John Stansfield - Hero of the Week | The Jackal

21 Jan 2013

John Stansfield - Hero of the Week

If you caught the news on TV One tonight, you would have seen a great little story about this guy called John Stansfield. He was reported as 'jail breaking' unused land to use for gardening, which is a great way to use land that is basically being wasted by the council.

Waihekepedia reports:

John Stansfield is a colourful, iconic islander and part of the left-wing collective known as Orapiu Grove Farm. He is an organic farmer, solar water heating salesman, political activist and wag. Once a union organiser and chief executive of the Problem Gambling Foundation, admits he took a delight in making life miserable for the gambling industry. He calls pokie machines the "crack cocaine" of the gambling industry and has been known to have one-armed bandits dropped from helicopters to make a point.

Most excellent! Amongst his various achievements, Stansfield is involved with organic farming and founded Clean Stream Waiheke Ltd, which employs twenty people and along with other community-based organisations helps keep Waiheke Island beautiful.

Clearly John Stansfield is the type of Kiwi New Zealand needs more of... So well done mate, you've won this weeks Hero award.