Bioneers | 2009 YearBook

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Year in Review 2009


Bioneers is inspiring a shift to live on Earth in ways that honor the web of life, each other and future generations. Since 1990, the acclaimed Bioneers Conference and our educational communications have highlighted leading social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for restoring people and the planet. Through our conferences, media and other programs, Bioneers provides education for action with breakthrough solutions for solving the world’s most urgent challenges within a framework of interdependence.

Revolution From the Heart of Nature It’s all alive – it’s all connected – it’s all intelligent – it’s all relatives

“The Bioneers community has had a significant impact on my work… Every time I go, I learn something and invariably find a few gems.” Michael Pollan, Author, The Omnivore’s Dilemma Photo - Jennifer Esperanza

“The conference is known for its eclectic mix of topics and personalities, and for bubbling up disruptive green ideas that find their way into our mainstream culture a few years later. “ © Thompson Reuters


HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIONEERS As we rolled into our 20th anniversary Bioneers conference, we wondered if it would signify an authentic milestone, or a passing mile marker on a long and interesting road. Well, you guessed it. We reached a novel threshold in Bioneers’ ongoing co-evolutionary journey seeding breakthrough solutions to restore people and planet, and connecting the social web. Of course, survival is its own testament. That Bioneers is thriving is a milestone in itself. For that, we offer our heartfelt gratitude to each of you who has helped create and support this living social sculpture. Bioneers is the work of many hands.

Although Bioneers is a perennial living system dancing with the changing world, our purpose from day one in 1990 has been to catalyze positive environmental and social change – to make a real difference. By 2009, the world had come a long way, and many of the kinds of ideas and practices we’ve been promoting have moved from the margins into the mainstream. Yet the world has entered the red zone, and we have a long way to go. Every act has to count. Bioneers is gearing up to take all we’ve created and learned together and direct it to larger-scale transformation over the next make-it-or-break-it decade. The keywords are mobilization and action. In that light, over the past several years we planted seeds of new directions that began flowering in 2009 and early 2010. These innovations are another milestone. Our Dreaming New Mexico (DNM) localization project emerged as a significant force for change in our own backyard. Growing from the Beaming Bioneers program, DNM is seeking to reconcile human and natural systems at the state level – on the ground. It’s also designed as a template and tool kit for other communities, cities and states to approach local and regional restoration. Our recent efforts to internationalize Bioneers have led to two convenings in Europe in 2010: an action-oriented gathering focused on Biomimicry, and our first European Beaming conference. It’s one world, and it’s critically important to cross-pollinate our knowledge and networks for effective action. Our emerging Women’s Leadership program is bringing vital capacity-building skills to support women leaders. The leadership of women is imperative to everyone’s success – along with women’s wisdom about what leadership is. We’ve deepened our work with First Peoples through the conference’s Indigenous Forum, a book and other activities. Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and the human rights of First Peoples are equally crucial to this historic transition. We thank our indigenous partners and allies for their generous counsel and collaboration. On the communications and education fronts, we’ve been developing the Bioneers Catalog from our rich 20-year library for initial release in 2010. We’ve been making significant inroads into schools and colleges, where educators and students are using Bioneers materials. And we’ve been cultivating a suite of strategic partnerships because we can achieve a lot more together than alone. We’re mightily grateful this work and network exist at this critical keyhole in planetary evolution. We cannot thank you enough for your part – now and into the future. Ten years down the road, hopefully we will look at each other and say, “We did everything we could, and it worked because we were bold and we had each other.” With Love and Gratitude --

Kenny Ausubel Co-CEO & Founder, Nina Simons Co-CEO & Co-Founder

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On our 20th birthday, despite the recession, we saw conference attendance at close to 3,000 in San Rafael, only a modest drop. More than 8,000 people participated in 18 Beaming Bioneers local satellite conferences. Our first live webcast of select plenaries garnered over 20,000 unique viewers. Overall media and communications outreach kept expanding.


Honors, Awards and Testimony In 2009 we were gratified to receive several honors, awards and a generous birthday testimony. It’s an honor and blessing just to do the work we do. Thank you.

Sacred Whale - Tofua’a/Tohorā – “A Gift to Bioneers – A Gift to the World” At the closing of the 2009 conference, two indigenous guests from New Zealand presented Bioneers with this magnificent carving from a single whalebone. We humbly receive it on behalf of the community we serve.

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Wikuki Kingi, QSM (Queen’s Service Medal), is a master carver who designs and creates many “treasures” (tonga) including traditional Maori longhouses, totems and canoes. Wikuki works closely with Māori communities in New Zealand, and is passionate about developing thriving indigenous communities worldwide through creative leadership and ancient art forms as doorways to sustainable living. Tania Haerekiterā Tapueluelu Wolfgramm is a cultural psychologist, researcher and evaluator who advocates for indigenous rights and the well-being of native peoples and their places. Through the Tonga Futures Foundation, she encourages Tongans to care for their beautiful yet vulnerable islands. She is working to have Tongan-born whales granted special status as Tongan nationals to protect them as they travel to and from Antarctica through international waters.

In their words: The magnificent whale, for us in Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa/the Pacific, is known as the great living library of knowledge. Tofua’a /Tohorā swims the oceans of the world remembering and feeling the memories of all living things, waiting for the time when we can remember to talk to them and learn the wisdom we need to know to survive and live in harmony with the planet – Papatuanuku – Mother Earth. The carving is a manifestation of the taniwha, or sea dragon – that is, the guardian of the oceans. The taniwha carries with it the karakia, or ancient prayers, that hold the mana to help to save the world. But this will not happen until humankind is ready to receive it – only then can the healing begin. The taniwha of sacred whale is gifted to Bioneers as they are an inspirational “roopu” or group who have demonstrated a commitment to saving this Earth. They seek solutions in nature whose wisdoms consistently surpass our concept of what is possible. Bioneers honors the whale as part of the web of life, understand its timelessness, its strengths and vulnerabilities. Bioneers continues to act as a conduit for many who seek to honor that code, not only through words but also through action. 1 Tofua’a: (Tongan) Whale 2 Tohorā: (Maori) Whale 3 Carved from whales that beached decades ago on the North West Coast of New Zealand.


Honors, Awards and Testimony As we entered our second decade of holding the conference in Marin County, the Marin County Board of Supervisors honored Bioneers with a Resolution. We honor the County’s exceptional leadership in addressing local environmental and social challenges. Following are excerpts from the Resolution and County Supervisor Charles McGlashan’s conference remarks.

Marin County Board of Supervisors Resolution Honoring Bioneers

Celebrating 20 years of meaningful work and 10 years making Marin County its home Whereas, Bioneers has worked to inform, inspire and celebrate numerous organizations and institutions throughout the County of Marin to help support the County government’s work to implement positive change on environmental and sustainability issues; and

Be it further resolved that the Board of Supervisors of the County of Marin thanks Bioneers for making Marin its home and for bringing the Marin community and people all over the world together to work toward a healthier future for all people, all creatures and our precious planet. October 13th 2009

“Bioneers has inspired us year by year to continuously improve our performance. One example is that we have signed a resolution pledging ourselves to work our fingers to the bone to be zero-waste by 2025. We just passed one of the nation’s most radical construction and demolition waste ordinances and we’re tightening it up again. Another major focus is building retrofits. We’re at the bleeding edge of a new energy policy. Within five years, we’ll be 100 percent renewable for our electricity stock … for no cost premium at all. As I often tell my aids and my coworkers at Marin County, there is a lifetime of entertainment available for us right here at home. Keep up the great work, Bioneers. Keep providing a vision of how we can all walk our talk. I’ll keep coming here to learn how to do it better, and we need your help. Send us your good ideas, get engaged, be politically active because guys like me need cover from folks like you to do this work. Thank you very much.” -County Supervisor Charles McGlashan at the Bioneers conference

State of California Senate - Certificate of Recognition - Bioneers A few weeks after the conference, we received a Certificate of Recognition from Senator Mark Leno on behalf of the California State Senate. Senator Leno is a celebrated public servant who has courageously been at the forefront of environmental protection and human rights. His 3rd District includes Marin County and portions of San Francisco and Sonoma Counties.

Radio Awards And in 2009, our radio series Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature won three national/ international awards, (see page 23).

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Whereas, through its ineffable ability to prompt passionate, purposeful action, Bioneers has given the people of Marin the gift of a front row seat as well as a window into a multitude of creative solutions for reimagining our future. In turn, Marin has answered the Bioneers call with resolute, sustained action restoring and reinvigorating our human and natural systems.


Honors, Awards and Testimony : Buckminster Fuller Challenge Award The 2009 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Award selected our Dreaming New Mexico project as first runner-up from among almost 200 global entries (MIT Media Lab won). Following are some of the jury’s comments: The core concept of this work is the power of transformative visioning, of imagining the world we want to see and then putting the steps in place to get us there, a process which Bucky often called designing the “preferred state.”

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The solution tackles an issue often overlooked by problem-solvers – the political dynamic and the political barriers that often slow or stop large-scale change. In many ways, DNM is a process for creating a new political landscape that ties together Earth stewardship values with core community needs – from fresh water, to clean energy, to abundant and locally grown food. Imagining a better future is the first step towards creating that future, and DNM provides a rich community process that can be replicated across the globe to give voice to the grassroots and help us build strong local economies and sustainable, resilient communities.

Dreaming New Mexico brings together the tools of grassroots organizing and community leadership with scientific knowhow and political savvy to both create a vision for the future and lay the groundwork for getting there. This is a fundamental leverage point for creating systemic change.

For two decades, Bioneers has been the place where environmental leaders in the U.S. and beyond have come together to dream and embody a new culture. Increasingly, it has also been a venue where leaders of color within the environmental justice movement are bridging historical racial gaps in the environmental movement to share grounded strategies and new visions with the promise of creating a healthy, just and sustainable multi-racial society. M. Paloma Pavel, Ph.D and Carl Anthony, authors, “Breakthrough Communities: Sustainability and Justice in the Next American Metropolis” (MIT Press, 2009), and companion PBS series


Photo: ©Frank Rogozienski of Brock Dolman

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“I love Bioneers! I come because I learn so much. I draw on what I learn here all year long.. I also come to see friends and network and do movement-building because this is the place to make it happen.” Annie Leonard, Producer/director, “The Story of Stuff”


Dreaming New Mexico: Going Local Dreaming New Mexico (DNM) is an innovative Bioneers collaborative project to reconcile nature and cultures at the state level in our Southwestern home base. At the heart is a restoration economy that embraces the rights of people and nature and builds a reliable prosperity. The centerpiece is “future maps” conceived by project co-director Peter Warshall, a gifted polymath, biologist, anthropologist, author, former public official and long-standing bioneer. The maps serve as points of departure for action-oriented convenings of cross-sectoral networks around a shared vision of restoration, and as educational and organizing tools. 6 BI ONEERS YEAR IN RE VIE W

“The Age of Renewables” - our first map and accompanying in-depth pamphlet released in September 2008 – has led to many results. In January 2009, Bioneers co-sponsored a New Mexico Green Jobs Summit with our local partners New Energy Economy (NEE), the principal statewide renewables coalition, and Regional Development Corporation, a nonprofit focused on creating a diverse and sustainable local economy. The Summit brought together 55 key actors from government (state, county, municipal), business, education, civil society, the tribes, youth and philanthropy. Governor Bill Richardson chose the Summit to unveil his newly formed Green Jobs Cabinet at a press conference. The Summit was covered in national media, including Forbes and Associated Press.

The premise: Dreaming the future can create the future. What would success look like? What are our dreams? These transformative questions have propelled a process of envisioning “do-able” dreams and mapping how to realize them. The project also provides a template and tools for other placebased initiatives worldwide. www.dreamingnewmexico.org

Peter Warshall’s presentation, noted by many participants as the highlight, resulted in briefings for Governor Richardson’s newly formed Green Jobs Cabinet and his top two energy policy advisors. The latter brought an invitation to co-chair a State committee on environment and energy (which we deferred to our partners). Attending the Green Jobs Cabinet briefing were the Secretary of Environment, Deputy Secretary of Indian Affairs, Green Economy Manager from the Economic Development Department, special assistant from the Office of the Secretary of NM Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, and the leadership of Santa Fe Community College. The Green Jobs Cabinet’s subsequent report, “New Mexico’s Green Economy: Capitalizing on Assets and Opportunities,” extensively cites DNM, featuring our maps, research and various specific recommendations (“dreams”). http://www.edd.state.nm.us/greenEconomy/overview/index.html In January 2010, Governor Richardson signed an Executive Order that outlines the state’s course to building a comprehensive green economy based on the recommendations and goals detailed in the Green Jobs Cabinet’s report. http://www.gov.state.nm.us/orders/2010/EO_2010_001.pdf. Numerous Santa Fe schools are using the materials. Several other states have requested information on how to mimic the project.

The knowledge I gained, the people I met, the connections I made have made my life richer, my work more productive, and my future as a youth of this planet brighter. The diversity of the Bioneers community is incredible. Kai Neander, Sequoia Park Zoo Roots & Shoots of Jane Goodall Institute, California Youth Leadership Council, National Youth Leadership Council


Dreaming New Mexico: Going Local The New Mexico Green Collaborative formed from the Green Jobs Summit, and plans to incorporate the DNM framework into its core goals. Native American organizers are using The Age of Renewables as educational and organizing tools in over 20 Navajo and Pueblo communities in their struggle to stop coal and make the transition to renewables. Numerous Santa Fe schools are using the materials. Several other states have requested information on how to mimic the project. In May 2009, Kenny traveled to Chicago for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge Award ceremony, and spoke along with the winner from MIT Media Lab.

In early 2010, we completed work on our next map: “The Age of Local Foodsheds and a Fair Trade State,” led by Peter Warshall and Bioneers Food and Farming Director Arty Mangan, in collaboration with local and other partners. The project also highlights biocultural crops and the traditional indigenous and Hispanic farming cultures that give New Mexico its rich cultural heritage. We filmed over 30 interviews with Native and Hispanic farmers and food systems experts, including Secretary of Indian Affairs Alvin Warren. Lastly, we cannot sufficiently thank and honor Peter Warshall for his exceptional work, indomitable spirit and dedication. Sadly, Peter developed cancer in late 2008. Gladly, he is now cancer-free. We wish Peter all good health and good fortune.

The Age of Local Foodsheds materials will be a central outreach tool to government agencies, public officials, non-profits, tribes, Hispano organizations, schools, universities and the business community.

In 2010: • • • • •

A DNM Food System Summit to engage a statewide, multi-sectoral network to help transform the state’s food system and economy Briefings for public and elected officials and the business community A methodology to facilitate the migration of the “dreaming” process A customized presentation on The Age of Renewables for use by indigenous communities A 2010 Bioneers plenary by Peter Warshall on the Age of Local Foodsheds

AGRO-ECOREGIONS

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In June, Kenny presented DNM at the Tällberg Forum in Sweden in a joint session with Amory Lovins, and then at Findhorn in Scotland.

The Age of Local Foodsheds features innovations including: six distinct “eco-agricultural regions” suited to specific crops; and a challenge for New Mexico to become the first Fair Trade State, because even with optimal localization, well over half the state’s food will still have to be imported.


Dreaming New Mexico: Going Local

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Bioneers Women’s Leadership Our Women’s Leadership program continued to deepen as well as grow into new areas. Nina Simons and editor Anneke Campbell completed “Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart”, the sixth Bioneers anthology book. Through a tapestry of over 30 voices and stories, Moonrise illuminates how women and some men are redefining the leadership landscape across a diversity of perspectives, generations and ethnicities. Contributors include Alice Walker, Rachel Naomi Remen and Eve Ensler, with a foreword by Terry Tempest Williams. Nina helped produce a one-day conference in Washington DC about climate change for about 20 members of the Women Donors Network. Bioneers Board members David Orr and Greg Watson presented. The program addressed the urgent realities and funding opportunities posed by climate change. Attendees reported a deepened understanding and shifts in some of their funding priorities.

“I got loads [of outcomes]. First off, I first used the words ‘Unreasonable Women’ (before Ralph Nader!) on the podium at Bioneers. Second, Bioneers funded the first Unreasonable Women of the Earth gathering in the canyons of California, then later gave us our first Unreasonable Women of the Earth workshop which later birthed our first antiwar action (one of the first of the Iraq War), which later morphed into CODEPINK [Women for Peace]. Thirdly, you found the publisher for my manuscript and then wrote the foreword to my book An Unreasonable Woman. I have written two more books since. Where would I be without ya’ll? Don’t know don’t know. Loads of love from wicked Texas.” - Diane Wilson, author and activist

PEGGY SHEPARD

JENSINE LARSEN

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The Bioneers conference featured perhaps the strongest The radio team produced a one-hour special, array ever of women leaders. Jensine Larsen, founder “They Don’t Call Her Mother Earth For Nothing: of World Pulse, shared the inspiring story of starting a Women Reimagining the World,” featuring Joan global network to facilitate women rising in leadership. Lawyer and Harvard Kennedy School of Government Blades, Jean Shinoda Bohlen, Sarah Crowell, alumna Mari Margil recounted how her Community Annie Leonard, Joanna Macy, Nina Simons and Environmental Legal Defense Fund helped the Akaya Windwood. The special aired on over 40 government of Ecuador embed the rights of nature in its landmark national constitution. Artist Lily Yeh painted a U.S. stations, while a half-hour version in the regular poignant picture of creating a genocide memorial series aired on over 300 stations and internationally. in Rwanda, using art to help heal one of the world’s most broken places. Deep ecologist Joanna Macy’s story of The Great Turning was a stirring call to action. Shailja Patel, a fiercely original Kenyan Muslim poet, delivered a heart-rending poem on the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan. Feminist scholar Sally Roesch Wagner performed in full costume as suffragist Matilda Jocelyn Gage in her own visionary words from a century ago. We thank the many other brilliant women who participated in the program and conference.


Bioneers Women’s Leadership Cultivating Women’s Leadership Training Two six-day trainings, offered in collaboration with Toby Herzlich: at Hollyhock, British Columbia and Ocamora, New Mexico. 28 women combined, for a total of 136 women alumnae over the past 4 years N.M. was the most diverse, with 40% women of color spanning six distinct ethnicities; ages from 19 to mid 60’s. Participants’ focus areas included wild lands and water conservation, donor activism, environmental justice, women’s health, women’s empowerment, economic development, education, art, permaculture, and youth activism and leadership. A survey of the 136 alumnae from the past four years found that the trainings led to real and lasting change and transformational insights. In 2010: 10 BI ONEERS YEAR IN RE VIE W

“Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart” (Park Street Press, October 2010) 2 Cultivating Women’s Leadership trainings (Sonoma, CA and New Mexico) Bioneers.org/ CWL A (first) advanced training for alumnae. Women and Power conference, Omega Institute, NY, September Nina interviewed for world-wide teleconference WomenontheEdgeofEvolution.com Bioneers Global Biomimicry Conference, Netherlands Bioneers.org/global

The training helped me to envision and answer to calls I feel within me to be open to dream big and act on it - including if that means bringing certain forms of heart and spirit in my professional world of policy advocacy, legal work, and human rights education. Joanna Levitt, Executive Director, International Accountability Project, New Mexico 2008


Going Globalocal: Internationalizing Bioneers 9 international conference speakers • 22 countries: speakers and attendees • 7 countries outside the U.S. represented by indigenous participants: Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Guatemala, New Zealand, The Philippines and Kingdom of Tonga • 1st plenary in Portuguese • 10 countries with 45 international stations airing Bioneers radio series • 8 new Spanish plenary translations

Bioneers’ international outreach seeks to accelerate the global exchange and cross-pollination of solutions, ideas and promising practices. We highlight innovative global leaders to U.S. audiences, while bringing Bioneers to audiences and communities abroad.

The Tällberg Forum is dynamic European and global network. Its annual gatherings organized for over two decades have evolved into an innovative global forum where leaders from around the world and from diverse sectors of society gather to reflect on the challenges and opportunities that stem from global interdependence. Kenny presented Dreaming New Mexico’s Age of Renewables project in a workshop on energy innovations shared with Amory Lovins. At the close of the Forum, Marcello Palazzi proposed co-producing a Bioneers event in Europe, which we began putting together for 2010. At Findhorn, Kenny met with Daniel and Findhorn Foundation’s Mari Hollander to plan a 2010 Beaming event. After emerging as an icon soon after its inception in 1962, Findhorn today is a collection of enterprises including the ecovillage, Foundation and College, which offer year-round residential courses and trainings. The Findhorn ecovillage has the lowest ecological footprint of any institution or community measured in the industrialized world. Daniel and Mari hosted meetings with the Transition movement, Global Ecovillage Network (www.ecovillage.org) and CIFAL-Findhorn (www.cifalfindhorn.org), part of the UN Institute of Training and Research-Affiliated Training Center (UNITAR). (The program offers workshops on specific aspects of sustainability to local governments, NGOs and businesses around Scotland, as well as ten cities worldwide.) Findhorn has a permanent UN representation. Kenny also gave talks to the ecovillage and the larger community.

We offer our gratitude to all our international friends for your important work. In 2010:

• Bioneers Global Biomimicry Europe Conference: An event for European and global leaders in partnership with the Progressio Foundation and Biomimicry Institute in May 2010, bioneers.org/global followed by the Tällberg Forum • Findhorn Beaming Bioneers: Join Kenny, Nina and our Findhorn and European colleagues at Findhorn - October 30th to November 2nd. findhorn.org • Bioneers Conference Webcast: accessible internationally

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We built on our first steps in 2008 to extend our international reach. Again we hosted international speakers and attendees, with special focus on biocultural diversity and First Peoples. We kept expanding the global reach of the radio series. We translated eight more plenaries into Spanish. Kenny traveled in late spring to Europe at the invitation of Sweden’s Tällberg Forum, whose founder Bo Eckman and Board member Marcello Palazzi of the Progressio Institute attended Bioneers 2008. Because Findhorn College’s Academic Director Daniel Wahl attended Bioneers to explore a Beaming Bioneers event, Kenny also visited the iconic Findhorn ecovillage in Scotland.


Bioneers Conference Nearly 3,000 attendees, San Rafael, California 3 Countries • 17 Indian Nations • 19 government affiliations • 204 educational institutions • 251 educators • 128 NGOs • 6 film crews • 61 journalists, including 4 international • 40 stories in the press • 11,390 blog mentions (includes blogs about satellites) • Total number of impressions: 147,532,824

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The Bioneers “headwaters” conference in San Rafael remains the heartbeat of the organization. Each year we gather leading social and scientific innovators with breakthrough solutions inspired by nature and human ingenuity. Thousands of engaged folks connect with each other in a fertile field of opportunity oriented to action. Collaborations arise, deals get done, projects get funded and publicized, seeds get exchanged, and six marriages have hatched (that we know of). One of our secret pleasures is finding the greatest people you’ve never heard of. Another special pleasure is covering the waterfront. Where most conferences focus on one field of work, Bioneers spans the arc of human endeavor. This puzzle needs all the pieces to crack the code. Now that green has started to go mainstream, along with civil society, many more professionals in government, business, academia, science, technology and formal education participate. The programming reflects that evolution, with a strong pragmatic focus on innovative financial and policy levers, political action, green cities, leadership development and formal education. We continue to deepen our focus on racial healing and social justice. We thank Carl Anthony and Paloma Pavel, the Tides Foundation and many others for designing critically important programs. As usual, we reliably covered biomimicry, indigenous and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), clean tech and ecological design, food systems, land management and biodiversity conservation, localization, women’s leadership, youth leadership, health and art to name a few.

“This is a kind of seasonal ceremony, Bioneers. If we were migrating birds, this would be our staging ground, where we come and talk about what we hatched this year and what breeding was like.” Janine Benyus, author, founder Biomimicry Institute

At the Bioneers Conference, Living Building Challenge is a Growing Idea…Addressing the assembly was architect Jason McLennan, creator of the Living Building Challenge… There is that germ of an idea … that is growing into a powerful meme. It is this: Why not hold nature as the ultimate measure of our success? It is precisely the same message so assiduously spread by Janine Benyus of the Biomimicry Guild all these years. Holding that idea up as a goal for a common, everyday activity like building is, let’s face it, audacious, and, once we think about it, long overdue. I look forward to seeing what clever bio-designers, inspired by this challenge, come up with in the years to come. © Thomson Reuters News Service


Connecting People with Solutions and Each Other With leading groups in the fields, we co-produced four one-day intensives, designed for professionals and engaged leaders and citizens. Two focused on education: K-12 with the Center for Ecoliteracy; and the role of higher education in the era of climate change, with Second Nature, the American Association for Sustainability Education, National Wildlife Federation and California Student Sustainability Coalition. Tom Linzey and Mari Margil led a special Democracy School on how people’s movements are challenging corporate power with innovative legal and organizing tools. We were especially happy to do two intensive sessions out on the land: A tour of leading-edge local farms with the Marin Farmers Market Institute, and a site visit to the wondrous permaculture facility at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center.

Among other highlights: The Indigenous Forum flowered as a sovereign space with programming designed by our indigenous partner groups Our first webcast of select plenaries attracted over 20,000 unique viewers Marin County presented its Resolution honoring Bioneers as we entered our second decade at the Marin Center We seeded two Bioneers events in Europe for 2010 The Food and Farming dinner honored the exemplary Organic Valley Coop Dr. Andy Weil and Caroline Casey staged an evening improv of coyote mischief

“I was encouraged by your deep concern, your obvious love for humanity and your willingness to continue building a better world for all of us. I continue to tell people…about your bringing together diverse people and projects and how you have inspired so many people of all ages to get involved with the movement to save the planet. You taught me something about loving and caring that I am trying to emulate with the people that I work with.” -James Ella James, 2009 speaker, Secretary of the California Council of Churches

Artist and plenary speaker Lily Yeh reports these outcomes: • • • •

A foundation grant to Barefoot Artists An invitation to keynote the Cleveland Foundation annual meeting (via a Bioneers YouTube clip) Media interviews and other speaking invitations Many volunteers for her work

In 2010:

For the 2010 program, check out www.bioneers.org/conference Get your early bird discount. We’ll be co-hosting intensives including: • Architecting the Future, with the Buckminster Fuller Institute • Traditional Ecological Knowledge with The Cultural Conservancy and indigenous practitioners on site visits • Awakening the Dreamer Symposium, with Pachamama Alliance • Tour of leading-edge eco-farms, with Marin Farmers Market • Plenaries include: Dr. Jane Goodall and Dr. James Hansen

The work you are doing is fantastic. The conference was great, and the charismatic and intelligent speakers were amazing. Helen Ågren, Director, Division for Sustainable Development, Ministry of the Environment, Stockholm, Sweden

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• • • • • •


Weaving the World: Bioneers Keynotes Chief Almir: My [Surui Amazonian] people don’t know technology, but we know traditional knowledge. Seeing that this [Google Earth] technology was very important to create a dialogue with the outside world, we decided to make our experience in our 600,000 acres of rainforest a model, and build a 50-year plan for our future, bringing it to the world through the technology of the Internet so we can build a sustainable future. Brock Dolman: The lifeboat you’re looking for is called your watershed. Every human land use that occurs is up for the grand resilient retrofit. It’s going to take place watershed by watershed in a decentralized, resilient, community-based, bioregionally engaged, three-dimensional, hydrologically and geologically inspired space. 14 BI ONEERS YEAR IN RE VIE W

Kari Fulton: Are we destined to live in the same poverty, to deal with the same pollution that they dealt with 40 years ago? You have the power, you are the voice, and I need you to say, “Not only not in my backyard, but not in anybody else’s.”

Jack Hidary: There’s something that we can do by issuing a new municipal bond, and having the proceeds of that bond go in loans to people for solar and clean energy retrofits - and change their lives. We took it national. PACE means your county, your city, your state will have the ability to give you a low-cost loan that you can take 20 years to pay back. PACE has passed in 15 states in six months and will pass in another ten states in the next six or nine months. Jensine Larsen: The consensus is that empowering and investing in educating women and girls is the fastest way to solve global problems. You have the Pentagon of the United States using a benchmark for the security of a region of how many girls’ schools there are.

Annie Leonard: There are three things about our current systems of production and consumption that are not working. We’re trashing the planet. We are trashing each other, and we’re not even having fun.

Joanna Macy: The future ones are in our actions right here now. So are the ancestors. I want you to feel them present, along with the brothers and sisters of all species and forms of beauty and strength. Let them laugh in your ears, and slap you on the backside, and pull you forward, because we have great work to do.

Mari Margill: In late 2008, the people of Ecuador approved the new constitution, becoming the very first country in the world to recognize the rights of ecosystems to “exist, persist, regenerate and evolve.” We’re now working with communities from Maine to California, from Virginia to Washington. The people in the communities we work with recognize that the structure of law was never intended to protect the environment, but instead to regulate its exploitation, and that they must write new structures of law, maybe writing their own constitutions to replace it.


Weaving the World: Bioneers Keynotes Jason McLennan: We need to try to become as smart as nature. We’ve been thrilled that, all over this country, architects, engineers and developers are standing up and saying, “We’re with you and we’re going to try to figure this out.”

Michael Pollan: We need to wean this American food system off its heavy twentieth-century diet of fossil fuels and put it back on a diet of contemporary sunshine. We’re going to need to put ten, twenty, thirty million more people on the land, and that’s also part of a sun-food agenda. We need to support visionary farmers who can exploit the power of polyculture to harness sunlight and

Jerome Ringo: We put man on the moon in the ‘60s. The program was called Apollo. We face our own moon shot mission today. That mission is to clean up the environment. That mission is to stimulate the American economy and declare energy independence so that we can get off of the oil barrel that we’re being held over by foreign governments. It is an opportunity to green America through manufacturing, through a public policy that will help America get on its feet again. Arturo Sandoval: Individualism clashed completely with the communal models practiced in both First America and Latino America. I believe we have reached a point where these conflicting core values – individualism versus communalism – need to be deeply reexamined.

Sarah James: The 15 chiefs and Canadian, U.S. Gwich’in chief wrote a resolution to protect the birthplace of the porcupine caribou - the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - and to protect the Gwich’in way of life and many other life forms. It was a really hard decision for the elders because that means we’re going to expose ourselves to the world to tell our story. The elders gave us direction. Do it in a good way. Teach these people why we say no to oil, and no compromise. It’s a sacred place where the life began. Dr. Andrew Weil: The most wonderful fact of human biology is the incredible capacity of the human organism to self-diagnose, maintain equilibrium, repair, regenerate and adapt to injury and loss. This marvel of the human capacity for self-regulation, for repair, should be right up-front in the way we train our health professionals, in the kinds of health education that I’d like to see a Department of Health Education implement in our schools and get these concepts across to people in our society. Lily Yeh: In Taoist thinking, in the darkest of night, in the most devastating place, that’s the place most ready for transformation. I see abandoned lots as endless resources for us to create an innovative way to create our new future. Making art in destitute places is like making a fire in the dead cold night of winter. It gives out warmth, gives out light, gives direction and rekindles hope.

This is the best conference I have ever attended. I feel incredibly empowered to bring back and put into action numerous ideas that blossomed there. Rachel Meyer, Coyote Point Museum, San Mateo, CA

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produce lots of food on small amounts of land.


Indigenous Forum 5 workshops with 25 indigenous speakers representing 24 different Indian nations from the U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii) and Canadian • 7 international indigenous leaders from Colombia, Guatemala, the Philippines, New Zealand and the Kingdom of Tonga • 20 native scholarships to leaders, activists and students representing 17 Indian nations: Crow, Paiute, Wappo, Cherokee, Kashaya Pomo, Lake Pomo, Haida, Mohawk, Tuscorora, Yaqui, Osage, O’Odham, Mixtec, Ohlone, Karuk, Navajo, Maori. After successfully piloting a sovereign Indigenous Tent at the 2008 conference, we expanded the program to an Indigenous Forum with our two producing partners: The Cultural Conservancy (TCC) and Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN). We offer our gratitude to TCC’s Melissa Nelson and IEN’s Tom Goldtooth, as well as to our indigenous Board members Dune Lankard, Chief Oren Lyons and Clayton Thomas-Müller.

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Greg Sarris, Chairman of the local Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, welcomed the conference to his people’s traditional lands. Indigenous conference plenaries included Alaska’s Sarah James, the revered Gwich’in elder working on climate change, and Chief Almir of Brazil’s Amazonian Surui, who are working with Google Earth Outreach to map and protect their last remaining old-growth rain forests. The Indigenous Forum, which organizes its own programs, orchestrated a traditional opening welcome address by Greg Sarris as well as a ceremonial opening chant by New Zealand Maori leaders Wikuki Kingli and Tania Wolfgramm. The Forum co-sponsored the “Conversations with the Earth” multimedia exhibit of Indigenous Responses to Climate Change by Land Is Life and InsightShare, with special thanks to Brian Keane and the Christensen Foundation.

The Forum produced five workshops addressing cutting-edge indigenous issues: • Sacred Waters: Renewing the Blood of Mother Earth • Native Media and Cultural Revitalization • The Green Economy in Indian Country • Protecting Sacred Landscapes with Native Plants, Foods, and Medicines • Indigenous Philanthropy – Expanding Funding for First Peoples

It was a great opportunity for me to join hands with the larger community that wants to do the same work my Tribal people – Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo – have been doing for eons, work that must be done if we are to continue. Greg Sarris, Chairman, Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, California


Indigenous Forum • Protecting Sacred Landscapes with Native Plants, Foods, and Medicines • Indigenous Philanthropy - Expanding Funding for First Peoples Native students came from San Francisco State University, Humboldt State University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University. “This Indigenous Tent and all these Native speakers in one place are awesome! The topics are critical not only to our communities, but to the world. “

Ò

This place is many friends. organize a kid how to protect

great! I made so Next year, can I art project showing Mother Earth?

Ó

– Zhaabishkaang Bush, White Earth Anishinabe, Age 9

– PennElys Goodshield, Sustainable Nations Development Project, Trinidad, California

future - cultural, social, environmental, ecological... It was fantastic! “ – Tania Wolfgramm (Maori/Tongan) and Wikuki Kingli (Maori) In 2010:

• Indigenous Forum: In partnership with California Indians, Maori leaders Wikuki Kingli and Tania Wolfgramm will create and then launch a traditional, specially carved canoe at Bioneers as a symbol of the “Original Instructions” • Plenary by native Hawaiian National Geographic Fellow Elizabeth K. Lindsey

Did you know? • Just one-quarter of one percent of all U.S. foundation funding supports indigenous projects and work? Please support indigenous work and Bioneers’ Indigenous Forum and programs

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“We had a wonderful time, meeting up with you and other inspirational leaders across various spheres (Sarah James, Chief Almir, Brock Dolman, Michael Pollan) ... and many more whose shared vision is to ‘live on earth in ways that honour the web of life’ - working together towards a better, sustainable


Beaming Bioneers: Sharing Solutions, Building Community Around the Nation Over 150 Press and Media stories about Beaming site events • More than 50% of Beaming Bioneers attendees under 30 years of age • 18 sites • 5 new sites: Madison WI, Louisville KY, Ithaca NY, Los Angeles CA, Pittsburg PA. • 8,346+ attendees The most active and progressive social change in the U.S. today is happening at the community level – neighborhoods, cities, counties, states. As daunting as the global picture is, we can all take care of our place, and many people are passionately doing just that. Beaming Bioneers provides a local focal point for communities to come together around local solutions and build relationships and networks. Communities beam in the conference plenaries – live or later – and they independently produce original programs, often in association with local colleges and universities. The program supports communities to learn together, organize around local solutions, and build social capital among otherwise disparate groups, people and issues. New Bedford, Massachusetts 18 BI ONEERS YEAR IN RE VIE W

“We had more attendees than ever this year, and a large number were from the local region, representing every type of organization or business. It is the one event in the region where you know you will be able to interact with and meet almost everyone who is doing positive work in our region.” “We have watched the conference grow from around 450 very dedicated individuals to over 1,700 passionate attendees from all walks of life. There have been many stories or outcomes throughout the years, but two come to mind first. One is the understanding of the most pressing problems and more importantly solutions that one receives. This is amazingly powerful, something that we are very grateful that we can help spread throughout our region, the country and the world. Secondly, the increase in attendance of young people has been a major story over the last five years. Youth attendance has skyrocketed. Not only have we been able to educate a large group of youth leaders, but they have been able to educate us and the rest of the attendees. All who attend the conference notice and feel the youthful passion coursing through the conference. “ Detroit Michigan “We had a Youth Day on Friday for the first time: ages 12 to 18. We anticipated 70 youth and ended up with 137! Great event. Our ethnic diversity is increasing, particularly African-American representation.” Los Angeles, California “One of the greatest accomplishments was the level of presentations and panels that were seamlessly presented.” Louisville, Kentucky “Just wanted to let you know that we had a wonderful inaugural Bluegrass Bioneers and can’t wait to have the next one. Some very important sustainability seeds were planted here, and they’re only going to continue to grow over the next year. ” To become a Beaming Bioneers Partner or for more information, visit the Beaming section of our Bioneers.org website or contact us at beaming@bioneers.org. Coming in 2010 An enhanced suite of Beaming Bioneers options including live or delayed webcast and archiving.


Beaming Bioneers: Sharing Solutions, Building Community Around the Nation

“The world will be saved by people saving their own homes.” - Pete Seeger

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Wisdom at the End of a Hoe: Seeding Sustainable, Local Food Systems 35 local farmers supplying the conference with produce • 9 local food purveyors •$14,103 total dollar amount purchased from local farmers and food purveyors • 98% local produce served at the conference • 400 people at the seed exchange and 300 attendees at the sold-out food and farming banquet Our Wisdom at the End of a Hoe food and farming program promotes biological farming practices and sustainable food systems. It provides education, inspiration, connections and systemic frameworks for individuals, communities and decision-makers for envisioning and implementing their own sustainable food future.

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Our food systems work deepened greatly with Dreaming New Mexico’s “Age of Local Foodsheds and a Fair Trade State” project. At Bioneers 2009, Michael Pollan returned to deconstruct the myths of the industrial food system and chronicle the rise of a localized, diverse, healthy and just one. With the release of a children’s version of his best-selling “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, he sat in on a unique panel with youth food leaders. Workshop presentations included a cutting-edge Permaculture model of on-farm carbon sequestration and water systems that create resilience to drought, increase soil fertility and reduce C02 emissions from agricultural lands. Former Kellogg Foundation Food and Society program officer Oran Hesterman, now of Fair Food, led an eclectic array of urban food activists using faith, music and politics to spread the message of healthy food for underserved communities. At the ever-popular Seed Exchange, over 400 people exchanged open-pollinated seeds to conserve invaluable genetic treasures. Seed masters from The Mayan Seed Ark Project, who carried with them sacred traditional varieties of corn from Guatemala, blessed all the seeds and participants in an opening ceremony. Hosting the exchange were Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, New Mexico’s Tesuque Pueblo Farm Project and the Sustainable Seed Company in Petaluma, California. Just Us For Food Justice, our food and farming youth program, again assembled dynamic youth from community-based food projects all over the country: Farm Fresh Choice in Berkeley, Rethink New Orleans Schools, Mission Pie in San Francisco, Community Services Unlimited in L.A., Food What in Santa Cruz, and students from Earth University in Costa Rica.

My experiences as a young woman of color have positioned me to work best to fight the intersection of class and gender and race and ethnicity and food access that keeps everybody oppressed. As soon as we can liberate that intersection - that point that holds the entire web of oppression together - what will we have? - Maya Selsedo, Rooted in Community

The gala Food and Farming Banquet honored Organic Valley with a mouth-watering local and organic meal designed by chef Bryant Terry. Why Organic Valley? In 1988 amid one of the worst farm crises in decades, seven farmers driven by a vision of cooperation, organic farming principles and the humane treatment of animals vowed to create a healthy commercial alternative to industrial agriculture. Today the nation’s largest food cooperative business, Organic Valley represents over 1,300 farmers - 10% of all the organic farms in the U.S. - and produces award-winning products. Its revenues top half a billion dollars. Organic Valley shares the wealth by offering fair prices to farmers, and a profit-sharing program for employees, farmers and the community. We’re honored to have Organic Valley as a major sponsor of Bioneers. www.organicvalley.coop


Moving Image Festival: Sparking Change through Storytelling 7 features, 8 shorts • 11 participating filmmakers • 1,200 attendees The Moving Image Festival celebrated its 10th anniversary showcasing films about the most important issues of our time. We congratulate Bill and Laurie Benenson on the success of “Dirt! The Movie”, which was nationally broadcasted on virtually all PBS stations for Earth Day 2010. Dirt! was inspired in part by Bioneers and features over 10 bioneers, several filmed at the conference. Based on William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book “Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth”, the film premiered and was nominated for a grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009, with over 150 screenings since. Bill and Laurie answered questions after this SRO showing. Along with guest filmmakers, hosting programs were award-winning film director Jeremy Kagan, Bay Area radio talk show host Deborah Lindsay, producer Erica Priggin (The Story of Stuff), Festival producer Aaron Leventman and Bioneers staffer and documentary filmmaker Spencer Windes.

Hidden Beauty and Origins As part of the plenaries, award-winning master time-lapse nature filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg presented dazzling clips from his new Disneynature feature documentary “Hidden Beauty” about the loss of pollinators, to be narrated by Meryl Streep.

Food, Inc. Michael Pollan introduced an SRO screening for this Oscar-nominated, multi-award-winning documentary that exposes the grotesquery of our nation’s food industry.

A Sense of Wonder Actress Kaiulani Lee discussed her portrayal of Rachel Carson’s final years. Based on her one-woman show that premiered in 1997 at Bioneers, she has been touring the world with the film.

The Yes Men Fix the World Ben Frymer and Peter Phillips from Project Censored spoke after the screening about the civil disobedience of the notorious Yes Men in their mischievous political theater to show how corporations have taken over the world.

Earth Days Stewart Brand, Whole Earth Catalog founder, author, and subject in the film, joined the post-screening discussion about the environmental movement from the first Earth Day in the 1970s.

Children of the Amazon Included session with filmmaker Denise Zmekhol; Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui; and Rebecca Moore, founder of Google Earth Outreach. ALSO: The People’s Grocery • A Sea Change • Witness to Hiroshima • Students of Consequence: African Bushmeat Expedition Vida Verde Nature Education • Silent Snow

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SCREENINGS


Inspiring Change for the Future: Bioneers Youth Leadership and Educator Outreach 157 youth • 6 young educators under 30 • 122 in Smart by Nature • 86 in Education for Action in the Age of Climate Change • 150 scholarships Each year the Bioneers Youth Program fosters leadership development, alliance-building and networking among youth and educators engaged in environmental and social justice work. Approximately 150 scholarships were awarded to under-served youth, youth of color and Bay Area youth. An orientation allowed 70 youth and their mentors and teachers a full day of activities to connect and prepare for the intense weekend ahead.

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“My cynical state of mind altered at the Bioneers conference. I learned that there are solutions to all of our problems, and we know exactly how to live sustainably in the world. I was not aware of the progress that is being made each day by the thousands of inspirational people I met at Bioneers. This epiphany made me understand that I attended for a reason: It was up to me to spread all the information I learned in the short 3 days. Surprisingly, the opportunities literally have NEVER stopped. Each day I am receiving emails and phone calls about me speaking to schools, conferences, churches, businesses and authors. I have become this unstoppable green force educating people at school, home and even parties with friends. I want to thank you for having the…scholarship program. If not for Bioneers Youth, thousands of people including teachers, parents, students, college professors, shoppers, bloggers and teens would not have been inspired to live a lifestyle that coincides with this planet.” Jordan Howard, former student, Environmental Charter School, Los Angeles

The Youth Mixer & Moving Image Film Festival blended music and movies with discussions with filmmakers. At the Youth Open Mic, young people performed music and shared stories or experiences. This year’s plenary youth speaker was Kari Fulton, a Brower Youth Award winner and national campus campaign coordinator for the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative.

Do you want to change a young person’s life? To support Bioneers Youth Scholarships, contact: peter@bioneers.org Special Thanks to all our Facilitators and Partners: Art in Action – www.artinactionworld.org Alliance for Climate Education – www.climateeducation.org Destiny Arts Performance Company – www.destinyarts.org Green Ambassadors – www.greenambassadors.org Grind for the Green – www.grindforthegreen.com Kids vs Global Warming – www.kids-vs-global-warming.org Real Food Challenge – www.realfoodchallenge.org Silence the Violence – www.bayareasilencetheviolence.org Arty Mangan, Bioneers Food & Farming Director

Bryant Terry, Author, Chef Carmel Snow Dunlap lana Stein, Bioneers Youth Program Intern Kevin Buckland, climatechangesart Gerardo Marin, Farm Fresh Choice Sharon Sloan, Council Facilitator Tom & Debra Weistar Tonu & Koa Eagleton All our friends at 350.org

We’re in a race between education and catastrophe.

- H.G. Wells


Radio Nation - The Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature 317 total stations: 272 U.S. and 45 international • 109,000,000 total market coverage (potential U.S. listeners); estimated 200,000+ weekly listenership • 10 nations outside the U.S. • 3 awards: Gold World Medal, New York Festivals; 2 Silver Communicator Awards of Distinction, Crystal Communicator Awards As our single biggest outreach tool, the award-winning national and international radio series annually leverages conference speakers for wider audiences. Distribution grew by 17% in 2009.

The Communicator Awards selected two shows for Silver Awards of Distinction for Best in Audio: “Beyond the Bar Code: The Local Food Revolution”, with Michael Pollan; and “Toxic Trespassing: The Inside Story of the Love Canal Uprising”, with Lois Gibbs. In 2009, in addition to our regular 13 half-hour programs, we produced a one-hour special that aired on 40 stations nationally: “They Don’t Call Her Mother Earth For Nothing: Women Reimagining the World”. For information on how to order the series for your radio station to air free of charge: www.bioneers.org/radioseries. Purchase CDs or downloads of individual shows or the whole series for personal listening and to share with others. Great for drive time. Spread the word with a gift of the Bioneers radio series to your local library, schools, public agencies and community groups. Listen for the new Bioneers Series 10 starting in summer 2010. Bioneers has been very helpful in making our radio listeners more aware of our environment. It has shown that all things are connected and we must take care of Mother Nature. - DWAU 104.1FM, The Philippines In Europe, few people are aware that there exists a vivid scene of environmental activists in America. Bioneers provides important information that is hard to collect in the Old World. Thanks from Switzerland, and keep up the good work! - Radio LoRa, Zurich, Switzerland The Bioneers radio program has helped WLRI 93FM establish an audience that was being completely brainwashed by corporate media perspectives and materials. WLRI and our listeners are truly grateful that there is an intelligent and insightful program that we can provide to the masses here. - WLRI 93FM, Gap, Pennsylvania

Bioneers makes a positive difference because the program introduces us to new ideas being put into practice. We then feel that the dominant paradigm is changing and our planet is breathing a sigh of relief.

- 2BayFM, Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia Community Radio

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In 2009 we were honored to receive three awards including the Gold World Medal from the New York Festivals for Radio Programming and Promotion Awards (the “Oscars” of radio), from thousands of entries from over 30 countries including the U.S. networks, BBC and Canadian Broadcasting Company. Frankly we were surprised at the winning show – Justice or Just Us: Environmental Justice as a Universal Human Right – a hard-hitting piece that shows how vulnerable communities are successfully resisting corporate harms. We’re just glad to get such fare on the air.


The Bioneers Bookshelf: The Books Mother Nature Wants You to Read Bioneers books gather the knowledge, vision and wisdom of the bioneers for classrooms and living rooms. New Title in 2010:

“Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart” Edited by Nina Simons with Anneke Campbell Foreword by Terry Tempest Williams

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Many people today find themselves called toward greater leadership on behalf of the Earth, sourced from their inner authority and inspired by what they love and are dedicated to protect, transform and strengthen. Many are embracing qualities previously relegated to the “feminine”— inner awareness, collaboration, relational intelligence, generosity , respect for the sacred — and are marrying them to the best of their “masculine” attributes to create a new form of leadership that is more inspiring, inclusive and effective. This anthology of stories from over 30 renowned women trailblazers (and a few good men) include Alice Walker, Terry Tempest Williams, Joanna Macy, Frances Moore Lappé, Eve Ensler, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Rachel Naomi Remen and many more.

OTHER BIONEERS BOOKS: “Nature’s Operating Instructions: The True Biotechnologies” Edited by Kenny Ausubel with J.P. Harpignies, foreword by Paul Hawken “Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings For A Sustainable Future” Edited by Melissa Nelson “Ecological Medicine: Healing the Earth, Healing Ourselves” Edited by Kenny Ausubel with J.P. Harpignies, foreword by Dr. Andrew Weil “Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World” Edited by Michael K. Stone and Zenobia Barlow, preface by Fritjof Capra “Visionary Plant Consciousness: The Shamanic Teachings of the Plant World” Edited by J.P. Harpignies “The Bioneers: Declarations of Interdependence” By Kenny Ausubel

About four years ago I wrote to request copies of articles of Bioneers philosophy and ideas. In addition, I requested two books titled “Ecological Medicine” and “Visionary Plant Consciousness”. These books and several papers have been passed around and photocopied to the point that the books have completely fallen apart. I would be most appreciative if you would please send another copy of the above for our study group. These materials have touched many prisoners here and in fact they have helped many to become quite concerned about environmental issues and our connection physically, spiritually and psychosocially. Many of us are in prison because of our disconnection from society for whatever reasons. I believe by becoming aware and in tune with

such issues, it gets to the root of reconnecting to people as a sort of “rehabilitation.” Mind, body and spirit. Troy Thoreau - Inmate, Pelican Bay prison, Vacaville, CA


Why Become a Member? Bioneers members support the web of life. By becoming a Bioneers member, you help to communicate a wealth of innovations for solving our worldÕ s biggest challenges, educate and inspire individuals, and connect and support communities across the globe as they mobilize into action. The inspiring voices and ideas that Bioneers has highlighted for over 20 years are critical to positively shifting the way we live on Earth and with each other.

MEMBERSHIP LEVELS Choose our Supporting Membership and enjoy the convenience of automatic, ongoing contributions. Give a fixed amount each month that most fits your budget.

membership of $500 will enable us to offer youth scholarships to support young changes-makers participate at our annual conference, or contribute to a Cultivating Women’s Leadership 5-day training scholarship, to strengthen women’s capacity. Your membership contribution of $1,500 can educate and inspire a community of over 30,000 people monthly. And, a membership of $2,500+ can help produce our award-winning radio series Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature. We also offer special rates for students, seniors and activists. Visit www.bioneers.org/membership for a complete listing of all membership levels, and details about benefits offered in appreciation of your support.

We also offer a Joint Membership from $85, as well as an Organizational Membership for your business, non-profit, or community group from $250.

GENERAL MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS • Help to co-create our collective future by supporting the spread of Bioneers strategies and solutions to communities around the globe • 15% off annual Conference registration • $10 coupon for the Bioneers Store • Bioneers bumper sticker • Special member discounts at the Bioneers Store • Bioneers e-newsletter and publications

LEAVE A LEGACY: Insure the Future of Bioneers’ Work By putting Bioneers in your will or estate planning, you will ensure our ability to make a crucial difference for our children and grandchildren. Support a positive future by supporting Bioneers future. Contact Peter Mattair at: peter@bioneers.org Thank you for considering joining or renewing as a Bioneers member. On behalf of the entire Bioneers community, we truly value and appreciate every single donation and membership. Collective Heritage Institute (Bioneers) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Gifts and memberships of all sizes are tax-deductible as provided by law.

JOIN OR RENEW TODAY! Visit: www.bioneers.org/support E-mail: members@bioneers.org Call: 1.877.BIONEER (246.6337)

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Our Individual Membership levels start at $50. By joining at an increased membership level, you’ll deepen your financial impact on our work and benefit those we serve and promote. For example, your


With Gratitude To Our Supporters THANK YOU! We owe so much to you, our supporters. We gratefully honor every donor and member. Only space limits us from listing every name here. | $100,000+ | Anonymous (2) | Flow Fund Circle | Garfield Foundation | Betsy Gordon Foundation | James L. Sheehan Fund at Inland Northwest Community Foundation | Tides Foundation | | $50,000-$99,999 | Blackstone Ranch Institute | Christensen Fund | Common Future Fund of RSF Social Finance | Charles Engelhard Foundation | Faraway Foundation | Foundation for Global Community | Kalliopeia Foundation | | $25,000-$49,999 | Anonymous (2) | Joan S. Blaine | Leonardo DiCaprio Fund of California Community Foundation | Fund of Abundance | Garfield Foundation | Polly Howells & Eric Werthman | Kaplan Family Fund of RSF Social Finance | Katz Family Foundation | Kathleen McIntire | David Milliken & Laura Ellis | MK Gratitude 26 BI ONEERS YEAR IN RE VIE W

Fund of RSF Social Finance | Park Foundation | Ms. Nancy G. Schaub |

| $10,000-$24,999 | Anonymous (3) | AEPOCH | Scott Beeman & Susanne Watkins | Frances & Benjamin Benenson Foundation, Inc. | Barbara Bosson Charitable Fund of California Community Foundation | Peter & Mimi Buckley | Susan Nora Clark & Alex G. Karras | Helen M. Cooluris | John Densmore | Victoria Fullerton | Judith Anne Kaplan Fund of RSF Social Finance | MAC Fund of Pittsburgh Foundation | New Cycle Foundation | Panta Rhea Foundation | Betsy & Jack Rix | Marjorie Roswell | James D. Scheinfeld Family Foundation | Anne-Katrin & Gerlinde Spiess | Whoopee Fund II of the Toledo Community Foundation | Underdog Fund of Tides Foundation | Wallick Family Foundation at Denver Foundation | Woodcock #3 Foundation | $5,000-$9,999 | Anonymous (2) | Arntz Family Foundation | Cynda Collins Arsenault | Clements Foundation | Fred Gellert Family Foundation | Livingry Fund of Tides Foundation, on the recommendation of Gay Dillingham & Andrew Ungerleider | Lynnaea Lumbard & Richard Paine | New Hampshire Charitable Foundation | New Priorities Foundation | Anne C. Parker | Payne Fund | | $1,000-$4,999 | Anonymous (2) | 1% for the Planet | Arentowicz Nichols Family Foundation | Michael & Margherite Baldwin | Banky LaRocque Foundation | Molly Blackwell | Jake Blaine & Emily Oakes | Boggess Family Foundation of Community Foundation Serving Boulder County | Jane Eliza Weaver Brickey | Brico Fund, LLC | Sarah Brightwood | Jeffrey Bronfman | Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, on the recommendation of Nancy Kurtz | Compton Foundation | Harriett Crosby | Jennie Curtis | Dancing Swimmer | George Donart | DeeAnn Downing | Deborah Drysdale Fund at Women’s Foundation of California | Lucinda Buck Ewing | Fleischaker Women’s Legacy Fund | David Friedland | James J. Gallagher Family Legacy of Community Foundation of New Jersey | Art Gardenswartz & Sonya Priestley | Tracy Gary | Gift Economy Fund of RSF Social Finance | Harding Family | Highfield Foundation | Jeremy Kagan & Anneke Campbell | Liese Keon | John & Jennifer Knoll | Kurtz Family Fund of Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund | Julie Langhorne & Peter Schlenzka | Livingry Foundation | Patrick Malone | Theresa Marquez | Rahmaneh & Tomas Meyers | Lola Moonfrog | Alan Morrell | Mariel Nanasi | Directors’ Discretionary Fund of Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation | obaboa Foundation | Riki Ott | Mark Parnes | Terri Pauls | Bonnie Raitt | Catherine Raphael | Dorine Real & Lee Tepper | David Rockefeller Fund, designated by Paul Growald | Rosenthal Family Foundation | Richard & Barbara Sachs Senn Foundation at Seattle Foundation | Jack Sawyer | Serious Nonsense Fund of Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program | Austin Hill Shaw | Christopher Shea | Linda Sloan | Carolyne Stayton | Nancy Stephens & Rick Rosenthal | Carolyn North Strauss & Herbert Strauss | Szekely Family Foundation | Diane Talbert | Tamsin Taylor | Lynn Thoré | Lynn Tompkins | Marco Vangelisti | Job van Weelden | Kappy Wells Discretionary Fund of Stewart R. Mott Charitable Trust | Scott & Beth Wachenheim | Eleanor Walther | Barbara & Chris Wilson | $500-$999 | Anonymous | Barry Benjamin | Anne Blaine | Daniel Blaine | Charlotte Brody | Ms. Mary Bonnie Brooks | Cynthia Carmouche | Catalyst Fund of Liberty Hill Foundation | Virginia Coyle & Win Phelps | Paul Cultrera | Rolanda Derderian | Patricia DeWitt | Ann Figueredo | Ellen Fisk | Margot Fraser Fund of Marin Community Foundation | Funding Exchange | Robert Jones | Nancy Juda | Keitha L. Kinne | Kristin & Earl Lasher | Thomas Lee | Arty & Jan Mangan | Paul Marcus & Katherine Juda | Evelyn Newell | Directors’ Discretionary Fund of Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation | Sam Peelle | Susan & Louis Preston | Tom & Mary Reed | Mary Calder Rower | Claire Savage | David Schaller | Nina Simons | Donna Smith | Mark Squire | Mae Stadler | Virginia Stearns | Molly Stranahan | Marsh Torkelson | Thomas Van Dyck | Cynthia West & Mark Myerson | Richard & Alison Whittaker | Mary Willis | Patrice Winchester | Womadix Fund |


With Gratitude To Our Supporters

| $250-$499 | Catherine Allport | Anne Ausubel | Joan Brooks Baker | BioPharmaceutical Technology Center Institute | Eleanor Briggs | Paul Carey | Linda Christenson | Community Building, LLC | Allan Crandell | El Paso Corporation | Environmental Center | Evolution Jewels | Susan Leger Ferraro | Floracopeia | Christian Forthomme | Anyinke Fostine | David Fox | Lisa Gladstone & Kathy Richter | Greater Houston Community Foundation | Thomas & Karen Gritzka | Ashawna Hailey | Pauline Hamilton | Paul Hoffman | Holland Development Group | InJoy Birth & Parenting Education | William Johnson | Andrew Keller | Barbara Lewis | Lou Marchi Total Recycling Institute | Michael Marcus | Will Marsh | Mattlin Foundation | Mothers Acting Up | New Resource Bank | Margaret Newell | Susan O’Connor | David & Elaine Orr | Matthew Page | Regina Phelps | Lori Pye | Quixote Foundation, Inc. | Will Raap | Regenerative Design Institute | Consuelo Rock | Rodale Institute | Nicholas Sage | Sam’s Club Mountain Company Foundation | Amenda Stanley | Daniel Stoecker | Michael Stone | Gregory Watson | Jim & Hope Williams | Richard Wolfe | | $100-$249 | Mary Alberts | Louise Aldrich | John Andrews | Melissa Aronson | Scott Atthowe & Patricia Thomas | Avalon Springs | James & Lyn Avery | Paulianna Balch-Rancourt | Rose Baldwin | Barbara Lockhart | Karen Barnett | Hathaway Barry | Teresa Barth | Bonnie Beavers | Janet Beazlie | Gary Beckerman | Diana Beliard | Catherine Bell | Veronica Berrill | Elizabeth Trahan Berry | Francesca Bertone | Tahdi Blackstone | Sheila Blake | Tara Bloyd | Galen Bodenhausen | Jeannine Bonstelle | Corey Brause | Liza Brickey | Sue Brightheart | Susan Brown | Marney Bruce | Peggy Burkhardt | David Burling | Thomas Camp | Christopher & Janet Carr | Sharon Cassidy | Monique Caulfield | Joel Chaban | Marguerite Chandler | James Chapman | Sandra Chavez | Doug & Ann Christensen | Terry Church | Susanna ColloredoMansfeld | Stuart Conway | Cathryn Couch | Susanne Croft | Michael Cuddy | Eleanor Cuevas | David Cutler | Vergilia Paasche Dakin | Elizabeth Damon | Bas den Boer | Harriet Denison | Rolanda Derderian | Gus diZerega | Lale Doetsch | Patricia Dorn | Mary Alice Doyle | Victoria Dreifuss | Peggy Duvette | David Eggleton | Eichorn Family | Linda Ellinor | Erin Ely | Erin English | James & Rhonda Fackert | Ellen Ferwerda | Vivien Feyer | Neal Forsthoefel | Karen Franseen | Charlie Freas | Friends of the Eel River | Kathleen Gallagher | Shirley Gardenswartz | Lynn Goodman-Francois | Marilyn Granger | Bonnie & John Gray | Jennifer Raven Gray | Russell Greene | George Greer & Requa Tolbert | Bruce & Cindy Grossman | Paul Growald | Jeffrey Haas | Josie Hadden | Katherine Harrington | Jay Harris | Pat Hartman | Dawn Hatch | Jean Hays | Steven Heim | Judith Helfand | Toby Herzlich | Michael Hotchkin | Theresa Huyser | Lynne Iser & Mordechai Liebling | Dr. Ronald A. Javitch | Brianna Jeffcoat | Crystal Jensen | Georgeann Johnson | Cedron Jones | Kristen Kairos | Norty Kalishman | Keepers of the Water | Jack & Sara A. Keller | Jennifer Keller | Anne Kessler | Katharine King | Bonnie & Lee Kirkpatrick | Karen Kleven | Eleanor Kneibler | John Knox | Kevan Krasnoff | Kevin Krejci | Jack & Jane Kroll | Sari Kulberg | Debra Lane | Jamie Lantz | Allsion Laskey | Heather Lawrence | Gina Lazenby | Mary Levy | Pernilla Lillarose | Brett Little | Lily Marie Livingston | Laura Loescher | Catherine Logan | Margaret Lukens | Dr. Rita Lustgarten | James Madden & Melissa Frost | Michael Maki | Casey Mallinckrodt | Elaine Mann | Demetra Delia Markís | Lynn Maser | Bryce Mathern | Robert Maxie | Elliott Maynard | Kathryn Maynard | Emily McCormack | Tessa McDonald | David McGahee & Guadalupe Avila | Elizabeth McGuire | Kent Mesplay | Rachel Mayer | Microsoft Giving Campaign | Kimberly Miller | Robin Mitchell | Anna Moore | Sheda Morshed | Virginia Mudd | Scott Mullins | John Munger | Deborah Mytels | Arlene Naschke | Linda Neumaier | Sara Nichols | Bu Nygrens | Occidental Arts and Ecology Center | Penelope Orr | Karen & Charles Osborne | Georgia Otterson | David Paradise | Hunter & Andrea Herz Payne | Wayne Pendley | Sue Perley | Jonathan Pierpont | Stuart Porteous | Portfolio 21 | Posada Natura Retreat/Eco Era Reserve | Kate Powers | Roger Pritchard | Lynn Pruzan | Joelle Pugh | Whitney Quesenbery | William Raap | Diane Rafferty | Helen Reid | Eleanore Richards | Rona Robins | Normandy Rose | Stephen Rose & Barbara Zaring | Rosebud Agency | Barbara Rusmore | Jack Russell & Nancy Stone | Scott Sampson | Marilyn Seckler & Ted Ore | Henry Seltzer | Neelam Sharma | Duane Sherwood | Martha Siebe | Susan Smile | Colleen Smith | Nancy K. Smith | David Sprague | Susan Stansbury | Starbucks Foundation | Stephanie Taylor | Carol Tunell | Joan Tupper | Kristin & Ross Ulibarri | Yvette Williams Van Aggelen | Jacob Voit | Phil Von Voigtlander | Margaret Weimer | Claudia Welss | John & Linda Wetherby | Ann Wheeler | Cynthia Whitehead | Barbara Winkler | Sandra Witbeck | Mary Woltz | Worm Ladies of Charlestown | James Wright | Celia Zaentz | Ann Zavitkovsky & B. Parker Lindner | Janet Zeller | Brooke Zobrist | We also thank these contributing partners: Organic Valley Family of Farms, Mother Jones, TreeHugger, Café Mam, Chicobag, Eclectic Institute, Portfolio 21, RSF Social Finance, Clifbar, Lafayette Bookstore, Salesforce, As You Sow Foundation, Greener Printer, New Belgium Brewery, Maggie’s Organics, CSR Wire, OnEarth, Pacific Sun & Frey Vineyards.

27 BI ONEERS YEAR IN RE VIE W

Foundation | Santa Rosa Community Market | Susan Schmidt | Barbara Scott | Kay B. Sharp | Marcus Sheffer | Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange | Valerie Sobel | South


Thank You For Your Support! Bioneers is the work of many hands. Our purpose from day one in 1990 has been to effect positive environmental and social change - to make a real difference. The world has come a long way, and many of the kinds of ideas and practices we’ve been promoting have moved from the margins into the mainstream. Yet the world has entered the red zone, and we have a long way to go. Every act has to count. Bioneers is gearing up to take all we’ve created and learned together and direct it to larger-scale transformation over the next make-it-or-break-it decade. The keywords are mobilization and action. ~ Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons

28 BIONEERS YEAR IN REVIEW

We thank our contributing partners and sponsors without whom our work would not be possible.

AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION OF THE NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL


Special thanks to our stellar staff, past and present, and all our valued contractors, seasonal interns, and hundreds of top-notch volunteers, we couldn’t do it without you! Kenny Ausubel Co-CEO & Founder Conference Co-Producer Radio Series Executive Producer Dreaming New Mexico Co-Director

Esther Lombardi Web Content Manager Arty Mangan Director, Food & Farming

J.P. Harpignies Associate Producer Conference & Special Projects

Nina Simons Co-CEO & Co-Founder Conference Co-Producer Women’s Leadership Director

Felicia Marohn Executive Assistant

Neil Harvey Radio Series Host & Senior Producer

Hallie Hammons Executive Assistant

Catherine Stifter Radio Series Co-Writer

Ginger Ridder Sponsorship & Conference Exhibitor Manager

Stephanie Welch Radio Series Managing Producer

Roberto Aponte Managing Director Peter Mattair Vice President for Advancement Kim Bourne Ribbans Director, Marketing & Communications Jeffrey Vasterling Comptroller Chuck Castleberry Executive Liaison

Photo - Jennifer Esperanza

Maia Cortissoz Membership & Development Assistant

Jason Rodriguez Graphic Designer Nicole Spangenburg Project Manager, Dreaming New Mexico Susan Talkington Administration Manager Kelli Webster Conference Project Manager

TC Gritt Project Manager

Julie Weinstein Membership & Development Manager

Aidan Kallas Retail Sales Associate & Receptionist

Scott White Desktop & System Administrator

Aaron Leventman Media Project Manager

Spencer Windes Marketing & Communications Project Manager

CHIEF CONTRACTORS

Peter Warshall Dreaming New Mexico Co-Director Teo Grossman Education/Outreach Program Researcher Bonnie Kirkpatrick Development Associate CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS © Frank Rogozienski © Tim Porter © Jan Mangan © Jennifer Esparanza © Adam AvRuskin IStock Photography Bioneers saved the following resources by printing on Reincarnation, by New Leaf Paper; made with 100% recycled and 50% post consumer waste, processed chlorine free and ancient forest friendly.


The issues they were raising a decade ago have moved into the mainstream. Bioneers has been consistently ahead of the curve. It is now a hatchery for the next wave of important ideas that five years hence people will be talking about in Rotary Clubs. Bill McKibben - The New York Times, 10/26/06

1607 Paseo De Peralta, Santa Fe, Suite 3, New Mexico 87501 1.877.BIONEER www.bioneers.org

We Appreciate You r S u p p o r t i n Ce l e b rat i n g O u r 2 0 t h An n i ve r s a r y !


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