Local Sustainability Festival

The Local Sustainability Festival will be held Saturday, September 25th, 2010 from 10:30 am-4:30pm at Hare Krishna Temple (1283 Prabhupada Rd. Sandy Ridge NC 27046) "Can Stokes County sustain its own needs?” will be discussed with specific focus on the following topics: food , shelter, energy, and employment. The following Local Speakers and Activists will each give a half hour presentation: Vivian and Randy Fulk- This couple have developed Medley Meadows in King where they operate a CSA, hold music festivals in their vineyard as well as promote agri-tourism in our county. Vivian regularly speaks on Climate change at Guilford College, A&T, UNCG and Wake Forest,where she was on the Sustainability Board. She had been on the board of directors for our Local Sierra Club and has worked with Al Gore in promoting awareness of Global Climate Change. Randy will be teaching An Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture.at Surrey Community College.he is also an excellent musician, writing a lot of his own songs. John Hartman and Kay Ritchie- Growing Sorghum, A Three Way Crop This couple live near Danbury and have been living without electricity in their log cabin for as long as I've known them. They farm without tractors, using their horse team. John and Kay have been growing and processing Sorghum into molasses for about 10 years now. The seeds is a major grain crop in many parts of the world.Kay feeds it to their livestock including their milk cow, who is like part of the family to them. Winter squash is grown amongst the sorghum giving 3 crops in one field. Mathura and Aravinda -Trees That Will Feed Your Family For Generations Many of you already know my neighbor Mathura. He runs a CSA and lives in a cob house that he built from the mud on his land. He and his wife Chitra raise cows, goats, sheep and use horses as draft animals. Aravinda is new here.From West Virginia, he has a lot of experience growing Paw Paws and other easy care fruit and nut trees. Brian Heagney -Wild Food Hike-Brian's been studying this for a few years and hosts events where the group forages,then shares a meal. Here is a portion of his website devoted to this topic. Luke Staengl - Appropriate Use of BioFuels. Co-founder of the Bio-based Materials Center at Virginia Polytechnic Institute,Luke has founded and served as chief executive officer for three companies involved in converting biomass to fuel, fiber, feed and other high value products. Please see his interesting resume (attached) and the website for his company PescoBeam Julie Johnson-"Who Lives Downstream From Your Energy?" In NC we have been blessed to not have the "resource" of coal underground. In Appalachia, thousands of communities are being threatened daily by the relentless extraction of coal. The most devastating form of coal mining is mountaintop removal, a process with which the coal industry has already blasted over 500 mountains and buried over 2000 miles of headwater streams. The EPA puts it like this: The impact of mountaintop removal on nearby communities is devastating. Dynamite blasts needed to splinter rock strata are so strong they crack the foundations and walls of houses. Mining dries up an average of 100 wells a year and contaminates water in others. In many coalfield communities, the purity and availability of drinking water are keen concerns. They will also serve a lunch prepared from locally grown food.