Small farmers around the world are building an agro-ecological revolution based on self-sufficiency, food security, and freedom from fossil fuels and corporate control. In this program, we hear from two visionary agroecology innovators.
Miguel Altieri is an agroecologist and entomologist at UC Berkeley who’s showing how farmers who embrace agroecology are building a movement based on self-sufficiency, food security and freedom from fossil fuels and corporate control.
Alex Eaton is the founder of “Sistema Bio”. This game-changing company helps farmers implement a simple technology that converts waste to energy, builds healthy soils, and holds the promise of massively reducing greenhouse gases and lifting people out of poverty.
The environmental and social justice movements are a language of kinship, inclusion and generosity, and create an expanded sense of what is possible with humankind. The pursuit of sustainability is something more than each of us, so we should all work together to achieve it. Featuring Paul Hawken, the luminary environmental author, activist and entrepreneur.
Directed by: Maximilian DeArmon Edited by: Abe Costanza Sound Mix: Stephanie Welch Consulting Producer: Kenny Ausubel for Bioneers Produced by: Maximilian DeArmon and Theo Badashi for Cosmogenesis Media Group
What is the origin of life? Our creation stories hold the mysteries that inspire and shape how we perceive our world. Featuring the late Sen. Tom Hayden, California State Senator, legendary organizer/activist and author of Writings for a Democratic Society.
Directed and Edited by: Theo Badashi Sound Mix: Stephanie Welch Consulting Producer: Kenny Ausubel for Bioneers Produced by: Theo Badashi and Maximilian DeArmon for Cosmogenesis Media Group
Michael Pollan shares his transformative experiences with psychedelics. These profound tools forged his enlightenment on the expansive channels of love, connection and consciousness. Pollan is a journalist and the author of books such as How to Change Your Mind.
Directed and Edited by: Theo Badashi Sound Mix: Stephanie Welch Consulting Producer: Kenny Ausubel for Bioneers Produced by: Theo Badashi and Maximilian DeArmon for Cosmogenesis Media Group
Although we can’t understand the communication systems used by whales and dolphins, they are just as intelligent as humans, but in different ways. We have a lot to learn from these aquatic creatures, which can “see” with sound better than humans can see with our own eyes. Featuring James Nestor, author of Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and what the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves.
Directed by: Maximilian DeArmon and Theo Badashi Edited by: Brandon Pinard and Theo Badashi Sound Mix: Stephanie Welch Consulting Producer: Kenny Ausubel for Bioneers Produced by: Maximilian DeArmon and Theo Badashi for Cosmogenesis Media Group
Science now shows that plants appear to be sentient beings, and their innate intelligence can teach humans a great deal about consciousness. Featuring Jeremy Narby, anthropologist and author of Intelligence in Nature, and Kenny Ausubel, co-founder and CEO of Bioneers.
Directed by: Maximilian DeArmon Edited by: Abe Costanza Sound Mix: Stephanie Welch Consulting Producer: Kenny Ausubel for Bioneers Produced by: Maximilian DeArmon and Theo Badashi for Cosmogenesis Media Group
Creative Commons Credits: California Academy of Sciences Nucleus Medical Media Yesil Scientific Illustrations and Animations
The patriarchal system isolates men and women from each other’s experiences. Gender Equity and Reconciliation International creates safe environments for men and women to share authentic, and often otherwise taboo, conversations about gender and sexuality. Featuring Zanele Khumalo, South African facilitator, and co-founders Rev. Cynthia Brix, Ph.D. and William Keepin, Ph.D.
Directed by: Maximilian DeArmon Edited by: Johwell St-Cilien and Maximilian DeArmon Sound Mix: Stephanie Welch Consulting Producer: Kenny Ausubel for Bioneers Produced by: Maximilian DeArmon and Theo Badashi for Cosmogenesis Media Group
Restorative justice is a perspective that can transform society and our justice system. By promoting healing over harm, its practices can bring communities together in the mediation of conflict. Featuring Fania Davis, co-founder and director of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY).
Directed by: Maximilian DeArmon Edited by: Johwell St-Cilien Sound Mix: Stephanie Welch Consulting Producer: Kenny Ausubel for Bioneers Produced by: Maximilian DeArmon and Theo Badashi for Cosmogenesis Media Group
A child’s first introduction to manhood is often through their fathers. It’s high time we push back on toxic masculinity and what it means to “be a man”, in order to create a better future for our children and ourselves. Featuring author and activist Kevin Powell and Tony Porter, the Co-Founder of A Call To Men.
With growing interest in co-ops, public banking, worker-owned companies and non-profit corporations, could we be setting a new standard for the American ideal, while building a more sustainable economy? Featuring Gar Alperovitz, co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative and co-chair of its Next System Project, and Ted Howard, co-founder and President of The Democracy Collaborative.
Directed and Edited by: Theo Badashi Animations by: The Next System Project Consulting Producer: Kenny Ausubel for Bioneers Produced by: Theo Badashi and Maximilian DeArmon for Cosmogenesis Media Group
By Richard V. Piacentini, President and CEO of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
At Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, our commitment to sustainability in everything we do has led us to construct some of the world’s greenest buildings. On a single project site, a visitor to Phipps can now see an unprecedented multi-facility complex of three buildings, each showcasing a different construction type — new, modular and existing — and each designed to meet the most rigorous standards in the built environment. We use the Living Building Challenge, LEED Platinum, SITES Platinum and WELL Building Platinum certifications as our standards for our new buildings.
Our commitment to these certifications began in November 2006 when I attended the Greenbuild Conference in Denver. We were one month away from opening our Tropical Forest Conservatory, a revolutionary 12,000-square-foot glasshouse that was designed to be passively cooled and have no greenhouse effect. By this time, we found ourselves thinking in systems, which is how nature works. We were trying to understand how to best integrate our buildings into the environment.
While I was at Greenbuild, Jason McLennan introduced the Living Building Challenge, the most rigorous green building standard in the world that is based on systems thinking. We were just about to start planning for our education, research and administration building, the Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL). Finally here was a certification program that went beyond checking boxes and understood that we should be thinking more broadly than just saving energy and water. It was more than a program — it was a philosophy that understood that the way we construct our buildings could help us integrate ourselves back into nature. So we decided to pursue it. At that time, no one had ever built a Living Building and no one knew if it was possible so we decided to pursue LEED Platinum as a backup.
Right before we started design, the Sustainable SITES Initiative was launched, which attempted to define best practices for integrating buildings into the environment. We decided to pursue that too. During construction, the WELL Building Standard was launched to define best practices for human health in the built environment. Even though the Living Building Challenge has many requirements related to human health, by this time we had really come to understand how human and environmental health are inextricably connected, so we decided to pursue WELL too to see if there was anything else we could learn to make buildings better for the people who will occupy them.
During the construction of each of these buildings, the question often came up: “How much did this project cost?” A simple answer just doesn’t do it justice, as it implies that the only factor that should be considered in a new project is the initial cost. A popular misconception that passes for conventional wisdom says that green buildings are too expensive and aren’t worth the investment. At Phipps, we know that this is a short-sighted mindset — in fact, green buildings make perfect economic sense, and their benefits only increase when an organization approaches a construction project with a holistic, long-term view.
All
three of our new green buildings are designed to meet the Living Building
Challenge and operate at net zero energy, meaning they generate all of the
energy that they use within a year. The CSL actually produces more energy than
it uses in a year (net positive), generating 133,301 kWh and using only 129,876
kWh in its last year of operation. This electricity that powers the CSL is
produced entirely on-site through solar and wind generation. One of the reasons
the building is able to achieve this remarkable feat is because it is extremely
efficient. The CSL has an energy use intensity (EUI) of 18, which is 73.8% less
than the EUI of a typical office building. This energy efficiency is achieved
through a combination of sustainable features and strategic design choices that
anyone can make. For example, choosing to situate the building so that it faces
south, maximizing solar gain and daylighting, greatly reduced our energy needs.
Our geothermal heating and cooling system is a very efficient way to condition
the building and it is completely powered by on-site generated power. Over
time, the fact that Phipps’ green buildings will never have a heating, cooling,
electric or sewer bill really adds up. The cost of operating the CSL over the
next 30 years compared with a conventional office building of the same size will
save Phipps $3 million in energy costs alone. With conventional buildings there
will always be utility costs.
On its lower campus, Phipps’ green buildings capture,
treat and reuse all water that falls onsite, managing 3.25 million gallons of
storm water per year — enough water to fill five Olympic swimming pools. Since
the CSL opened in 2012, not a single drop of storm or sewer water has left the
site. As a botanical garden, Phipps has a great need for water. Water that
falls on the back of our campus, where our three green buildings are located,
is used to irrigate the landscape or is allowed to infiltrate. A combination of
constructed wetlands and sand filters allows us to clean and reuse all of the
water from toilets and sinks. A typical office building using the CSL’s amount
of potable water will spend more than $140,700 over the next 30 years on water
usage and treatment. That cost simply does not exist in the CSL, Nature Lab and
ESC. By capturing, treating and reusing the water on our site, Phipps also
saves the City of Pittsburgh money by keeping this water out of the already
overtaxed combined sewer and storm water system. By treating and reusing all
water that falls onsite, green buildings save money for the building owners and
the cities in which they exist.
Though it is often not considered during the building
design process, the biggest cost to an organization is staff — not electric,
rent, water, etc. Many peer-reviewed professional studies show correlations in
building design that are designed to address employee health and staff
productivity, attendance, focus and mental engagement, mood, overall physical
health, recruitment, and retention. These studies appear in journals such as Indoor and Built Environment, Journal of the Illuminating Engineering
Society, International Journal of Epidemiology
and International Journal of Environmental
Research and Public Health. In fact, a study done by real estate services firm Stok
cites an annual profit of $3,395 per employee in a 150,000 square-foot high
performance green building. In addition to the Living Building Challenge, Phipps’
CSL and ESC are designed to meet WELL Platinum Certification, a certification
that focuses on human health and well-being in buildings. Our green buildings
are free of Living Building Red List toxic chemicals, which are very commonly
found in typical office buildings and are harmful to human health. They also
incorporate elements of biophilic design, which connects people to nature in
the built environment and has a positive impact on human health. From extensive
use of indoor plantings to plentiful windows offering views of nature and
natural light and ventilation, these buildings blur the line between the built
and natural environment, celebrating the bonds between humans and nature. By
investing in our staff’s well-being upfront, we will see a long-term payoff in
the future.
Before Phipps began constructing green buildings on its lower campus, the site was a brownfield — toxic, barren and completely paved over. Now, it has transformed into a thriving ecosystem that is healthy for the people, native plants and wildlife who occupy it. Restoring the land and making it more beautiful also added an attraction for the visitor experience. Green buildings operate with nature, not in spite of it. This creates a beneficial ecosystem for all living beings that use the space.
Finally, taking a broader look at green buildings, Phipps’ projects support a new sector of construction. By serving as a role model for the world, the CSL, ESC and Nature Lab encourage other organizations and individuals to pursue Living Buildings. Our spaces prove that green buildings can be beautiful and are better places to live, work, learn and play than traditional buildings. If more organizations follow Phipps’ lead, more manufacturers will respond with more efficient and less toxic building materials increasing competition for these items and thereby lowering their cost. In addition, as more people begin to construct high performance green buildings, industry leaders will be encouraged to innovate and invent new technologies for them, leading to job growth in their fields. Constructing green buildings doesn’t just make economic sense for individual organizations; it contributes to the economy as a whole.
When looking at a building project from a long-term view, it becomes increasingly apparent that high performance Living Buildings vastly out-perform their traditional counterparts. By generating their own energy and managing all of the water that falls onsite, they never see a utility bill, saving millions of dollars over time. The value of human and environmental well-being are not typically a part of building design conversations, but they should be.
Since 1994, Richard Piacentini has led the green transformation of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, including construction of the Center for Sustainable Landscapes, the only building in the world to meet Living Building Challenge™, LEED® Platinum, WELL™ Platinum, and SITES™ Platinum certifications. Richard is interested in the connection between people and plants particularly as it relates to human and environmental health. He has received numerous professional honors, including APGA, ILFI and USGBC leadership awards.
The
new documentary film “Poisoning Paradise” tells the story of local activists in
Hawaii who are battling political corruption, corporate bullying, and
systematic concealment by the agrochemical industry about their widespread
testing of genetically engineered seeds and crops.
Communities became surrounded by experimental test sites after policymakers in Hawaii and D.C. tried to diversify the Hawaiian economy, which was overly reliant on tourism. They encouraged the world’s largest chemical companies to utilize Kauai’s favorable climate and fertile soil to test their biotech seeds, which are designed to be reliant on toxic chemicals, such as RoundUp Ready herbicides. For years, Syngenta, Pioneer DuPont, BASF, and Dow AgroSciences have been allowed to apply hundreds of tons of Restricted Use (RU) pesticides on thousands of acres across the Garden Island’s West Side, the traditional homeland of an Indigenous and disenfranchised population.
Bioneers sat down with Director Keely Brosnan to discuss how “Poisoning Paradise” explores the community’s ongoing struggle to advance bold new legislation governing the fate of their island home.
BIONEERS: What inspired you to make this documentary?
KEELY BROSNAN: In essence, this film is really a love letter to Hawai‘i. I grew up in Hawai‘i as a small child, and live in Hawai‘i part-time. It’s a place I love and with people I love.
I started to hear rumblings in 2013 about GMOs and
experimental outdoor field trials of genetically engineered crops and
pesticides, but I didn’t really understand what was happening. So, I met with
some residents and local activists and attended meetings. And my neighbor and
producing partner Teresa Tico wanted to make a film about Bill 2491, and my
husband and I agreed to fund the project. Then it grew exponentially into Poisoning Paradise, which has a much
broader reach and message than the original concept.
BIONEERS: What
were some of the shocking things you learned in your research that you decided
to include in your film?
In the 1980s, as the colonial-based sugarcane industry
collapsed and the pineapple industry collapsed, policymakers in Washington and Hawai‘i
invited the biotech industry to take over the fallow fields. I don’t think that
they understood what the consequences would be, or the amount of chemicals that
these agro-chemical industries would be utilizing.
The business model of large agricultural companies is to maintain a system that’s reliant on toxic pesticides. They have an arsenal of tools in their toolbox, including restricted use pesticides: Atrazine, Chlorpyrifos, and “general use pesticides” that people are more familiar with, like Roundup. The chemical companies use pesticides on their GE crops at a much higher frequency than conventional farmers. Handwritten spray logs show that GE fields are sprayed with a higher frequency and many more times per day than conventional farms. This results in a chemical cocktail of untested combinations of pesticides that are sprayed multiple times a day, multiple days per week, all year long near our schools, homes, hospitals, and environmentally sensitive shorelines. So, it’s really caused a lot of uproar in our community.
BIONEERS: We hear these companies referred to as “biotechnology” companies, but as your guests point out in the film, these are chemical companies who have no interest in reducing the amount of pesticides that farmers spray on crops. On the contrary, their primary technology is “pesticide-tolerance,” which allows farmers to blanket crops with chemicals that kill weeds without killing the plant itself. It seems like these companies are contributing to a massive increase in pesticide use?
KEELY: They’re
chemical companies that are developing seeds for GE crops that are designed to
rely on the chemicals they sell. So as Vandana Shiva says in our film, why
would a chemical company be a means to reducing the sale of Roundup, the single
largest contributor of profits to Monsanto? They designed these crops to sell
more chemicals. This is why what’s happening on Kauai is important for
everyone, because this is where research and development and field trials for
genetically engineered crops happens. Once they develop their seeds, they ship them
around the country and around the world.
BIONEERS: These trials are allowed to go on without any environmental impact studies?
KEELY: To date,
yes. The federal government hardly regulates genetically engineered crops in
any meaningful way, and until recently, the state has had a hands-off approach
to these chemical companies. But I think the day of plausible deniability is
over. I don’t think lawmakers can say that they didn’t know that these
chemicals were dangerous.
Just in the past six months, we’ve had three different courts who ruled in favor of individuals who sued Monsanto/Bayer, the conglomerate, after developing Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, totaling nearly $2.5 billion in damages. In August 2018, a San Francisco jury awarded Dewayne Johnson $250 million in punitive damages and another $39 million in compensatory damages for his lost income and pain and suffering. A federal jury in March 2019 ordered Monsanto to pay more than $80 million in damages to another California man, Edwin Hardeman, after it was determined that his cancer was partly caused by his use of the weed killer Roundup.
Director Keely Brosnan
BIONEERS: Can residents find out about statistics
regarding birth defects or environmental damages caused by the spraying of chemicals
in Hawai‘i?
KEELY: I’m not sure that they’ve been keeping accurate records at the National Birth Defect Registry in the State of Hawai‘i. Often when you have a serious ailment, you have to leave the island and seek treatment elsewhere in order to get the kind of specialized care that Children’s Hospital in LA, or St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, or other hospitals that are geared towards treating children provide.
The truth is I’m not aware of anybody testing the air, water or soil quality. Nobody really knows, for example, what happens at the end of the day after they’ve applied these chemicals on fields. They mix the chemicals in their trucks for application, and then they clean out that drum from their truck. They’re not hauling away the poison that was inside. So where does it go when they rinse it out into the field? We live on an island with finite natural resources, and one of our most important natural resources is our drinkable water. We have to be very careful about contaminating aquifers.
We need to start gathering data and testing the oil samples near people’s homes. We need people to start canvassing neighborhoods and going door-to-door to talk to people about whether they’re sick, or whether their family members or neighbors are sick. Putting federal, state or even private funding into that kind of a program would be a good idea. Our federal regulatory agencies aren’t doing enough to protect people and the environment from these toxic pesticides. [Report on
BIONEERS: You address
neonicotinoid pesticides in the documentary. Can you talk about the dangers of
that particular technology?
KEELY: Unfortunately, Neonicotinoids and similar systemic insecticides are currently among the most utilized pesticides in the world. They are linked to the alarming collapse of bee colonies and, without a doubt, the decline of our pollinator population.
I believe the EPA is going to ban the use of Neonicotinoids
in the U.S., and ask that they be removed from the shelves for consumer use.
I’m following that story and will be updating information on our website for
people who are interested.
There are fantastic organizations like the Center for Food Safety, who is defending our food system from pesticides and pharmaceuticals, and toxic food additives and genetic mutations. Most recently, they spent years in court representing conservationists and beekeepers who sued the EPA for failure to protect pollinators from toxic neonicotinoids. There was a settlement reached last month where the EPA agreed to withdraw certification for 12 Neonicotinoid-based products, pulling them from the market because of the devastating effects that they have on our pollinators.
BIONEERS: You show in
the film that people of color and Indigenous Hawaiians are bearing the brunt of
the harms caused by the experimental tests. The local community there in those affected
areas are deeply involved in organizing around raising awareness and advocating
for legislation. Can you tell us about the bills that have been introduced and
the status?
KEELY: Bill 2491
failed, which was really sad. It asked for modest buffer zones around schools
homes, hospitals and other environmentally sensitive areas. It also would have
required disclosure of what was being sprayed, when and where it was being
sprayed, and an environmental impact study. As you saw in the film, that bill
failed after going through the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The grassroots movement just for Bill 2491 probably
surprised local legislators and government officials, but it didn’t surprise me
because people who live in Hawai‘i really have a sense of stewardship of the
land. They really want to be thoughtful and careful and I don’t think that
government reflects the people’s wishes and desires as it should.
Then, last summer, the Governor of Hawai‘i signed into law Bill SB-3095, which does require 100ft buffer zones around schools. That was fantastic news, but it’s by no means a solution. I was sitting on an airplane at the time with my husband when I heard the Bill had passed, and although I felt some elation that we had some forward momentum and that it would set a precedent, I told my husband, “This plane that we’re sitting on right now is longer than a hundred feet,” so to require only a hundred foot buffer zone around a school is clearly inadequate.
Through SB3095, we were able to ask for disclosure of the chemicals that the agrochemical industry is using on the island. That report should be made available sometime in January 2020, and will be the first time that we have real disclosure. Then, the State of Hawai‘i initiated a total ban on Chlorpyrifos, which is extremely important, because they know that it causes damage to fetuses in utero, and also to babies and children as they develop and grow. The problem is the ban is little consolation if you live next door to these fields, because they’re allowing three more years for companies to phase it out, so they can still use it in Hawai‘i until 2022, I believe.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has given the EPA until July of this year to decide on the use of Chlorpyrifos. Hawai‘i was the first state to ban it, and then California followed suit. Other states like New York, Oregon, Connecticut and New Jersey have bills under consideration to remove Chlorpyrifos from the market. So, we’ll have to wait for the EPA findings.
BIONEERS: Your film includes a nice balance of voices. There are people such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; Sylvia Earle, the marine biologist; Vandana Shiva, the activist and author; Andrew Kimbrell, attorney and director of the Center for Food Safety and other lawyers they’ve worked with on the ground. Can you talk about some of the local experts and activists who appear in the film?
KEELY: Yes, I wasn’t an expert on the subject. I am a
filmmaker, and I stepped up to document what was happening as a journalist. But
we also had local experts and scientists and we decided that it would be useful
for us to gain some expertise from them. Fern Anuenue (formerly Rosenstiel)
obtained her Bachelor’s in Science with triple majors in wildlife management
and environmental science and marine biology. Andrea Brower has a PhD in Sociology
and, specifically, from working in environmental sociology. So, they brought a
lot to the table. They are residents and they are on the ground assisting a
very grassroots movement.
BIONEERS: How concerned should tourists who are traveling to Hawai‘ibe about risks to their own health? Who would they contact if they’re planning to travel to the Islands?
KEELY: I certainly think it’s worth a call to the tourism office to tell them they’re concerned. Whether they give you any information or not is another question. The 1.3 million people that went to Kaua‘i last year probably weren’t aware that Hawai‘i hosts more outdoor GE crop field trials than any other state in the nation.
As you’ll see in our section on tourism, you can’t even
bring an apple to Hawai‘i. The State Department of Agriculture will take
that away from you. So, while on one hand, they’re doing a very good job of
protecting our natural resources, I personally think that the visitor industry
should be pushing our state officials to protect public health. They have a
responsibility to inform visitors who are going to be in the Hawaiian Islands
that they may be exposed to these RU pesticides and chemicals.
Let’s say you want to go camping at Polihale State Park. The
winds can blow from those fields right across your campsite to the ocean. Drift
is relevant and it’s real. If you were trying to be careful, if you were trying
to protect your children’s health, you might want to avoid a certain part of
the island where these field trials are taking place.
I think anyone who is visiting Hawaii should could call the Board of Tourism, the Department of Health, the Department of Agriculture, the Governor’s office and ask these really important questions. I believe that the County government is a political subdivision of the State, and it has a responsibility to protect the environment for everyone’s benefit.
Hawai‘i’s State Constitution states that for the benefit
of present and future Generations, the State and its political subdivisions
shall conserve and protect Hawai‘i’s natural beauty and
all its natural resources — and that includes land, water, air, minerals and
energy sources. It would be good for elected officials to know that people are
concerned.
BIONEERS: Who are you
hoping to reach with your film, and how they can become involved?
KEELY: We hope to
reach a broad audience. While we talk about Hawai‘i, we are trying to
help people around the country understand the situation here as well as the
broader impacts.
Poisoning Paradise
is a time capsule of a grassroots movement that is seeking disclosure and environmental
protections, which necessitate an Environmental Impact Statement. We want
scientific data to understand how these chemicals affect our food, health,
land, water, air, oceans and wildlife, and all other natural resources in the Hawaiian
Islands. We want to reach out to anyone who is also interested in protecting
the environment and who are involved in the food movement and sustainable
agriculture. The recent rulings against Monsanto make this discussion very
relevant and real.
I think education will always be part of the solution. The
bottom line is that we need to move away from pesticide-heavy agriculture, and
we need to put our resources into recreating regenerative, diversified
agriculture systems. They remove toxic pesticides and fertilizers from the
equation, and they help to protect our communities, farmworkers, and our
environment.
These regenerative systems also drastically reduce
agriculture’s reliance on fossil fuels, which include petroleum-based
pesticides and fertilizers. They help to build soil that sequesters carbon,
which slows down climate change. They help to build a strong foundation of soil
that captures and holds water, eliminating destructive sediment and runoff. They
also make farms more drought tolerant.
I think everyone should be pushing for counties to regulate
from within when it comes to pesticides. That includes your county parks, county
roads, and especially your county schools. Every state and every county should
be pushing to get the Department of Education to ban the use of herbicides
around schools to protect children. That’s a great first start.
Also, while you might not be able to grow all your own food,
grow something, or get to know your farmers at the local markets. Buy organic
where you can, educate yourself about the “dirty dozen,” what to avoid unless
it’s organic. Pick and choose, if you have to, which crops you can afford to
buy that are organic. We want to protect our food supply. We want to protect heirloom
seeds, and organic seeds. I think it’s the only way that we’re going to have a
viable food system.
Be part of the solution. We need everybody’s help and
everybody’s voice. I hope that audiences find Poisoning Paradise, not only informative but also beautiful to watch—it
really highlights what’s at stake for all of us.
Since 1994, Richard Piacentini has led the green transformation of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, including construction of the Center for Sustainable Landscapes, the only building in the world to meet Living Building Challenge™, LEED® Platinum, WELL™ Platinum, and SITES™ Platinum certifications. Richard is interested in the connection between people and plants particularly as it relates to human and environmental health. He has received numerous professional honors, including APGA, ILFI and USGBC leadership awards.
