On Saturday, I volunteered to table for the Sierra Club at a farmer’s market off of Forest Avenue. Having never been to a farmer’s market, I didn’t really know what to expect. As soon as we arrived, I knew I was going to enjoy the atmosphere of the place. Artsy people with tattoos and dread locks joined suburban mothers with young children to shop around the famer’s market. Every booth had something interesting to look at, taste, or smell. We set up our table for the Sierra Club in order to make people aware of the construction of a natural gas power plant in Virginia and hopefully to get them to sign a petition to prevent board members from approving that decision. The goal of this protest is to encourage the use of wind and solar power rather than using more fossil fuels to provide us with energy.
Since there were four of us at the table, we would take turns going in pairs to explore the market. The doughnuts, Chinese food, sticky buns, soup, bread, cheese, and lemonade that we sampled all tasted even more delicious because they were all homemade. We briefly listened to the local folk band that was playing in the background and browsed at a handmade jewelry stand. Baby goats, an ewe, two greyhounds, and a bulldog were just a few of the animals that were present at the farmer’s market as well, and they made the experience quite entertaining as well. When we were tabling, some interesting people stopped by our table to understand what we were advertising. An elderly man disagreed with some of the information we were presenting and tried to explain his thoughts on the matter, while another man worked for a powerplant and was not impressed with our efforts. Some people were very interested and supported the cause, signing the petition without even reading it. Others decided against signing anything until they researched more about it. We decided that it was a good thing that people wanted to wait to understand exactly what they were signing before they supported it. The farmer’s market was a great place to have the Sierra Club’s table set up because people were very receptive and open to hearing new perspectives.