(Looking forward to the interview! Iceland seems particularly relevant to what will happen with our own bubble economy. – promoted by eli_beckerman)

I am in Iceland this week, preparing for a Thursday afternoon interview the Minister of the Environment, Svandis Svavarsdottir.

(Interview published in April)

Svandis is with the Left-Green Party, which is part of the nation’s ruling coalition together with the Prime Minister’s Social Democratic Party.  Here is her official profile.

I find it interesting that the green parties in Iceland and in Massachusetts both have hyphenated names which represent a merging of social justice and environmental groups. The Left-Green Party was formed in Iceland in 1999, while the Green-Rainbow Party formed in Massachusetts in 2002.

My interview will lead to an article that I will publish in the US sharing learnings and insights that can assist parties such as the Green-Rainbow Party increase its membership and candidate strength.  I have received suggestions for questions to ask Svandis from all over the Commonwealth.  If any reader would like to share insights or suggested questions that will assist me in my preparation for this interview, please post them here or e-mail me directly.

scott@scottlaugenour.org

Here are some additional profiles of women active and successful in the green political movement.  I shared Svandis’ and these other profiles recently in an e-mail bulleting, and I share them here.

Eva Joly is likely to run for president in France on the Green Party, recently coming to the same conclusion of many of us here in the Berkshires have, that it’s time to support growth of a party and a candidate pool that does not sell influence to corporate officer or lobbyist donors.   Ms. Joly is well-known here in Iceland because she was hired to advise the Icelandic government on preparing the (ongoing) criminal prosecution of bankers.  Here is an interesting profile article.

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Caroline Lucas is the first Green Party member of the UK Parliament.  She was elected last year in a major milestone for the Green Party in the UK.  Interesting interview here, including a question that greens often are asked:

Q: [Many in the] Labour [party] … see their party as the only viable route for the left in Parliamentary politics, especially given its grounding in the trade union movement. Why do you believe that the Green Party provides a better political vehicle for the left?

A: I’ve got four words in response: the last 13 years.

Here is the entire article.

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On Monday Feb 28, 2011 I met with Gudfinna Mjoll Magnusdottir in Reykjavik.  She is on the faculty of Iceland’s Art Academy and spearheaded an interesting project building awareness of local farming through a comprehensive program called “Designers Meet Farmers.”  It was only under the current government that farmers have been allowed to sell their products directly to consumers on the farm or at markets.  Farmers markets as we know them have only recently been introduced.  Previously, farmers’ crops had to be sold as raw material in commercial food processing.  It was an important part of the project to give farmers ideas for ways they could add value to their crops with the new entrepreneurial opportunities they have.

The first “Designers Meet Farmers” product that went through design, research, production, and distribution phases was a ‘rhubarb caramel’ bar that is now sold in shops direct from the farm.  I am hoping to arrange a time to talk to the rhubarb farmer while I am here.  I will write more on that soon.  For now, there is a web page on the rhubarb project.  It’s only in Icelandic but the logo designs are very interesting and capture the spirit of the project.