Pennsylvania Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Festival, Kempton, PA

This afternoon I went to the Pennsylvania Renewable Energy Festival and had a wonderful time. The food was delicious, I had a Philadelphia seitan steak sandwich for lunch and an organic salad with grilled vegetables for dinner. Dessert was a chocolate coconut pastry and some organic, fair trade coffee.

I went to a lecture on global warming, the consequences and potential solutions. We talked about what it would take to reduce our carbon emissions. We would need to use more renewable energy, improve the efficiency of products and buildings, increase gas and mileage emission standards, use alternative fuels, reduce vehicle dependent development, travel less, make wiser consumer purchases (plasma screen TVs are a BIG energy waster), and buy local food.

I also went to a lot of the exhibitor booths. I learned about what it would take to convert my house to solar. Probably not feasible for me to buy solar panels right now, but there is a company that rents solar panels for the going electric kilowatt rate, but guarantees no increase for the term of the contract (1, 5, or 25 years). Worth looking into. Also spoke to the Sierra Club, some Community Supported Agriculture groups which deliver locally grown organic vegetables weekly, and of course the Lehigh Valley Vegetarians.

Hazy sunset over Kempton

The entertainment was magnificient! I listened to Makoto Taiko, a Japanese drumming group which plays on large Taiko Japanese drums. It was high energy, very physical, dynamic group interaction. It was difficult to get a good picture because of the lighting conditions, but hopefully this picture captures a little bit of the energy from this Japanese drum master.