Today, I went to the DC Green Festival. It’s a big, expo-style event with exhibitors, food, workshops, and super-star speakers. Think of it as a who’s who of green businesses and green thought leaders. It’s organized by Green America and Equal Exchange, two amazing non-profits in the green space. It’s a great event, with a little bit of something for everyone who wants to be greener. They adhere to a relatively broad definition of “green,” too, covering topics from carbon footprints to social justice. There are food manufacturers, clothing vendors, non-profits, green builders, … the list goes on. Alisa Gravitz of Green America described their goal as trying to get each attendee to learn one new way to be greener – and they must be succeeding, because it’s hard to believe that anyone could attend without learning at least something new.
I think this is the 4th year in a row that I’ve gone – every year that I’ve lived in the DC area, which seems now like a stunningly long time. Every year I go, my experience and perspective is a little different. This year… I feel cynical. I walked through the main hall, where all the exhibitors have their tables, and was struck by the impression that, apparently, you have to spend a lot of money to be green. There are a LOT of things to buy. And, honestly, I wonder how green some of them really are. Green America screens all the exhibitors, so you can be assured that all of them meet a standard, but the value of some of them is debatable. Should you buy bottled iced tea? Sure, it’s healthier than soda, but is it that much better for the environment than bottled water? Why not buy some loose tea and brew your own iced tea? It’s not rocket science. Or, how about a soda-making machine for your home? That doesn’t have the high carbon footprint from shipping water around the world, but what are the health impacts? Should you really be drinking so much soda that it makes financial sense for you to make it yourself? What about all the processed foods being sold? Sure, the companies are green, but is it better to support a green company or cook for yourself?
These sorts of questions, conversations, and introspection are notably absent from the Green Festival, which at times seems to be more about creating new green consumers than greener lifestyles. There are a lot of great companies there, doing some really noble things. But there isn’t much debate about how to be green, or what it even means to be green. The event is very green-economy focused, which is not surprising considering the organizations behind it. Green America does amazing work critiquing large, irresponsible corporations and promoting small, green businesses in their place. But because of that focus, there’s a whole side of the green lifestyle that’s not really represented, which is the notion that we, as a society, should start consuming less.
That gap is partially, but not satisfactorily, covered by the really top-notch speakers. Again the topics vary, but most of the speakers focus more on the big picture and the future of the movement than on particular steps (or purchases) to make you greener. This year, I had the good fortune to hear Dr. Cornel West and Joel Salatin.
Dr. West talked about the need for justice, and tied that need to the green movement. I don’t think I can give a fair summary of his talk – it was rambling and inspiring and ended up as a cluster of big ideas in my head without particular points that I can remember and articulate. But the gist was that there’s still a lot of injustice in the world, and that not only should Washington be addressing it, but we each need to live our lives with justice and love (Dr West is big on love) in our hearts.
The second speaker, Joel Salatin, took a much more political, pratical approach to being green. He’s a farmer and one of the major advocates for small, sustainable farms in our agricultural policies. He runs Polyface Farms in Virginia – if you’ve read Michael Pollan’s “Omnivore’s Dilemma” you’ll probably remember Salatin as the prime example of small organic farming. He’s quite a speaker, and he’s unapologetically critical of Big Agriculture and the USDA (which he pronounces “U-S-Duh”). His talk was called “Everything I want to do is illegal” and he took us on a whirlwind tour of the regulations designed for big factory farms that make it prohibitively complicated and expensive for small farms to do business. He was especially vicious about the USDA’s insistence that farmers use “science-based” practices… while refusing to recognize studies suggesting that factory farming itself puts our food in more danger than small farming ever could. At their heart, Salatin says, government regulations are designed on the assumption that farmers (large farms, that is) will do everything they can to cut corners… while honest, hard-working farmers who put their personal integrity towards the food they produce are forced to play by the same rules as the big guys.
From Salatin came my new favorite guideline for deciding whether to favor a government regulation: “If Monsanto’s for it, I’m against it!” (Monsanto being the biggest of the big industrial agriculture corporations – whether or not you know them by name, they’re involved in the production of almost everything you eat.)
I think Salatin shared some of my frustration with the festival – towards the end, he somewhat apologetically shared something he “just had to get off his chest”: there were a lot of great companies at the Green Festival, but we’d all be better off if we’d just buy food from our local farmers, and cook it ourselves. Amen to that!
Both the talks I saw were great, but there was still an overwhelming lack of dialog – lots of incredibly smart people sharing their ideas one at a time, with no conversation between them.
Maybe the Green Festival isn’t the right forum for that sort of dialog and deeper thinking, but I’m not sure what the right place would be. Maybe it requires an entirely new event. But it felt to me like something was missing – there was lots of joyful consumerism and sharing of innovation, but very little introspection.
Or maybe I am just getting old and cynical…
One Comment
I thought about going to the Green Festival this year, but it didn’t work out, so I’m glad to have heard about it vicariously through you. And when I read the booklet that Green America sent out advertising it, I actually had the same impression as you did at the festival itself: it seemed to mostly be very consumer-oriented, a huge list of “green” venders. But what else to expect from the people who are most known for publishing the Green Pages?