Green Options

At the San Francisco pit stop of this past weekends Green Festival, while trying to avoid the masses searching for samples of organic this and sustainable that, one of San Francisco’s green builders Chris Connors mentioned to a few of us attendees, “Wow this festival has gotten big.” Indeed, for those who haven’t attended in a few years – yes, the festival continues to grow faster than FSC certified bamboo.

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Even at 9 a.m. in the morning, a buzz filled the air even before the first official Slow Food Nation event kicked off in San Francisco’s War Memorial Palace. One of the food rock stars Michael Pollan moderated the discussion topic: The World Food Crisis with panelists Raj Patel, Vandana Shiva, Carlo Petrini, and Corby Kummer. Things got popping quickly with spirited remarks about the worldwide food shortage including one poke about biofuels by Patel, “It’s preposterous that we should grow food to set it on fire” , as well as a comment about the famine in Haiti where local rice farmers have no chance to compete against subsidized U.S. rice imports. Haitians rioted against rice labeled “gift of the USA.”  Some gift, huh?

We loved the passionate Shiva as she spoke out about the spin toward getting GMOs into the world food chain. She noted that there has always been famine but now she sees this “pseudo crisis” as a movement to bring GMOs into the fold.  She noted the difference between food and commodities. We agree with Shiva in her thinking the diversity of food that we help balance the playing field.