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This summer, indie music and yoga embraced a newfound relationship in a surreal Squaw Valley setting. Positioned by the July 24-26 event creators Jeff Krasno and Schuyler Grant as “a new kind of festival bringing together the world’s top yoga teachers and the best performers in rock & roll, all in a setting of breathtaking natural beauty,” the Wanderlust boasted three stages for a lineup of performers including Andrew Bird, Bhi Bhiman, Common, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Wendy Darling, DJ Rekha, Elizaveta, William Fitzsimmons, Girl Talk, Rachel Goodrich, The Honey Brothers, Jai Uttal, Kaki King, Sonya Kitchell, Lazer Sword, Jenny Lewis, Mates of State, MC Yogi, The Mutaytor, Amanda Palmer, Rogue Wave, Sydney Wayser and Gillian Welch. Yoga devotees were treated to sessions by Katchie Ananda, Elena Brower, Annie Carpenter, John Friend, Kenny Graham, Schuyler Grant, Jason & Jenny, Les Levanthal, Christy Nones, Shiva Rea, Sianna Sherman, Janet Stone, Doug Swenson, Rusty Wells and Duncan Wong.
Jeff’s aspirations for the event were, “We want people to leave feeling better than they did when they came, transformed in some positive way” and his wife and partner Schuyler’s vision was “to incorporate the exhuberance and the joy and the fun of a music festival and the deeper experience of a yoga retreat” (New York Times, 7/27/’09, “Say Namaste! Party by Night, Downward Dog by Day,” Melena Ryzik, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/arts/music/28yoga.html?_r=2&ref=music)ttp://. For the 4,000 Wanderlust attendees, the duo delivered.
However, there is another element to Wanderlust: the commitment to a “zero impact” event in its first year. As if managing the logistics of a major debut event like Wanderlust didn’t have enough challenges, other music festivals should take note of Wanderlust’s out-of-the-gate program for promoting greening and sustainability:
* Streamlined program to process landfill trash, recycling, and biodegradable (compostable) materials, such as food, paper products, and bio-plastics reducing trash to the landfill by 80% to 90%.
* Separate dumpsters and hauling for recycling, compost and trash.
* Sustainable food and beverage program including sourcing food from local vendors wherever possible, a farmer’s market on-site. When local food is not availab le, only organic, sustainably farmed foods will be purchased and made available.
* Utensils, cups, plates and other food-service ware are all sustainable. Products made of Styrofoam and non-recyclable plastics (such as white picnic cutlery) have been banned at the event to avoid contamination and reach Wanderlust’s 90% zero-waste goal.
* Water filling stations throughout the festival. Where bottled water is sold, the bottles will be made from compostable organic corn-based plastic.
* If generators become necessary, we will source B20 biodiesel. Plans include offering B20 biodiesel refueling on-site for all artist tour buses.
* Offering ticketholders the option of contributing $5 to carbon offsets when purchasing their tickets. 100% of this revenue will be paid to our carbon offset partner.
* At least fifty volunteers to be part of a on-site “Green Team.” The Green Team will be stationed at waste reclamation stations to explain the proper separation and disposal of compostable materials, recyclables, and waste.
You can read more about Wanderlust and their green efforts at their website: http://www.wanderlustfestival.com
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I encourage every acoustic guitar player and eco-evangelist to read Gayla Drake Paul’s feature article, “Sustainable Tone” in the July 2009 issue of Premier Guitar magazine. Gayla strikes an important chord about the needed harmony between acoustic guitar manufacturing and sustainability. It is a must read.
http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2009/Jul/Sustainable_Tone_The_Forest_and_the_Trees.aspx
http://digital.premierguitar.com/premierguitar/200907_1/
And check out these 3 reviews of green-built guitars also in Premier Guitar:
http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2009/Jul/Martin_SWOMGT_Acoustic_Guitar_Review.aspx
http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2009/Jun/Flaxwood_Liekki_Electric_Guitar_Review.aspx
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Hey Everyone. I thought I’d talk about how being vegetarian is one of the best things you can do for the environment, and which musicians have figured it out.
Americans are consuming more meat products than ever before. This phenomenon is mostly due in part because manufacturers realized the potential market for meat and continued to increase the supply, thus increasing our demand for it. But, like any other product, humans and the environment can only receive so much surplus. Increased outputs of meat products have manifested in heart disease, high cholesterol, cancer and obesity plaguing our population and environmental degradation all over the planet.
Meat needs to be manufactured efficiently and in large quantities to turn a profit. Manufacturers like Tyson are always looking for ways to decrease the costs of inputs (i.e., labor, feed, and land) to make profit after product mark-ups, so they move operations abroad or to southern states. Such large quantities of animals require a lot of space to be held (although commercial farmers often overcrowd barns at unhealthy levels for the animals) and a lot of food to survive. The poultry industry alone uses 1/7 of the US corn crop and 1/5 of all soybeans (Roberts). As a result, precious rainforests are being cut down to grow soybeans for animal feed and for animal grazing, soil is being degraded, and valuable resources are becoming scarce. In a capitalist economy, businesses must function on a produce-more-to-make-more model, or else they will be bought out by another business or die. This never-enough functionality does not account for the limits of the human body or the environment. To stay afloat, businesses spend millions of dollars each year in advertising to convince buyers that they need more. This is true for not just meat, but breakfast cereal, fast food chains and snack foods. An overabundance of factory farming causes serious degradation as well. Soil to grow soybeans is overused and loses its nutrients, water is overused in the same areas that experience drought, runoff (animal excrement and chemicals from herbicides and pesticides sprayed on crops) pollute nearby water bodies used for drinking water, and even cow farts (that release methane, a very toxic greenhouse gas) are said to cause more pollution than cars.
Factory farms can house hundreds of thousands of animals is one facility, giving the animals little or no room to move around, often standing in their own excrement. This environment is a breeding ground for bacteria and disease. The combat infection, animals are treated with antibiotics that remain in the meat and dairy products after processing and enter our bodies when we eat it. Recent studies have reported young girls getting their period alarmingly early in life because of added hormones to encourage rapid growth. Even with safety precautions, virus strains or pathogens are not easy to spot before they are packed, if at all. Manufacturers are in no rush to enact heavier safety measures (despite mounting death tolls due to food poisoning, including the 2007 spinach E. coli scare) because it is almost impossible for the FDA to trace the pathogen’s origins.
Slaughtering and handling is often conducted inhumanely and painfully to the animal, making their lives stressful and their suffering disturbing. But even if you are not an activist in animal rights, one has to admit the way factory farming consumes our resources (including fossil fuels, grains and water) is simply abhorrent and detrimental to our environment and economy. Not to mention the threat it can be to one’s health. Even if you consume meat in moderation (like anything else), an alarming number of our meat products are treated with artificial growth hormones (so they grow faster and more animals can be killed in a shorter amount of time), antibiotics (to prevent and treat animals with disease, often because of their close confinement with one another and inability to move around), or they are carrying a disease with them (i.e. mad cow). What’s worse, the FDA claims that it can only monitor and inspect about 2% of our total imported food (Roberts). In a time when the threat of a food-borne pandemic is possible, the potential for the avian flu virus common in imported chicken from Asia should make us all take pause. In fact, all the virus would need to be contagious between humans is a meeting with the human flu inside a host. Currently, the infamous H5N1 strain has become zoonotic, meaing it has the ability to pass from animal to human. The looming concern is that the virus will be able to pass between people, giving it the potential to become a global pandemic.
Another serious social concern is how a world that produces so many food stuffs can have mounting global hunger and malnourishment. For one, population growth has provided us with more mouths to feed. Another reason is strict trade rules delegated to developing countries by the World Bank in the 1950s and 60s to help them out of bankruptcy. To ensure low cost inputs to major food manufacturers, farm owners in the third world are not paid what their products are worth and are often dependent on foreign distributors of herbicides and pesticides to secure large crop yields. As a result, these farmers cannot compete in the global market, stifling their development.
It is most admirable that celebrities have been doing their part to preserve the environment, using their exposure to educate and influence public decisions. However, for those of us who can’t afford a Prius or solar panels for our homes, I want you to know that becoming a vegetarian or vegan is equally as admirable and significant a contribution, if not more so. Musicians, like Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson and Guster who have the finances to offset the gasoline used in their tour buses and private jets is very respectable. But for you indie artists who are trying to land that record deal, purchasing shoes free of leather or refusing to eat meat is an inexpensive but powerful way to help the environment. Just because your recording studio isn’t powered by wind doesn’t mean that you can make a meaningful contribution to preserving the world you love so much.
Some vegetarian/vegan musicians include: A.F.I., Depeche Mode, Billy Idol, Moby, Prince, Joss Stone, Yes, Bob Dylan, Lenny Kravitz, Andre 3000, Kirk Hammett of Metallica, Alanis Morissette, Leona Lewis, Rikki Rocket of Poison, and Tim Commerford of Rage Against the Machine.
Paul McCartney, Joan Jett and Masta Killa from the Wu-Tang Clan are all poster celebrities for PeTA video and print ads promoting vegetarianism. Pamela Anderson, Stella McCartney and Natalie Portman have started vegan clothing/shoe lines. If you’re not quite ready to give up meat, cruelty-free clothing is a great place to start.
If you’re interested in becoming vegetarian or vegan, sign up for a free starter guide from PeTA to help you make the transition: http://www.goveg.com/order.asp
Here are some links to vegetarian recipes. Enjoy!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Everyday-Cooking/Vegetarian/Main.aspx
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/
http://www.clairescornercopia.com/2recipes.htm
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I’m here to highlight what contributions the music industry is making to help “green” the earth, but I plan on doing more than that. I want to reflect American youth right now, what we’re feeling and thinking, what we want our world to be like, and what we crave. I want to update you on green product design, organic fabrics & foods and innovations in urban agriculture. I believe that you don’t have to compromise personal choices, fashion or even practicality for a more sustainable lifestyle.
First, I want to tell you a little bit more about how I got interested in “green living.” Previously, I worked for Save The Children and the New York Public Interest and Research Group (NYPIRG), the largest student-run advocacy group in New York state, addressing environmental issues, good governance, hunger, homelessness and civil rights. Working for non-profits allowed me to see just how capable people (even students) can be in saving lives and making a significant difference in their communities. Currently, I’m interning with Green Map, an international non-profit organization that encourages community members to make maps of their hometowns, locating natural and cultural sites. Last fall I studied in India, learning about sustainable farming practices like rainwater harvesting, permaculture and natural hybridization. It was instruction from a non-Western perspective that cultivated a healthy skepticism in me. When I returned home, my perspective on what I consider beautiful or what’s truly important changed. I realized that each place is beautiful because it reflects the people who live there. The memories that stuck with me the most were those of amazing resilience in the poorest people who have come back from near death with a little help from their communities and innovative ideas in sustainable agriculture (much like the way Muhammed Yunnus changed the lives of Bangladeshis with micro-loans).
I put “green” in quotes because that word has become synonymous with so many things that it has almost lost its meaning. Businesses are taking advantage of this new market and trying to convince buyers that their new products are good for the environment and good for you. Often, however they are just better than their previous concoction, which isn’t saying much. I want to define as many terms and processes associated with sustainability as I can, providing you with an eco-encyclopedia to guide you through the industry. Purchasing power is one of the strongest forms of influence in a capitalist society, and if buyers have the ability and knowledge of ”green” options, they’ll pick them. In this way, young people can significantly change this country’s economy, without compromising their desires.
Now, green choices can include your music purchases. Green Mountain Energy for example, now offers the first Be Green Ticket sm . Ticket agencies and artists can join this program and offer the Be Green Ticket sm option. Every concert-goer that buys this ticket will be awarded “with up to 1,000 kilowatts (kWh) of Green e-certified renewable energy certificates to offset approximately 1,300 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2).” Can’t afford a concert this summer? Buy a CD from a store that sells used or previously owned CDs and offer your old ones for resale. CDs and DVDs often end up in landfills because many recycling centers don’t accept them and can take 1 million years to fully decompose. You can mail your old CDs to Back Thru the Future an they’ll recycle them for free.
Music, like any other art, can be a revolt against something we’re not happy about. It helps us get the word out when we can’t get them out. Music is a good indicator of something gone wrong. If the music is angry, something is letting us down. Often, we feel like we can’t make a difference. Music is a way we can, or at least vent about how we can’t. If we don’t see change, we seek out our own answers, our own solutions. We expect things to come to us, not because we trust someone will give it to us but because we know more than anyone what we want and demand it. Sometimes you just have to be loud- then people have to listen.
My advice to you is to think globally and act locally. We can learn a lot from others’ successes, but each place is different and we know our community best. I encourage applying awareness and energy to change the things we care about the most and to inspire others to do the same. You don’t have to be Bono to change the world. Every decision you make may seem small and insignificant, but those choices are the point of so many international campaigns. Companies and non-profits spend millions of dollars each year trying to influence your decisions. I’m not saying you shouldn’t buy that Coke you’ve been thinking about all afternoon, sitting in the hot summer sun, or that you shouldn’t make a monthly donation to Greenpeace. What I am suggesting is that you be always curious and aware. Question everything and make choices based on your own informed decision, not someone else’s. In fact, I hope you investigate everything I post.
Hopefully this blog will provide you with some information and inspiration on how to express your beliefs without having to sell them away.
