by Dot Cannon
Living in harmony with our planet is a choice.
And from Friday, September 16th through Sunday, September 18th, Los Angeles’ sixth annual Green Festival® Expo explored that choice in depth.
L.A.’s edition of the Green Festival®, happening at the Los Angeles Convention Center, included a full range of presentations and demonstrations, along with their expo exhibition.
For the first time, according to Green Festivals President Dr. Corinna Basler, the L.A. Green Festival’s roster included more than 100 speakers.
One of Friday’s many standout speakers was The Gentle Barn founder Ellie Laks. During her presentation, Laks shared the story of creating her organization, which has now been in operation for seventeen years.
“We rescue severely abused and neglected animals that nobody else wants,” she told the audience. “When the animals are ready, they help do the same with people whose story is the same.”
The Gentle Barn works with at-risk youth, special-needs children and school groups, educating them about animals and teaching compassion. (They have locations in both California and Tennessee, and house one hundred seventy farm animals, according to their website.)
Green business was the subject of a number of the presentations throughout the weekend.
Santa Monica’s Expert DOJO hosted business-to-business “power sessions”, all Friday afternoon, as well as Saturday morning.
“You really, really commit to the truth of your message or you just don’t bother,” Expert DOJO Chief Community Officer Brian MacMahon told his audience on Friday, during his talk on “Revolutionize the Way You Pitch Your Business”. “The first two or three minutes (of a conversation) is really important. The frame is everything.”
A new addition, to this year’s Green Festival® was the Green Yoga Pavilion, which offered free classes on all different types of yoga throughout the weekend.
These included an “Inversions” session with guide, author and community builder Radhanath Swami on Saturday afternoon.
Another new addition? Some of the animals at the Have a Heart Ranch animal rescue exhibit. This was the first year we’ve seen pigs, chickens and bunnies onsite at the Green Festival®. Lots of attendees couldn’t resist getting into the pen to pet them!
This kitten was watching the proceedings from Have a Heart’s exhibit table among the “Green Festival Community Awards” finalists on Friday. (A volunteer told us they’d found her abandoned by the side of a road.)
Needless to say, her inclusion among the five finalists, for whom attendees could vote to receive a $5,000 grant, did NOT make the selection any easier!
The expo floor was full of learning opportunities…
…and chances for some important dialogues.
A number of the new vendors had just started their independent businesses.
One of those was Bone Rebellion. According to their Facebook page, the Los Angeles Green Festival® marked their first show.
Exhibitor Keith Tisdale (r, pictured with founder Therron Spence on left) says their brand is based on the principles of compassion and giving back. Their clothing is made in the USA, from all organic and recycled materials. A portion of Bone Rebellion’s proceeds go to animal-rescue organizations, and their online store will be opening soon.
We also especially liked Water Gallery’s artistic glassware. Founder Kenny Laskan deals in glass water bottles and drinkware officially licensed by artists including Wyland, Guy Harvey and Drew Brophy. Water Gallery produces its bottles and glasses locally in Southern California, and according to their website, they’re committed to avoiding mass-produced manufacturing.
(And they give back! Their website also says they donate 3% of each purchase to an organization of the artist’s choice, with an additional 1% going to nonprofits that focus on sustainability.)
A third favorite was Big Brazos World Village. They’re a fair-trade business which deals in handcrafted instruments and artifacts from all over the world.
Program Manager Rachel Day demonstrated some of the instruments, including this rainstick and the carved frog–which did, indeed, sound like a real one!
On Saturday, the keynote speaker was musician and author Moby, who gave his message on “Animal Agriculture and the Environment” to a standing-room-only crowd.
“I get asked this recurring question: ‘why are you a vegan?'” he began, before explaining that the answer was complicated. That answer, though, began with his love for animals.
Recalling his childhood in Connecticut, Moby said he had had an epiphany while taking care of his pets.
“I was petting Tucker the cat, who I had had since he was a tiny little baby. Something happened in that moment, where I realized that every creature was just like Tucker (with two eyes, a central nervous system, and wanting to avoid pain).”
But Moby also cited other reasons for his veganism, including the environment and human health.
“Animal agriculture contributes fifty percent of climate change,” he said. “What about all the petroleum and energy that’s used to move the animals around, to grow their food and keep them warm in the winter?”
In the area of human health, Moby had some statistics to share. “One hundred percent of famine is caused by animal agriculture. It takes a hundred pounds of grain to make three ounces of meat. It’s the most inefficient use of resources I can think of. (How much bread could you bake, and how many people could you feed, with that much grain?)”
Another pressing concern, he said, was the depletion of oxygen due to animal agriculture. “This is, for me, the scariest thing. At some point, due to animal agriculture, (we won’t have enough oxygen and) we won’t be able to breathe.”
“I hope you’re scared and angry and upset,” he said, near the end of his presentation, “because all of this is avoidable. Stop using animals for food.”
Despite the ominous warning, Moby’s delivery was warm and personable. During his Q and A, he called on a 12-year-old who asked him, in effect, if the adults were leaving behind a world that children his age would find uninhabitable.
“I’m 51, I have never been that clear-spoken in my entire life,” Moby said, to laughter from the audience.
Several hours later, Global Exchange co-founder Kevin Danaher would also issue a warning–and a call to action.
“Climate chaos is happening now,” he said. Referencing the melting of glaciers, he commented that the earth’s oceans could rise by two hundred feet.
“The issue (in Manhattan when that happens) won’t be affordable housing, it will be fordable housing,” he commented. “Can you get to it in a boat?”
Organizing, working together and accepting that climate change is real, he said, was the key. “(Right now) the U.S. military is doing a lot of ‘green’ stuff. They accept climate change science.”
“What kind of ancestors will we be?” he challenged. “History is on our side, but we got to get out and be active.”
Another popular feature of this year’s Los Angeles Green Festival® was the screening of the multiple award-winning documentary, “Love Thy Nature“. Filmmaker Sylvie Rokab was on hand to discuss her film’s message.
“I hear a lot of parents saying, ‘my kids are so connected to technology, I don’t know how to get them to stop’,” she said. “We need to schedule time in nature. We’re not going to protect what we don’t love.”
At the end of her presentation, Rokab had another takeaway for each of her audience members: a blue marble, symbolic of what the Apollo 17 astronauts saw from their spaceship. She asked her listeners to use the marble to pass on an “attitude of gratitude” through The Blue Marbles Project, started in 2009. Recipients, she explained, were to hold their marbles high, imagine life on our planet, then plan on passing on their marbles.
“Make sure to give it away to someone who’s made a difference on our beautiful blue planet,” she said. “So enjoy it and pass it along. I wish you nature.”
The next Green Festival® happens on San Francisco’s Pier 35 at the Embarcadero, Friday, November 11th through Sunday, November 13th. Here’s the link for more information.