Four From Farmlab Attend Bioneers Conference

From Jaime Lopez Wolters, Farmlab team member:

"Bioneers 2007 Report

"Bioneers held its 18th annual conference in San Rafael, CA on October 19-21, 2007. Three thousand people attend this conference and an additional ten thousand connect through satellite at 18 locations around the country. For the third consecutive year a small contingency of Farmlab team members attended the conference to observe and learn.

"As always the topics of discussion ranged widely from green science to environmental justice, from art to indigenous movements, all looking at the our world in a holistic way that includes social, economic, ecological and spiritual views. The following excerpts from the Bioneers Program give a brief description of the many inspirational leaders that spoke at the conference:

"JAY HARMAN (www.paxscientific.com)
Designing the Next Golden Age: A Progress Report
Award-winning inventor, entrepreneur and CEO of PAX Scientific offers examples of highly efficient technologies inspired by natural systems that can help us create prosperity without degrading the biosphere.

"VAN JONES (www.ellabakercenter.org)
Toward a Green Growth Alliance: Birthing a New Politics
It is the chief moral obligation of our time to build a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Activist and founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights urges us to carry our spiritual, cultural and economic movements into the electoral arena to transform politics and forge a green "New Deal" coalition so that kids who are now prison fodder will help create a zero-pollution economy, harvest the sun and heal the land instead.

"JUDY WICKS (www.whitedogcafe.com)
Local Living Economies: Green, Fair and Fun
Fabled entrepreneur and activist tells her story of moving beyond responsible business practices to working cooperatively with other entrepreneurs and citizens to build whole economies based on love of nature and community.

"PAUL ANASTAS
Green Chemistry: From Here to Sustainability
The "father of green chemistry" explains that moving toward a sustainable civilization depends on major changes taking place in the nature of our products, processes and systems. Green chemistry seeks to transform many of the materials that are the basis of our society — from clothes to housing, communications, agriculture and energy — to ensure they are as benign as possible to the planet and all its inhabitants.

"WALLACE J. NICHOLS (www.wallacejnichols.org)
A Brave New Ocean, or an Ocean Revolution?
Senior scientist at the Ocean Conservancy and ocean activist extraordinaire explains how space-based research and new deep sea technologies have resulted in an explosion of information about the ocean. To change our destructive course we must harness this knowledge, make it accessible to everyone and creatively communicate what the state of the oceans means to the future of life on our planet.

"WINONA LADUKE (www.welrp.org/)
Seeds the Creator Gave Us
This renowned indigenous rights leader and two-time Green Party U.S. Vice Presidential candidate highlights the struggles of indigenous peoples to protect their food sovereignty, restore their food systems and protect their cultures and foods from genetic modification.

"KA HSAW WA & KATIE REDFORD (www.earthrights.org)
Earth Rights: Linking Human Rights and Environmental Struggles in the Age of Globalization
The co-founders and directors of EarthRights International will discuss their work from the jungles of Burma and the Amazon to U.S. courtrooms to hold corporations accountable for human rights and environmental abuses committed in the name of development. They will focus on EarthRights' landmark lawsuit Doe v. Unocal, and their work to raise the voices of indigenous people in international forums through their model training program, the EarthRights Schools.



"The Farmlab team also attended a variety of workshops, the lessons of which are being drafted into a more comprehensive report. [Check farmlab.org for more info, as it arrives. -ed.]

"-Jaime Lopez Wolters
-Sarah McCabe
-Kate Balug
-Olivia Chumacero"

Photos: Top, a conference attendee our photographer named "Bag Man." Botton: Inside the conference hall, at a plenary session featuring Ka Hsaw Wa and Katherine Redford.

-- Farmlab Photos by Kate Balug