Percy Schmeiser – Corporate Power v. the Small Farmer

Percy Schmeiser was targeted by Monsanto’s gene police, who claimed he was using Monsanto’s patented genetics, even though Schmeiser had never used any Monsanto products. His crop, unbeknownst to him, was genetically contaminated, ruining his 50-year-old seed-breeding program. Refusing to capitulate, the victim was charged with the crime. But Monsanto picked on the wrong guy. Schmeiser took the case to the Supreme Court and became an international spokesperson against the injustice and bio-vandalism of genetic engineering.

This speech was given at the 2003 Bioneers Annual Conference.

 

Fred Kirschenmann – Transforming Agriculture

Because agriculture is the single most environmentally destructive human activity, transforming our food and farming systems is central to restoring both the environment and human health. Kirschenmann has been at the forefront of identifying the challenges to agriculture and the course needed to build a more adaptive and resilient food system. His bird’s-eye view has informed a new ecological farming model that is steadily gaining traction, one local watershed at a time.

This speech was given at the 2003 Bioneers National Conference and is part of the Ecological Food and Farming Collection, Vol. 1.

Thomas Linzey – Corporations v. Democracy

Democracy is eroding because the damage caused by the corporate elite is legal, but that may be changing because of Thomas Linzey and his allies. He has shown true genius at devising creative strategies to achieve democratic control over corporations. He has worked with local communities to demand and assert their rights over corporate rights.

This speech was given at the 2004 Bioneers Annual Conference and is part of the Food and Farming, Vol. 1 and Democracy, Human Rights and the Rights of Nature, Vol. 1 Collections.

 

Bill Parish on 100% Clean Energy

Billy Parish, co-founder of Solar Mosaic, discusses how alternative energy technologies can be revolutionary not just for powering our communities but also for returning power to the people on many other levels.

This is an excerpt from Parish’s talk at the 2013 Bioneers National Conference. Watch full talk at http://youtu.be/09R-sTTeVVA.

John Todd – The Ecological Design Revolution

In this lyrical exploration, John Todd shares the essential principles of ecological design and reveals how mimicking nature’s forms and processes can lead to breakthrough design. He reveals the design secrets behind his award-winning eco-industrial park in Burlington, Vermont, and his strategies to clean up bodies of water from the marshes around Lake Champlain to the canals of Venice and South China. The main allies in his natural sewage treatment systems are native plants that help grow and feed bacteria, break down carcinogens, and sequester metals to produce clean water. His job is not to find a simple solution, but to evolve a technological and social framework that functions like a symphonic movement.

 

Janine Benyus – Biomimicry: Emulating Life’s Genius and Grace

Applying the lens of nature-inspired design, Janine Benyus shares some of nature’s brilliant answers to the world’s most pressing environmental concerns, illustrated by inspiring real-world applications. Her Biomimicry Institute is guiding business transformation – the Next Industrial Revolution – by bringing biomimicry to the design table, and it’s starting to transform how businesses design and manufacture products. A waste-free, nontoxic, ultra-efficient technology is possible, if only we keep reminding ourselves to ask how nature would do it.

This speech was given at the 2003 Bioneers Annual Conference.

 

Greg Watson – Twelve Degrees of Freedom

Growing up in Cleveland, Watson would notice black ash from the smoldering river raining down on him as he waited for the bus. Industry and government’s failure to address the pollution crisis followed him into his adult life when he learned about Buckminster Fuller’s idea of using nature’s design strategies to leverage energy and create significant positive effects. In state government and the private sector, Watson’s leadership has since manifested in urban planning, wind energy development, and launching community gardens and farmers markets.

This speech was given at the 2008 Bioneers National Conference.

Gretchen Daily – Harmonizing People and Nature: A New Business Model

Leaders around the world are increasingly recognizing ecosystems as natural capital assets that supply life-support services of priceless value. The challenge is to turn this recognition into incentives and institutions that will guide wise investments in natural capital on a large scale. Gretchen Daily illuminates advances being made on three key fronts: the development of new science and technical tools for valuing Nature, such as InVEST, a software system developed by the Natural Capital Project; new policies and finance mechanisms being implemented worldwide; and engaging leaders in forging a deep and lasting transformation.

This speech was given at the 2012 Bioneers National Conference and is part of the Ecological Design Vol. 2 and Protecting and Restoring Nature Vol. 1 Collections.

Michael Lerner: The Emerging Environmental Health Movement

Health-care visionary and Commonweal founder Michael Lerner connects the dots between the condition of human health and the drivers of extinction: toxic habitat, invasive species, declining biodiversity and climate change. He looks at the inseparability of the planetary ecological and socio-political crisis and our personal health, and what we must do to address both.

This speech was given at the 2004 Bioneers National Conference.

Carolyn Raffensperger – Bold Precaution

Environmental lawyer and executive director of the Science & Environmental Health Network Carolyn Raffensperger lays out the history of the Precautionary Principle and portrays how it can be used as an effective tool in policymaking to protect the public health, environment and future generations. She maintains that it is “the beginning of an essential transformation in the way we relate both to the Earth and to the things we invent.”

This speech was given at the 2001 Bioneers National Conference and is featured on the Ecological Medicine, Vol. 1 and Environmental Justice, Vol. 1 Collections.

 

Martha Arguello – Precaution, Environmental Justice and Reciprocity

This passionate organizer for Physicians for Social Responsibility in Southern California recounts how an environmental justice coalition came together in some of Los Angeles’ poorest neighborhoods to force California’s EPA to use precaution as an organizing principle. She shows how communities resist being forced to make the false choice between health and jobs, and are demanding healthier models of development. She describes the inspiring battle spearheaded by one remarkable activist mom in the L.A. Unified School District to stop using toxic pesticides. It led to one of the best nontoxic integrated pest management school policies in the country.

This speech was given at the 2004 Bioneers National Conference and is featured on the Ecological Medicine Vol. 1 and Environmental Justice Vol. 1 Collections.

 

James Hillman – Accentuate the Positive: Reclaiming the Country from the Nation

The renowned psychologist and author dispels the fog of duality and polarization that enshrouds our society, such as under-thinking while over-working, or preaching democracy while failing to vote. Paradoxically, knowing what’s wrong with our nation is what paralyzes us. We play the mind game of opposites – red or blue states, religion or science, winning or losing – and fail to find a third way. Searching out the meaning of the symptom might release us from this stalemate. On-the-ground community building, voting and governing the government, Hillman believes, could help us reclaim an Earth-based culture and more decentralized society from our stalemated, empire-building nation.

This speech was given at the 2006 Bioneers National Conference.