Sustainable living fair hits Columbia
Published Oct. 28, 2003
A man pointed to a yellow hybrid car while his preteen son walked around peeking in its windows and a heavyset man with shoulder-length graying hair discussed the car with MU environmental studies Director Jan Weaver.
The car was parked outside the Unity Center as part of the alternative vehicle display at Columbia's first Sustainable Living Fair on Saturday.
As participants arrived, they were invited into Friendship Hall to view booths set up by organizations such as the Sierra Club, the Green Party of Central Missouri and Students for Progressive Action.
College students and middle-aged adults strolled around the room looking at the displays while toddlers played with objects at recycling and wildflower displays. A child with shaggy blond hair and a name tag on his back so he couldn't rip it off inspected every table in the room as people stepped around him to see the pamphlets on the tables.
Throughout the day, participants attended workshops in the orange, blue and green rooms of the center's solar wing.
Turnout for the event was encouraging, Mid-Missouri Peaceworks associate director Kim Dill said.
"It's been pretty good," she said. "Since it's the first time we've done something like this, it's good to see people interested in sustainable living."
Sustainable living involves living in a way that does not damage the Earth any more than it can be repaired through natural processes, co-organizer Greg Baka said.
Workshops at the fair dealt with sustainable living topics such as composting, renewable energy and alternative fuel vehicles.
The workshop on alternative fuel vehicles featured a presentation on vehicles including hybrids, which use gasoline and electricity generated by the car itself, Weaver said.
Some groups also used the fair to discuss issues in Missouri and Columbia.
At the workshop "Smart Growth, Slow Growth, Fast Growth, No Growth," presenters Laura Loyacono and Barbara Hoppe discussed how population growth trends affect Columbia and the state.
There has been an increase in people moving to rural areas, said Loyacono, a public policy and community development specialist.
"Unincorporated rural areas added three times as many new residents as incorporated rural areas," she said.
More people are moving out of the state's cities, and the suburbs are spreading out in what looks like a doughnut effect in graphs, Loyacono said.
"The key ingredient in controlling rural sprawl is keeping the downtown vibrant," said Hoppe, Boone County Smart Growth Coalition steering committee co-chair.
Smart Growth works to protect areas of natural significance, preserve and revitalize urban neighborhoods and conserve open space.
Smart Growth, which meets the first Wednesday of every month, would like a citizen advisory commission established to review and oversee sewage improvement and expansion, Hoppe said.
"Sewer systems are the key to development," she said.
Fair co-organizer Trevor Harris said he was excited about the workshop.
"This is so big," he said. "It isn't about streams, Wal-Mart, agricultural interests. It's about all of it."
The workshop was relevant to the upcoming Nov. 4 special election because Proposition 1 is about a waste-water revenue bond, Dill said. The bond would fund a five-year capital improvement program to upgrade the city's existing waste-water collection systems, among other things.
"We'll all be voting on that in the coming weeks," she said.