Great Lakes Bioneers

“What’s a Bioneer ?”

Great Lakes Bioneers took to the streets, entering a Street Art contest hosted by the InsideOut Gallery this past weekend. Joining a line up of taggers who primarily used cans of spray paint for their designs, we filled our canvas with layers of old Bioneer propoganda and other interesting images and headlines. Using ancient paper mache technology, we plastered it all up with wheat paste - actually organic whole wheat paste. Delicious!

While there is no doubt that our piece was not “hip and cool”, we did have fun using art as a medium for engaging youth about Bioneers. Turns out, it’s pretty easy to get a person to ask, “What’s a Bioneer?”

Now here is something to BLOG about, One Local Summer, is a running BLOG, with many contributors, documenting a weekly meal made from totally local ingredients. Yum! Scoll down and you’ll see catergoies of past recipes, and delicous photos, from each region with particpants.

“One Local Summer is a project through Pocket Farm, where you are challenged to prepare one entirely local meal each week of the summer.” So, are you cooking local? Drop them a line with ingredients and images.

We had some folks from the Great Lakes Bioneers planning committee representing at 2007 The Water Festival, did you see them? Did you attend the conference in Grand Rapids? You can catch a glimpse of the cool event that is in its second year, and being put together by the groovy kids at the Earthwork Music Collective and the Grand Rapids based Clean Water Fund, by watching this video piece on YouTube .

Last night four of us from the Great Lakes Bioneers Committee previewed the film, Crude Impact, for possible showing at the conference in October in Traverse City. The movie would definitely fall in the “downer” category, chronicling the history of the rise of the oil industry and its profound effects on civilization. Divided into sections such as “human impact”, “environmental impact”, “military implications”, “media impact” etc., the film employs articulate analysts, such as Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, who make the case for reigning in oil consumption, along with stunning graphics and footage from around the world. It addresses the disproportionate use of oil, showing the over consumptive practices of the developed world compared to the abject poverty, suffering and oppression of the poorest people who reside in the countries where the oil is extracted.

The concept of peak oil is explained and its consequences predicted in terms of increased violence, rising prices, and more environmental degradation. Yes, it’s a downer movie. We’d rather not know that our lifestyle is responsible for the suffering of billions of people. Let’s just keep recycling, planting trees, driving to meetings to talk about sustainability, and keep buying products to make us happy.

And yet…perhaps we need to allow ourselves some discomfort. Maybe it’s time (overdue?) to look squarely at our role in this crisis. The people in Nigeria who are being exploited, whose homes, lands and way of life are being destroyed are powerless. It is up to us in the developed countries to make the necessary changes, no matter how uncomfortable to our cushy lifestyle, to seek solutions to the global energy crisis and its consequences.

The movie ends with a few suggestions for change. They are:

1. Become involved in the democratic process to change the policies of our government to a more sustainable path
2. Look at our own ecological footprint and reduce it
3. Seek out hope and don’t give in to despair and resignation

All 3 of these suggestions are promoted by the Great Lakes Bioneers Conference, especially the last one: focusing on positive solutions to bring us back into balance with Earth’s systems.

After the movie, I wasn’t any more depressed than I was beforehand. I already know that we’re on an unsustainable path that is causing unacceptable suffering by our fellow humans. The movie increased my resolve and determination to do my part. Bioneers offers an outlet and opportunity for all of us who want to be part of the solution.

-Sally Van Vleck