Sustainable Table Brings Eco-Friendly, Food Message to the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival

Next week, we’re off to Bonnaroo. We’re busy packing and organzing right now, and we’re very excited about our cookout with Farm Aid’s HOMEGROWN while we’re down there. Below is out latest press release about Bonnaroo and what we’re doing. In addition to just going to the festival, we’re also planning to promote some great grilling and camping recipes that we’ve been gathering. And after Bonnaroo, we’ll be driving to the LOHAS conference in Boulder, Colorado, hopefully stopping at some sustainable places along the way. If you’re planning to be at either Bonnaroo or LOHAS, please stop by our booth and say hello!

Or you can stay tuned here to find out what we’re doing and where we are. You’ll also be able to read full length posts about our trip in our Sustainable Table Tour Blog, which also includes entries from last year’s hugely successful Eat Well Guided Tour of America. (We consider this the mini-mini-version of the tour….) We’ll be posting up snippets from our time at the festival and on the road here on the Daily Table.

Below is a press release we just sent out about our trip to Bonnaroo….

Sustainable Table Brings Eco-Friendly, Food Message
To The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival

For more information, or campfire or grilling recipes
please contact:Denise Hughes @ (917) 549-2621,
Or Denise@creative-connectors.com

New York City, May 30, 2008—Sustainable Table, the creator of the animated short film series, The Meatrix, is going on the road again, headed to this year’s Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. Founder/Director, Diane Hatz, and Moopheus, the larger than life, trench-coat-clad cow and superhero star of The Meatrix, will bring festival goers an urgent message—“Eat locally grown, sustainably raised foods to help save the environment.” 2008 is emerging as the year of ethical eating. Local food is becoming an important part of the consumer food market as consumers want to know more about their food — where it was grown, what ingredients it contains, how it was packaged, and the footprint its production left on the earth.

“By purchasing sustainable, local foods in-season, you eliminate the environmental damage caused by shipping foods thousands of miles, your food dollar goes directly to the farmer, and your family will be able to enjoy the health benefits of eating fresh, unprocessed fruits and vegetables. Buying seasonal produce also provides an exciting opportunity to try new foods and to experiment with seasonal recipes. And it simply tastes better!” said Diane Hatz, Founder/Director of Sustainable Table.

Sustainable Table and HOMEGROWN, a campaign of Farm Aid, are teaming up to send a message of food sustainability and stewardship of the environment to people at this year’s Bonnaroo festival. Sustainable Table believes that people can still eat sustainably when camping, whether at festivals or in the woods, as well as at summer barbecues and picnics. The program will share sustainable campfire and grilling recipes which will be posted online at Sustainable Kitchen.

Farm Aid’s HOMEGROWN will offer a friendly gathering place for Bonnaroo concert goers who cook, grow, share, pot luck, and search out family farm food. “We look forward to meeting up with folks in person at Bonnaroo, and will continue the conversation online at HOMEGROWN.org!” said Cornelia Hoskin, HOMEGROWN Shepherdess.

To better educate festival goers about sustainable farming and food, Bonnaroo will show The Meatrix in one of their tents, and Sustainable Table will join a panel at Bonnaroo’s Academy on Saturday, June 14th, from 6-7:30pm to talk about the benefits of local sustainable food. “You’ll find Moopheus bringing his message to people onstage and inside Planet Roo, the green section of Bonnaroo. Most summer music festivals take a large toll on the environment. They create mountains of waste, use food from afar, large amounts of electricity, and tidal waves of plastic water bottles. I think it’s commendable that the organizers of Bonnaroo are helping build an eco-friendly and more responsible festival. More musicians and festival organizers should follow their lead by backing the local community and trying to do as little harm to the environment as possible,” said Hatz.

You can find more information on eating seasonal and homegrown foods online. Sustainable Table will be blogging and photo-documenting their Bonnaroo experience on The Daily Table. Please check it out.

www.sustainabletable.org
www.homegrown.org
www.farmaid.org