2019 Garlic & Arts Festival

Here are the Renewable Energy /Local Living Talks from 2019 – check out the web sites listed for more information on each organization.

Give Bees a Chance: What Everyone Needs to Know about Neonicotinoids – Tom Sullivan, Western MA Pollinators Network

As we face the tragic loss of our honey bees and native pollinators one major factor attributed to their decline is toxins that are being applied from crops to lawns: Neonicotinoids. These broad-scale and systemic pesticides are absorbed by plant roots and thus translocated to the nectar and pollen of flowers from which bees, butterflies draw sustenance. They are being used globally and sold under many quaint names.

Once a beekeeper, Tom Sullivan focuses on our high need for pollination services in his landscape design business. He has given talks at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, The Naturalist Club in Springfield, the 40th Anniversary of the Conway School of which he is a graduate, the NOFA Summer Conference and the Garlic and Arts Festival, among many others.

Tom will prepare you for the largest pollination crisis on record by zooming in on pollinator vulnerabilities, the scale of the crisis, and what we can do locally and nationally to regain pollinator and terrestrial ecosystem health.

You will learn how Neonicotinoids work to protect plants at the expense of pollinators along with bee-scaping strategies and practices for attracting high numbers of native bees to your landscape, and what MA and other states and municipalities are doing to halt the sale and use of Neonicotinoids.

www.pollinatorswelcome.com

Common Good: a Payment Card for Community Power – Christine Lindstrom

Common Good is a grassroots, non-profit  debit card system out of Ashfield, which enables account holders to invest their funds directly in their communities.  After a four year pilot in Greenfield, with 300 account holders and 50 participating businesses, the account holders were able to invest $30,000 in local groups and businesses that improve social and economic health in Franklin County.  The Common Good payment system shares the same goal with the Garlic and Arts festival, that of local economic and social vitality, but instead of using a festival to make it happen, we use a payment system!   Come here more and sign up to help improve western Mass (and take advantage of discounts offered by festival vendors!).

Christine Lindstrom is the marketing director for Common Good, working to expand membership in western Massachusetts.   Previously she worked for 25 years in grassroots social change with MASSPIRG and U.S. PIRG. https://commongood.earth/

Sunrise Movement, Extiction Rebellion, and the Green New Deal

Who is Sunrise Movement, and what is the Green New Deal? Sunrise is a nationwide youth-led climate movement fighting to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process. The Green New Deal is a proposed economic stimulus package that aims to address climate change and economic inequality.

Sunrise Movement is a group of ordinary young people who are scared about what the climate crisis means for the people and places we love. We are gathering in classrooms, living rooms, and worship halls across the country. Everyone has a role to play. Public opinion is already with us – if we unite by the millions we can turn this into political power and reclaim our democracy.

We’re building an army of young people to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and well-being of all people. We are not looking to the right or left. We look forward.

The national Sunrise site: https://www.sunrisemovement.org/

The Worcester hub signup bit.ly/sunrise-worcester-signup

Extinction Rebellion is a strictly non-violent movement, whose overall ambition is an international rebellion that helps humanity to turn quickly onto a course that is compatible with life on earth, and to build resilient communities in the face of ecological and societal crisis. We operate under the principals of Holocracy with a decentralized structure.

Founded by Rising Up! in the UK, Extinction Rebellion took its first acts of civil disobedience in November 2018, as 6000 rebels shut down five London bridges. Immediately after this, the movement grew rapidly to become an international uprising which now spans over 200 chapters worldwide.

For further understanding go to, XRebellion.org or XRMass.org

Meet Your Community Makerspace – Brianna Drohen

LaunchSpace is a non-profit, member-based community workshop in the Orange Innovation Center, providing tools, equipment, education, and support to people who want to make and repair things, but don’t have space, money, or time to build a shop of their own. It offers an environment to share creative energy, a classroom for personal learning for all ages, workforce training for re-entry into the job market and business development resources along with incubation and acceleration programs through partnerships and collaboration with some of the states leading organizations. We will be introducing you to the space, discussing who we are and signing up members!

Brianna Drohen, is the President, Founding Director of LaunchSpace & the Director of Business Development at the Orange Innovation Center.

She brings a wealth of leadership experience in business, event planning, and grant research to the LaunchSpace team. As a Wendell native, she is passionate about building community projects that enhance local economic growth and development, such as makerspaces and the Orange Innovation Center. Her work over the past five years has focused on bringing real change to the North Quabbin region. She has been involved with international education and resource development with the goal of bringing the LaunchSpace platform into third world community networks. http://www.launchspace-orange.com/

Seed Saving & Heathy Soil = Resilient Communities  – Jess Cherry, Sweetwater Farm 

Jess will explain the basics of seed saving, how it’s done on the farm, and the processes involved in building good soil to grow those seeds. Humans can then go on to cultivate heathy and resilient communities.

Jess cherry is a local seed-saver and soil-builder who lives on Sweetwater Farm in Petersham with his partner and child. 

http://www.sweetwaterfarm.com/

Mushrooms for Dinner: with a side order to heal your body and mind – Paul Lagreze, New England Wild Edibles

Paul will talk about the flavor of 3 different gourmet mushrooms: where they grow, their health benefits, and demonstrate how to saute them, using a dry to wet to oil sauté technique. http://www.newedibles.com

Moving Towards Sustainable Building Products: from where we are to where we need to be – Andy Cole, Andy Cole Builders

With expansive use of available materials and a desire to use more benign products in the houses we construct, this talk is geared towards examining what existing building products we use and why, as well as new products that are coming and how to best source and use them. The main focus will be on insulation materials, but other aspects of buildings are up for discussion.

We will compare foam spray to cellulose while also examining new wood and straw-based insulations that are only beginning to ramp up to production scale.

Andy Cole started Andy Cole Builders 16 years ago. Our team’s focus is on energy efficiency and quality construction. We concentrate on building a better, healthier building that uses less energy and is more comfortable to live in. We have been at the cutting edge of the green building wave since our beginnings. Besides being passionate about the building industry, Andy is also an avid farmer (Everyday Farm in Gill MA), and outdoor adventurer. 

Greening the Grid – Molly Craft and Ed Rutledge, Center for Ecological Technology

For over 40 years the Center for EcoTechnology has been offering innovative, effective and practical programs and services to help people and businesses live and work more sustainably. Join us today for an overview of how “we make green make sense”. We’ll discuss programs and services for residents like Solar Access, High Performance Building and Green Power, and programs for businesses like the Mass Farm Energy Program and Wasted Food Solutions. Learn how you can take action today for a sustainable future through energy efficiency, waste reduction and renewable energy!

Ed Rutledge has been the Outreach and Education Specialist for the Center for EcoTechnology for five years, including mentoring and coordinating CET’s EcoFellowship Program. His prior experience includes almost 20 years in the field of residential, commercial and industrial energy efficiency.

Molly Craft is CET’s Community Outreach EcoFellow. Molly is a 2019 graduate of the University of Massachusetts with a BS in Environmental Conservation and is an experienced and passionate communicator about solutions to climate change. https://www.cetonline.org/