I attended a panel presentation on fracking followed by a locavore picnic yesterday.

Fracking or hydraulic fracturing is used to release liquid gas from shale deposits. The process is very dirty environmentally. More on this below. Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, West Virginia-- they are all loaded with Marcellus Shale and other states, like Texas, have other forms of shale that have drillers swarming over the states like never before. The problem is these drillers, because of legislation passed by Bush, Cheney and the Republican led house and senate, in 2005, are just about totally unregulated and unaccountable.

At the panel discussion, activists from PA, NJ and NY were discussing ways they could get legislation passed and other actions that might change the situation, protecting the environment, passing moratoriums... there are some real horror stories already, with over 1400 accidents and violations in the past two years in PA alone, including fish kills. The maximum fine is only $2500, so the drilling companies, some of them funded or at least partially owned by Asian corporations, just violate the laws and pay the fines, as a cheap way to do business.

The threat here is huge, since the fracking is being done in places that could lead to spills that enter some of the USA's most important water supplies, affecting tens of millions of people.


Locavore Picnic
Locavore: Loca for local, vore for eating. The idea was to only include food that was grown locally. It was a great event, great idea-- a celebration of the movement towards relocalization, taking the oil out of food that is injected into it when it is transported long distances.

The picnic was an opportunity for people working in the relocalization movement and in the local food movement to come together-- leaders of CSAs-- Community Supported Agriculture operations, Food co-ops, Farm Markets described their work and what they offered while people who care about re-localization as a healthy response to energy addiction and dependence on mega-corporations joined together in a celebration of locavore culinary treats.

The picnic was a potluck, and most of the food had labels like this, describing the food and the by Rob kall

The picnic was a potluck, and most of the food had labels like this, describing the food and the source.


The folks in the foreground, Mary, Fern and Henry and I attended a panel discussion on Fracking by rob kall

The folks in the foreground, Mary, Fern and Henry and I attended a panel discussion on Fracking Marcellus Shale, which took place in Quakertown, before the picnic. Fracking is bad news, hardly any regulations, dirtier, over-all, than coal, a huge threat to our water supply. And the Republicans, under Bush, pashed the "Haliburton Exemption," which exempts, almost totally, gas drillers from any regulation or liability, not even for water safety.


Yum!!We closed the event singing This Land Is Your Land, This Land is My Land. by rob kall


Yum!!

We closed the event singing This Land Is Your Land, This Land is My Land.