by Bob Banner
Is it just the marketing of Earth Day or is the mainstream media becoming more genuinely interested in things that are green? Oprah is talking about Waste. Forbes Magazine did a feature story about EcoVillages and featured 8 of them throughout the globe. Time Magazine came out with its Green Cover. Last Sunday NYTs Magazine came out with its “Green Issue.” And today there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about “suburban farmers.” Can I finally retire or what? Has the media revolution finally started?
As typical with HopeDance's “mission,” we delve into models, examples, stories, people and analyses that are on the pioneering edge of what a positive, sustainable, and socially just future will look like. Not just yakking about the “possibilities” but actually reporting on the realities, as in “where is the beef?” Which brings us to a feature story in this issue about grassfed beef. We hired local food journalist Cathe Olson to investigate the new and growing grassfed beef movement here on the Central Coast at Hearst Ranch. She also reports on the plastic bottle debacle. Shawna Galassi writes about Jeff Sauer who left his corporate job to not only reusing barn wood for beautiful furniture but doing it with such pride.
Hali Callow explains all about organic wines and where we can purchase it in the tri-county area. Sarah Edwards, coauthor of Middle Class Lifeboat, writes about a new phenomenon called eco-anxiety. It's not in our heads folks. It’s real, and being an ecotherapist she shares important wisdom. Julian Darley, director of the Post Carbon Institute gives us a very current exploration of the global food crisis and connects it with oil depletion and our need for genuine local action and preparation. As the PCI website declares most fittingly: Reduce Consumption, Produce Locally.
Bill Plotkin has written a blockbuster magnum opus that integrates nature, our soul, developmental stages of humans and where our culture is heading. See the book review and interview in this issue .
For a very practical example of what neighborhoods are doing, Owen Dell reports on the Mesa Exchange, building community through neighborhood foodsheds.
And much more...
I will be taking a brief respite from HopeDance. There will be no films from May to the end of summer (except May 2 and May 30&31). Of course we will still be renting out the films. No Summer issue. The interactive listservs will still be operational as well as the website, www.hopedance.org. I will be retreating, writing, sleeping, workshopping and traveling for 3-4 months. Publishing and editing HopeDance efficiently for 11 years has been quite enlivening as well as inspirational and therapeutic for me. But I smell changes in the air and need to honor some possible new directions.
Thanks for reading and supporting this experiment and venture called HopeDance all these years. See you at the HopeDance Party on May 4th.
Bob Banner, Publisher
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