I attended the Green Festival this last weekend in Seattle. What great selection of speakers and exhibitors! Saw Jim Hightower and his folksy take on politics, Frances Moore Lappe, my personal hero for her book Diet for a Small Planet, Hope’s Edge is another one of her important books and Amy Goodman, from Democracy Now! They all carried the common theme of how each and every one of us can become a part of positive change. It’s a difficult time with the Iraq war and mounting loss of life, climate change with our setbacks in environmental policy, and food scarcity in some areas, including the rising cost of food due to the redirection of resources to bio-fuels. These were all inspirational speakers. I encourage everyone to attend the Green Festival if it is anywhere near you. If you missed the speeches I’m told they will be available on  greenfestivals.org   Catch the next Green Festival in Chicago!

Afterthoughts: as much as I enjoyed the Green Festival, I was hoping to gain more information about what is really happening with our food supply. Maybe I missed the speakers that could enlighten me on whether it’s a matter of distribution, redirection of food crops for bio-fuel, other factors or a combination of many. Food riots are happening in across Africa. Will we see this soon in the U.S? Bio-fuel has become our cow, relating back to how much feed and water goes into making a pound of beef. It is a similar situation with making bio-fuel, a large amount of resources and energy goes into making a gallon of fuel. Will we feed our cars before we feed ourselves?

More news on the Seattle Green Festival later…