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Meet Ron Finley: A gansta gardener

One man's solution to the food desert in South Central, Los Angeles.

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Woohae Cho/Reuters/File
City workers tend to rice plants at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, South Korea, in June. Boxes of rice seedlings will be tended to until they are ready for harvesting. Cities all over the world are encouraging the planting of urban gardens.

Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central, Los Angeles, in abandoned lots, traffic medians, and along sidewalk curbs. He sees himself as an artist of the soil, a renegade against fast food, and a visionary to inspire and involve inner city kids in hard work that pays off in a community where “the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys.”

Mr. Finley recently gave an inspiring TED talk (see video).

Finley says, if kids grow kale, they will eat kale.

Looks like there is some hope springing up in one of L.A.'s food deserts.

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