Bioneering Into the Future

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http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16971

 

 

Bioneering Into the Future

 

By Matt Wheeland, AlterNet

October 16, 2003

 

For the next five days, Marin County in the San Francisco Bay Area will be

overrun by leading lights in environmental activism and progressive politics.

The 13th annual Bioneers Conference will once again showcase inspiring solutions

to the world's pressing problems.

 

 

 

Where else but at Bioneers could you meet a man who uses mushrooms to clean up

hazardous waste; hear a 24-year-old supermodel and a tree-sitter turned

environmental spokeswoman discuss youth activism; and learn how urban areas are

turning abandoned city blocks into abundant garden plots?

 

 

 

Founded in 1990 by Kenny Ausubel, Bioneers is an organization that can hold many

such ideas under its umbrella. And because the group is focused primarily on

solutions, Bioneers conferences are inspiring, joy-filled occasions to learn

about progress on social and environmental issues, as well as meet other

forward-thinkers who are making change happen in their communities.

 

 

 

Brahm Ahmadi, a co-founder of the People's Grocery in West Oakland, Calif., has

been attending the Bioneers conference for several years. This year, he will be

part of a panel discussing how urban agriculture can revitalize urban areas

economically and ecologically. " The main benefits we get from Bioneers are

continued contact with and inspiration from the work of others, " Ahmadi said.

 

 

 

Those contacts have played a key role in furthering Ahmadi's work. Thanks to

people and ideas encountered at Bioneers, the People's Grocery has begun work on

bioremediation for polluted areas of West Oakland.

 

 

 

The idea of bioremediation is simple: Use nature's various tools to clean up

humanity's messes. Some of this year's Bioneers presenters have spent their

lives developing bioremediation techniques. John president of Ocean Arks

International, has created methods of using contained ecosystems like fish and

coral to purify sewage and wastewater. John Stamets has pioneered the field of

mycoremediation, using mushrooms to break down industrial and chemical spills.

 

 

 

While bioremediation is still in its infancy, the Bioneers conference allowed

residents of West Oakland to access information that would otherwise not be

available to them. The primary methods for bioremediation involve going through

the EPA, which requires large-scale and capital intensive projects unavailable

to low-income areas and nonprofit groups.

 

 

 

" Bioneers has the potential for democratizing this sort of information, " Ahmadi

says. Thanks to the conference, his organization is able to learn about low- and

no-cost methods to expand their work. With each new year of growth, Bioneers is

able to reach more communities and stimulate more change.

 

 

 

Bioneers founder Kenny Ausubel anticipates even faster growth in coming years.

" The prospects for growth are limitless and global, " Ausubel says. " Bioneers is

an elegant model because what it does is tie into and support local organizing

efforts. "

 

 

 

One key aspect of Bioneers' expansion is the Beaming Bioneers program, now in

its second year. The first Beaming Bioneers program reached four locations

around the U.S. and one in Toronto. This year's conference will be broadcast to

12 locations.

 

 

 

These satellite conferences promoted local organizing and allowed groups that

couldn't travel to Marin to interact with conference attendees. Already, three

countries have asked to participate in future conferences, and more sites in

North America will surely come online.

 

 

 

Among the many highlights of this year's sold-out conference include " What is

Socially Responsible Business " with Paul Hawken, Ben Cohen and Susan Davis;

" Mitigating Global Warming " with Jared Blumenfeld and Elisa Lynch; " Genetic

Engineering: Giving Biology the Business " with Lawrence Bohlen, Percy Schmeiser,

Andrew Kimbrell and Ronnie Cummins; and " Reining In the Power of Giant

Corporations " with Kevin Danaher, Jeff Milchen, and Ilyse Hogue.

 

 

 

Matt Wheeland is a former AlterNet editor and freelance journalist based in

Berkeley, Calif.

 

 

 

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