravili petíciu na Change.org s 900 podpismi - bol to úspech. V rukách sme mali víťazstvo. Člen mestskej rady mi dokonca zavolal, že schvaľujú a milujú našu prácu. No veď prečo nie? L.A. vedie v USA nevyužitými pozemkami. Mesto vlastní 26 štvorcových míľ nevyužitých pozemkov. Je to ako 20 Central Parkov. Dosť miesta na vysadenie 725 mil. sadeníc rajčín. Prečo by sa im to do čerta nepáčilo? Jedna rastlina dá 1.000-10.000 semien. Zelená fazuľka v hodnote 1 dolára vám vyprodukuje 75 dolárov. Mojim evanjeliom pre ľudí je, aby si sami dopestovali jedlo. Pestovanie vlastného jedla je ako tlačenie vlastných peňazí.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
See, I have a legacy in South Central. I grew up there. I raised my sons there. And I refuse to be a part of this manufactured reality that was manufactured for me by some other people, and I'm manufacturing my own reality.
V South Central mám dedičstvo. Vyrástol som tam, vychoval tam synov. Odmietam byť časťou reality vyrobenej pre mňa inými ľuďmi, vyrábam si vlastnú realitu.
See, I'm an artist. Gardening is my graffiti. I grow my art. Just like a graffiti artist, where they beautify walls, me, I beautify lawns, parkways. I use the garden, the soil, like it's a piece of cloth, and the plants and the trees, that's my embellishment for that cloth. You'd be surprised what the soil could do if you let it be your canvas. You just couldn't imagine how amazing a sunflower is and how it affects people.
Vidíte, som umelec. Záhradkárstvo je moje grafity. Pestujem si umenie. Ako umelec grafity skrášľuje múry, ja skrášľujem trávniky. Používam záhradu a pôdu ako kúsok plátna, rastliny a stromy sú výzdobou tohoto plátna. Boli by ste prekvapení, čo dokáže pôda, keď ju použijete ako plátno. Neviete si ani predstaviť jedinečnosť slnečnice a ako ovplyvňuje ľudí.
So what happened? I have witnessed my garden become a tool for the education, a tool for the transformation of my neighborhood. To change the community, you have to change the composition of the soil. We are the soil. You'd be surprised how kids are affected by this. Gardening is the most therapeutic and defiant act you can do, especially in the inner city. Plus you get strawberries.
Čo sa teda stalo? Moja záhrada sa stala nástrojom vzdelávania, nástrojom na transformáciu môjho susedstva. Na zmenu komunity musíte zmeniť zloženie pôdy. My sme pôda. Boli by ste prekvapení, ako to vplýva na deti. Záhradkárstvo je najterapeutickejšou výzvou, ktorej sa môžte oddať, najmä uprostred mesta. A získate ňou jahody.
(Laughter)
(Smiech)
I remember this time, there was this mother and a daughter came, it was, like, 10:30 at night, and they were in my yard, and I came out and they looked so ashamed. So I'm like, man, it made me feel bad that they were there, and I told them, you know, you don't have to do this like this. This is on the street for a reason. It made me feel ashamed to see people that were this close to me that were hungry, and this only reinforced why I do this, and people asked me, "Fin, aren't you afraid people are going to steal your food?" And I'm like, "Hell no, I ain't afraid they're gonna steal it. That's why it's on the street. That's the whole idea. I want them to take it, but at the same time, I want them to take back their health."
Spomínam si, ako prišla matka s dcérou okolo 22:30, vyšiel som na dvor, vyzerali tak zahanbene. Cítil som sa z toho zle a povedal im, ako to je. Na ulici je to z nejakého dôvodu. Zahanbila ma taká blízka prítomnosť hladných ľudí a len posilnila dôvody, prečo to robím. Ľudia sa ma pýtajú: "Fin, nebojíš sa, že ti ľudia ukradnú jedlo?" A ja: "Nie, do čerta, nebojím sa krádeže. Nato je to na ulici. V tom je podstata. Chcem, aby si to vzali a vrátilo sa im zdravie."
There's another time when I put a garden in this homeless shelter in downtown Los Angeles. These are the guys, they helped me unload the truck. It was cool, and they just shared the stories about how this affected them and how they used to plant with their mother and their grandmother, and it was just cool to see how this changed them, if it was only for that one moment.
Raz som zakladal záhradu v útulku pre bezdomovcov v centre Los Angeles. Títo chlapíci mi pomohli vyložiť auto. Bolo chladno a rozprávali príbehy, že sa ich to dotklo, pestovali s mamou a starou mamou, bolo super sledovať, ako ich to zmenilo aj keď len na chvíľu.
So Green Grounds has gone on to plant maybe 20 gardens. We've had, like, 50 people come to our dig-ins and participate, and it's all volunteers. If kids grow kale, kids eat kale. (Laughter) If they grow tomatoes, they eat tomatoes. (Applause) But when none of this is presented to them, if they're not shown how food affects the mind and the body, they blindly eat whatever the hell you put in front of them.
Green Grounds pokračovali s výsadbou asi 20 záhrad. Asi 50-ti sme chodili kopať a všetci dobrovoľníci. Ak si deti dopestujú kel, jedia kel. (Smiech) Ak si vypestujú paradajky, jedia paradajky. (Aplauz) Keď im ale neukážeme, ako jedlo ovplyvňuje myseľ a telo, slepo zjedia, čo pred ne postavíte.
I see young people and they want to work, but they're in this thing where they're caught up -- I see kids of color and they're just on this track that's designed for them, that leads them to nowhere. So with gardening, I see an opportunity where we can train these kids to take over their communities, to have a sustainable life. And when we do this, who knows? We might produce the next George Washington Carver. but if we don't change the composition of the soil, we will never do this.
Mladí ľudia chcú pracovať, ale sú akoby uväznení -- Deti farby sledujú predurčenú cestu, ktorá nikam nevedie. V záhradkárstve vidím príležitosť naučiť tieto deti, aby prevzali svoje komunity, aby mali udržateľný život. Veď kto vie? Možno splodíme ďalšieho Georga Washingtona Carvera, ak ale nezmeníme zloženie pôdy, nedosiahneme nič.
Now this is one of my plans. This is what I want to do. I want to plant a whole block of gardens where people can share in the food in the same block. I want to take shipping containers and turn them into healthy cafes. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about no free shit, because free is not sustainable. The funny thing about sustainability, you have to sustain it. (Laughter) (Applause) What I'm talking about is putting people to work, and getting kids off the street, and letting them know the joy, the pride and the honor in growing your own food, opening farmer's markets.
A to je mojim plánom, čo chcem urobiť. Chcem vysadiť celý blok záhrad, v ktorom sa ľudia podelia o jedlo. Chcem zmeniť prepravné kontajnery na zdravé kaviarne. Nechápte ma zle. Nehovorím o blbostiach zadarmo, lebo 'zadarmo' je neudržateľné. Sranda na trvalej udržateľnosti je, že sa musí udžať. (Smiech) (Aplauz) Hovorím o zamestnanosti ľudí, chcem dať deťom z ulice radosť, pýchu a česť z pestovania vlastného jedla, otvorenia farmárskych trhov.
So what I want to do here, we gotta make this sexy. So I want us all to become ecolutionary renegades, gangstas, gangsta gardeners. We gotta flip the script on what a gangsta is. If you ain't a gardener, you ain't gangsta. Get gangsta with your shovel, okay? And let that be your weapon of choice.
Chcem dosiahnuť, aby to bolo sexy. Chcem, aby sme sa stali evolučnými pirátmi, gangstrami, gangsterskými záhradníkmi. Musíme zmeniť význam Gangstera. Ak nie si záhradník, nie si gangster. Staň sa gangstrom s lopatou jasné? A zvoľ si ju za svoju zbraň.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
So basically, if you want to meet with me, you know, if you want to meet, don't call me if you want to sit around in cushy chairs and have meetings where you talk about doing some shit -- where you talk about doing some shit. If you want to meet with me, come to the garden with your shovel so we can plant some shit.
Ak ma chcete stretnúť, nevolajte mi, ak si chcete sadnúť do pohodlných kresiel a rozprávať sa o robení somarín -- kde budeme kecať o robení somarín. Ak ma chcete stretnúť, príďte do záhrady s lopatou, aby sme nejaké somariny zasadili.
Peace. Thank you.
Mier. Ďakujem vám.
(Applause) Thank you. (Applause)
(Aplauz) Ďakujem (Aplauz)