Ed Begley Jr. speaks in Goleta — Barbara Greenleaf

Actor speaks about his career and the environment at Congregation B’nai B’rith

Barbara Greenleaf and Ed Begley Jr., also shown below, engage in a talk at the Congregation B’nai B’rith in Santa Barbara.

One of actor Ed Begley Jr.’s first efforts to help the environment occurred back in 1970, when he found it hard to compost while living in an apartment.

So he filled a diaper pail with food leftovers he normally would toss, let it “ripen” for four or five days and dumped it in a hole on the side of some railroad tracks.

“Tomatoes started growing!” he told a packed audience during a Sunday interview at a Goleta synagogue. “It was the most neglectful garden you’ve ever heard of.” He’s grown vegetable gardens ever since.

The audience laughed and applauded, two reactions he received often while telling stories about his twin passions of acting and environmental work during the interview at Congregation B’nai B’rith with ECO Team founder and author Barbara Greenleaf.

Note: In October 2022, Barbara was pleased to present ECO Team’s first Environmental Hero Award to Ed Begley, Jr., for whom the award is named. Ed is not only a well-known actor, starting with his breakthrough TV role in St. Elsewhere, he is an outstanding advocate for and popularization of living green. This article is part of a series of events Barbara built around him.