Barter Faires as a Model for Sustainable Living

With all the recent talk on Global Warming and the IPCC Report on climate change being released recently, I have been thinking about how we can make barter faires more sustainable. Barter Faires, the Rainbow Gathering, and other similar events are already attended by earth-loving people who make the planet a priority in their lives, but any large gathering of people has an effect on the earth, so we need to be especially conscious of our footprint when we gather. I have often thought (and I know I'm not alone) that in the event of a catastrophe resulting from global climate change, all of society may end up going back to a more primitive way of living on the land, similar to the way we live at Rainbow or at a barter faire. We have a lot to teach the rest of society and we have proven that living in harmony with the land is possible, but I hope we can continue to reduce our footprint at gatherings and become an even better model for sustainable living.

So here are a few ideas I have for making barter faires and gatherings more sustainable:

• We can begin by cleaning up the sites we use for faires and enforcing the "pack it in, pack it out" policy. At a Scotia Road faire I attended last year, I noticed that the site has obviously been used for events without much thought to sustainability. Trash was scattered everywhere, people were burning plastic and other polluting materials, and there wasn't really a system in place to clean things up. A plan for dealing with trash should be part of every faire, and each person should take responsibility in cleaning up their camp and reminding others to do the same.


• Perhaps we need an "earth defense team" of sorts at each faire to educate attendees about keeping their camps clean, what types of garbage can and cannot be burned, and where to recycle. Recyclables need to be collected and sorted, and if possible we should also separate compost from other trash, as is normally done at the Rainbow Gatherings.


• Each person needs to be more conscious of the effects of their actions on the earth. This means sharing community fires instead of having one in every camp, being responsible for cleaning up your own (and possibly others') trash and recyclables, and taking care to preserve the natural setting of the faire as much as possible. Tread lightly and be aware, and of course, spread the word!


• Barter faires and gatherings are a wonderful place to share information on alternative and sustainable forms of energy. I have seen many examples of this at faires already, such as a solar shower at Okanogan Family Faire, and a solar cooker at a Rainbow Gathering. We can use the faires as a way to educate ourselves, share what we've learned, and see alternative sources of energy in action.


• Promoting alternative lifestyles has always been a part of counter-culture gatherings, so we need to continue to promote ways of life that are easier on the earth. This means bringing vegetarian and vegan food (which uses far fewer resources and pollutes less than meat-based meals) to share, creating and enforcing rules (such as banning generators and keeping cars turned off once parked) that protect the natural environment at the faires, and educating others about how to live more sustainably. This also means taking the knowledge and experience we gain at the faires into the larger world, and begin making changes at home as well.


• There are so many intelligent and amazing people who attend barter faires. I always learn something new and am touched by the beautiful people that surround me at every faire I attend. Wouldn't it be great to put our minds together at the faire and brainstorm how we can live a greener life both inside and outside the faires? We could begin by having workshops, brainstorming sessions, and discussions at barter faires on topics such as green building, alternative energy, organic farming, spreading the green message, etc. We can bring our experiences and ideas together and focus our energy to bring about change. We can use this knowledge that we share at gatherings to begin projects that focus on sustainability, both at faires and in the larger world.


• We should make efforts to reduce the pollution produced as a side effect of the faires. This means encouraging car-pooling to the faire locations and using alternatively-powered vehicles. It may even mean reducing the size of faires so that less gas is burned for people to get there. We need to make sure we are gathering on areas that are not environmentally sensitive to begin with. We should not burn materials such as plastic and styrofoam in the fires, and reduce the number of fires overall to reduce air pollution. We need to have enough restrooms and spread them out so that no one is tempted to pollute groundwater and endangering public health by going to the bathroom in the woods or on the ground. Clean-up crews should be set up at every faire to sort recyclables, remove all trash from the site, re-seed eroded areas, and generally make sure that we are leaving no trace.

There are many more ways we can live more sustainably both at the faires and in our everyday lives. I hope you will all share your ideas, either by leaving a comment on this post or by discussing this topic on the forum. We need to use the faires and gatherings as incubators for change and continue to live our ideals at the faires and beyond. The barter faire community is more conscious than most, and I have faith that we will continue to be environmental leaders and examples of how to live in harmony with each other and the earth.