Coming Together for Action

by Robyn Seydel

Spring is here and so is the time for our annual Celebrate the Earth Festival.

Thanks to your support, the participation of the whole community, and Mother Earth's blessings of a beautiful day, this festival has matured over the years to become a much-loved community event.

This year there are already numerous environmental and social justice organizations who have confirmed their participation. It is a great pleasure to be able to support the hard work these organizations do all year long to protect human rights and conserve the resources of our precious planet.

Many of these organizations tell us that they get more letters and postcards signed, find more new volunteers and raise more funds than at any other single event all year long.

It is a great honor to once again be able to host an event at which our wonderfully diverse community comes together for action on the important issues facing us all.

Education and Information

A few of the organizations confirmed at press time include:

Albuquerque Water Conservation Association, GASP, Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping, New Mexico Public Interest Group, Albuquerque Open Space, The Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, Delta 9, GREEN, Defenders of Wildlife, Amigos Bravos, Albuquerque Open Space, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, Sweatshop Free Albuquerque, Planned Parenthood, New Mexico Friends of Paleontology, Albuquerque Public Works, Chiapas Women's Collective, Repeal the Death Penalty, and others.

The New Mexico Solar Energy Association will once again be bringing their spectacular solar education mobile, and the Albuquerque Bio-Park will be doing endangered species education out of their wonderful Zoo mobile.

An integral part of protecting our planet is protecting local, small and family farmers. I truly believe that we can heal many of the ills, both human and environmental, by encouraging the spread of organic agricultural processes and a return to the family farm.

Organic farmers, by the very processes they utilize to produce food, are the ultimate stewards of the earth. La Montanita is proud to be a friend to farmers statewide and is honored that during this very busy planting season, many farmers and local producers are willing to take time out to participate in this event.

They will be bringing with them the fruits of their labors, including many homegrown products, GMO-free seeds and vegetable, herb and flower seedlings to grace your home gardens.

Already confirmed are The New Mexico Organic Commodities Commission (a major source of information, education and community support on all things organic), Rio Grande Community Farms, Soilutions, Don Bustos Farm, Seeds West, Mimbres-No-Cattle Company Farm, Desert Woman Botanicals, Vincent's Flowers and Everlastings, Santa Ana Pueblo Garden Center, Becky Thorpe Xeriscapes, SparrowHawk Farm, Erda Gardens, and the Albuquerque Association of Growers Markets, to name but a few.

The Teach-In

Our theme for this year's festival is "Coming Together for Action," and it is our hope that the teach-in workshops on three very important topics will encourage and inspire action for environmental and community protection.

Once again, we are most pleased to welcome Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association. Ronnie's book, Genetically Engineered Food: A Self Defense Guide for Consumers, is in its second printing.

When it first came out, we were hard pressed to keep it in stock on our Co-op bookshelves.

As always, we can look forward to a rousing and information-packed talk and community dialogue that ties together many food safety issues, including GMOs, organics, Fair Trade and other clean food topics.

We have heard for years about the nuclear waste dumpsite in Carlsbad, and the Cerro Grande fire's possible contamination of the watershed raised our nuclear awareness of late.

What most of us were blissfully unaware of until recently, was the existence of a mixed nuclear and chemical waste dump right here in the middle of our city (see the story in last month's Co-op Connection).

Thanks to the people at Citizen Action, the landfill at Sandia National Labs (SNL) has come front and center. In the coming months, decisions on whether this landfill containing unlined pits should be cleaned up or capped and left.

Now is the time to get active for the future health and safety of our city and their teach-in workshop will point us in that direction.

Equally important are the issues concerning our water supply and the health of the Rio Grande River. Here in the desert we all know "agua es vida."

Both our river and our aquifer are stressed to the max. What
will we be drinking in the future? How will we share water between farmers and wildlife so as to support both? What about industrial and development water use?

These and many more important water issues will be discussed in a panel presentation from the Alliance for Rio Grande Heritage.

This coalition of groups including Amigos Bravos, Rio Grande Restoration, New Mexico PIRG, the Southwest Environmental Center and several other organizations have joined forces to protect our rivers and our water supply.

For more information on the workshop schedule, see the article on the .

For for Everyone

One of the things that makes New Mexico so special is its ever-growing artistic community.

We are proud to welcome back some of your favorite dancers and musicians, including: Dancing Horse Drum Group, Panjea and the Blue Tribe Association, Wagogo, Eva Encinas and Alma Flamenca, the Ehecatl Aztec Dancers.

New to the festival stage this year we are pleased to welcome the western swing/jazz of the Curio Cowboys, the Celtic sounds of Baliwick, and singer-songwriter Celeste Hernandez-Gerrety. See the Main Tent performance schedule

Also on hand will be makers of beautiful things, including potters, jewelry makers, hemp products, hand made paper, journals books and cards, hand painted silk scarves, batik, airbrush painted and tie-dyed clothing, hand-knitted goods, homemade solar-powered water distillers and much, much more.

And, of course, the Co-op is pleased to be able to provide delicious and reasonably priced food at our deli's outdoor grill.

Besides the great deli food, you can also sample delicious natural and organic products from a wide variety of our local producers and major national manufacturers.

Put Sunday April 22 on your calendar. As always, this FREE event will be wonderful fun for the whole family.

Come early, stay late and enjoy all the fun, environmental education great food and good friends.

Please remember that parking is limited: so please bike, hike or carpool to La Montanita's 12th Annual Celebrate the Earth Festival.