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Going Green is Good – and Also Profitable
by Jo Freeman
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Ever wonder what happened to the counterculture of the 1960s? Well, it grew
up, went corporate and, along with its cultural descendants, congregates at
the Green Festival. It took a few decades to come together, but five years
ago Global Exchange joined with Co-op
America to hold a Green Festival in San
Francisco. Three years ago it added another one in Washington, DC, and
this year will sponsor a third festival in Chicago in November.
They get bigger every year. Over 25,000 people attended the third annual DC
green festival at the DC convention center on October 14-15, where they
browsed some 350 exhibitors in between sampling lectures, panels, films and
various types of yoga and meditation classes. While general admission was
$15 per day, all sorts of discounts were available. Two-for-one passes
abounded. Tickets for seniors, students, union members and bike riders were
only $7. Volunteers got in free. So did anyone who brought a used incandescent bulb to exchange for a free fluorescent lamp.
Although there were plenty of commercial enterprises, they were a select
group of capitalists. Not just anyone can rent a 100 square feet of space
for $950 to $1150 (plus other costs). The sponsors screen their exhibitors
for "their commitment to sustainability, ecological balance and social
justice." Among those who made the cut were a wide variety of businesses,
selling everything from clothes to coffee to MBAs (in sustainable
enterprise) to house, body and pet care products — and lots, lots more.
As with most exhibitions, one could nibble ones way through the show. However, in keeping with the theme, organic was in and candy, if not out,
was at least limited. Servings were dispensed in tiny cups made out of
potatoes, which decompose within a few weeks. Greeting me at the entrance
was
Annie's, serving many components of a regular meal — salad with special dressing, macaroni and cheese and snack crackers. Honest Tea let you wash it down with
"Real Tea" that was "loaded with Antioxidants ... Not Sugar." Stahlbush Island Farms passed out cups of frozen
blueberries — guaranteed to be organic and free of pesticides.
Or, if you wanted something exotic, there was Acai — an antioxidant rich
berry that grows wild in the Brazilian Amazon from Sambazon. And then there was Hemp Foods & Oils. If
you thought hemp was only for roping or smoking you gotta try Chocolate Hemp
Bliss!
If all that free food didn't fill you up, you could buy a plate of organic
vegan fare for $10 at the back of the hall.
To make sure that all these plates, bowls, and containers were properly
disposed of, two volunteers supervised barrels for four types of trash at
numerous locations around the hall: Three had signs designating trash for
recycling, composting, and landfill. As for the fourth, it was shrouded in
white sheets.
Because there is more to green health than green food, you could experience
a half hour massage and acupressure treatment on a Migun Bed — until you were tempted to buy one for $3500. Or sample a variety of natural oils for bath, body and hair such as those from Nature's Gate or Dr. Bronner's Magic
Soap or a dozen other vendors.
To keep your plants healthy douse them with Global Worming Tea. To keep your pets happy give them Purrfectplay pet-centric products, using organic, dye free and reclaimed natural
materials.
Products for green homes, eco-fashion, renewable energy and even Green Kids
all had representatives talking them up — most too young to remember the counterculture of the Sixties, even though they were selling its products.
Plenty of good causes had booths, some at discounted rates and others
bartered for speakers for the lectures and panels. Dozens of Green Media
traded ads for space. NARAL urged you to
vote PRO-CHOICE on November 7th and to contact your Members of Congress to"insure that pharmacists cannot refuse to honor prescriptions for birth control." Food For Life wants your help in feeding vegetarian
meals to the world's neediest people. United Poultry Concerns wants you to Stick Up For Chickens. Feed them, don't eat
them.
For those with a little more money to spend, there was EcoTourism.org and Responsible Travel.
For those with money to invest, there were money managers from Calvert and Winslow ready to help you find
socially responsible places to put it.
It may have taken forty years, but the counterculture has gone mainstream.
Jo Freeman is a political scientist and attorney. Her most recent book is At Berkeley in the Sixties: Education of an Activist (Indiana U. Press 2004).
Her previous book, A Room at a Time: How Women Entered Party Politics, (Rowman and Littlefield, 2000) was reviewed by Emily Mitchell, a Senior Women Web Culture Watch critic.
Jo's other books include: "The Politics of Women's Liberation" (1975), winner of a 1975 prize from the American Political Science Association for the Best Scholarly Book on Women and Politics; five editions of "Women: A Feminist Perspective" (ed.). She has also edited "Social Movements of the Sixties and Seventies" (1983), and (with Victoria Johnson) "Waves of Protest: Social Movements Since the Sixties." She has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago (1973) and a J.D. from New York University School of Law (1982). Read more by and about Jo, including her books, at http://www.jofreeman.com and email her with comments and questions at joreen@jofreeman.com
©2006 Jo Freeman for SeniorWomenWeb
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