Bioneers Conference 2000

by Renee Renaud

In his opening remarks to the over two thousand attendees at the three-day Bioneers Conference at San Rafael in October, Kenny Ausubel, co-founder of the event, said that in spite of the fact that all of our basic life support systems are endangered, "there is as much cause for hope as for horror, because the denial is finally ending, and because there are solutions." Finding ecologically and socially sound solutions to our environmental problems is what the bioneers are all about. They are "biological pioneers" dedicated to going beyond sustainability to the restoration of the Earth.

This tenth annual conference entitled, "Revolution from the Heart of Nature", featured an eclectic group of fifteen main speakers plus about thirty more who led afternoon workshops. They were scientists, doctors, businesspeople, authors, academics, activists and artists who subscribe to a "Declaration of Interdependence" that says humans and nature are inextricably linked. The crowd was just as diverse in age and occupation with about forty per cent coming from outside California and around the globe. Many speakers received standing ovations, and one of these was author and activist, Alice Walker, who spoke about her latest book - "The Way forward is With a Broken Heart". Her point was that we need to feel our grief to heal it, and not mask it with medications.

Although the overall tone of the conference was upbeat, some of the facts and visuals presented gave all assembled cause for grief, and tears came to many eyes. Dr. Michael Lerner said that we are living in an "Age of Extinction" with an "epidemic of chronic health problems such as cancer, asthma, and learning disorders due to chemical exposure." Toxins in mothers’ milk are being downloaded to their infants, and even the growth of the fetus in humans and animals around the world is being damaged by estrogen-like substances from pesticides and herbicides. These research findings are well documented in Theo Colborn’s book, "Our Stolen Future."

Dr. Lerner’s personal solution was to found Health Care Without Harm, a coalition of medical professionals whose mission is to stop the incineration of medical waste containing dioxin and mercury. In four years it has grown from thirty people to 300 member organizations in 30 countries.

On an overhead of a map of the world, Rebecca Adamson of the Cherokee nation, showed how all of the areas with the greatest remaining biodiversity and resources are also the homelands of the few remaining indigenous people. They are trying to protect these lands, but often lose both their land and lives to corporate greed. Her personal solution was to create The First Nations’ Development Fund, which is an advocate for economic development strategies that supports indigenous rights and culture.

Anita Roddick was another speaker whose overhead pictures deeply affected the viewers - young children in third world countries forced to work long hours to survive. Anita has used her entrepreneurial genius and loving heart to create a cosmetics company that is a model of social and environmental responsibility. She has sponsored many effective grassroots social justice campaigns including paying her employees to go to postwar Kosovo to help with rebuilding efforts.

Paul Stamets, a mycologist from Washington State who has done scientifically documented work breaking down hazardous waste with fungi, also received enthusiastic and grateful applause. His solution is right under our feet! The before and after slides showing toxic areas turned into healthy greenspots when ingested by certain microbes were awesome.

Restorative farming was a major topic covered in depth by both morning speakers and in afternoon sessions. At an evening awards dinner, Joel Salatin was one of six bioneers honored for their exceptional work. He has developed and managed an innovative model of integrative family farming, which restores health to the land and his rural community while being financially prosperous. In the U.S., agri-business has replaced agri-culture, with the result being loss of topsoil, poisoned land, poor quality food and the death of many small farms.

There are so few farmers in America that the 2000 Census eliminated that category of occupation and we now have more prisoners than farmers.

A happier fact is that J.L. Chestnut, an African American civil rights lawyer who works with poor farmers throughout the Southwest to save small family farms, recently helped win the largest class-action suit in U.S. history against the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the grounds of institutional racism.

The best-attended afternoon session was on "Globalization, Corporations and the Environment", perhaps because a large portion of the audience were also Green Party members for whom the subject was also an election platform issue. The case against the global economy was made by a panel of speakers who explained why so-called free trade is not fair trade, and gave examples of how it damages the social fabric as well as the environment.

David Korten, author of "When Corporations Rule the World" hailed the November ’99 Seattle protests, which brought the proceedings of the World Trade Organization to a standstill, a historic coming together of a diverse group of over 50,000 people unified by their commitment to life- enhancing rather than money-making values, and to decision-making by local communities instead of international organizations.

The final speaker of the conference was the young, beautiful and inspiring Julia Butterfly Hill, who lived for two years atop a thousand year old redwood tree to protest the logging of old growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. She said, "One of the greatest lessons I learned in that tree was that the way I feel fulfilled, is by living my life for something greater than myself and being a part of so many people who recognize the power and the hope in that."

The Bioneer’s Conference, Revolution from the Heart of Nature, was held at the Marin Center in San Raphael, California, October 20-22, 2000.

The Bioneers Conference is the preeminent gathering of visionaries with practical solutions for restoring the Earth. For both professional and general audiences, this three-day annual event equips participants with models, resources and networks, encouraging everyone to act as primary forces in the transformation toward a restorative future.

From the Winter 2001 issue of the Environmental News.