Jefferson County Fairgrounds hosts Earth Day for Everyone

FAIRFIELD — Jefferson County Fairgrounds was abuzz Saturday with live music, food vendors and speakers who had gathered to celebrate Earth Day.

The event was known as “Earth Day for Everyone” and was sponsored by the Southeast Iowa Sierra Club, Jefferson County Farmers and Neighbors, Inc., University of Iowa School of Social Work, and the Sustainable Living Coalition.

The Cambridge Building at the fairgrounds hosted speakers such as Fairfield Mayor Connie Boyer, Dee Sandquist speaking about Niman Ranch, Tiffany Raines and Faith Reeves speaking about the Fairfield Garden Initiative, Stuart Valentine talking about TerraCycle and many others.

On one half of the building, local organizations set up booths to present information about themselves to the public. Patrick Bosold was staffing the JFAN booth, and spoke about how the organization was collecting signatures to support a factory farm moratorium in Iowa.

“We’re asking for no more confinements until Iowa can get its water quality under control,” Bosold said. “There’s a clear link between [confinements] and degraded water quality.”

Bosold also volunteers with the Southeast Iowa Sierra Club, and remarked that the Sierra Club’s donation of 150 tree saplings that day produced a long line of people waiting to take one home. The donation of the tree saplings was also made possible by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Fairfield Arbor Committee.

“We have had several hundred people show up today, which has been a great turnout,” Bosold said. “It’s so great to see people face-to-face again.”

Local author David Fisher set up a booth to promote his book “Just Grow It Yourself: Home Gardens Outshine Industrial Food.” Fisher said he’s able to feed himself for a year entirely on plants he grows on a 35-foot by 40-foot home garden.

“That’s with one hour of work per day, six hours of sunlight, in less than ideal soil, with only hand tools and at age 72,” Fisher said. “I’m not a super gardener. There’s nothing special about it.”

Colleen Stone staffed Fairfield Rotary Club’s booth, which was giving away seeds to grow flowering prairie plants. Stone said the celebration of Earth Day fits with Rotary’s new seventh area of focus, which is promoting the environment.

Inside the activities building at the fairgrounds were even more booths, plus live entertainment from bands such as the Fairtown Ramblers. One of the booths consisted of students from Iowa Wesleyan University presenting their research into a new energy source. Kaylo Jimenez and Skylar Garcille, both seniors majoring in biology, spoke about their work on algae bioreactors, which is a way of generating electricity by mixing algae with a diluted solution of hydrochloric acid. Jimenez said algae releases carbon dioxide, and when this mixes with an acidic solution, it generates an electric current.

Garcille remarked, “This process occurs every day in the ocean, and we’re hoping to turn it into a new energy source because algae can be grown in any water.”

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com