Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature

How can investment choices and strategies truly move the needle on large-scale change? Four leading entrepreneur/investors working to reinvent and re-imagine impact investing share strategies and projects. Hosted by Darian Rodriguez Heyman, former Craigslist Foundation Executive Director and SF Environment Commissioner. With: Silda Wall Spitzer, New World Capital, which invests primarily in green technologies; James Joaquin, co-founder of the venture capital firm Obvious Ventures; Catlin Powers of Sol Source, inventor, Research Fellow at Harvard’s Center for Health and the Global Environment.

Recorded Saturday, October 17, 2015 at the National Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, California.

In this podcast excerpt from a Bioneers workshop, Rebecca Burgess, Ariel Greenwood, and Guido Frosini explain how drawing carbon from the atmosphere and capturing it in the soil can reverse climate change.

“Our soils have a carbon debt. Our atmosphere is gushing with carbon. The carbon over our heads is literally in the wrong place.” Rebecca Burgess

Rather than being the problem, carbon can be the solution to climate change by managing our landscapes to capture atmospheric carbon through photosynthesis and sequester it in the soil where it increases fertility and makes the land more drought resilient. Marin and Sonoma County ranchers and entrepreneurs are building local agricultural economies while regenerating ecosystems and sequestering carbon. The Fibershed Project, founded by Rebecca Burgess, is developing regional clothing production with a community of ecological farmers and artisans. Solar power, grey-water and recycling are all embedded aspects of the Fibershed’s. They have also implemented a Climate Beneficial Certification for their suppliers to ensure that from soil to garment production the stewardship of the environment and climate are paramount considerations.

Two young climate conscious ranchers who share the Fibershed’s ethos are Ariel Greenwood and Guido Frosini. Both balance deep ecology with landscape and livestock management and economic sustainability. Ariel, who describes herself as a “feral agrarian,” holistically manages a herd of cattle to regenerate ecosystems and restore water cycles by increasing biodiversity and sequestering carbon. Guido Frosini of True Grass Farms is an innovative land steward who balances soil and grass cycles with the intentional movement of livestock in a climate beneficial ranching system. Rebecca, Ariel and Guido share their experience, knowledge, and aspirations on this Food Web podcast: Carbon, Climate, Food and Fiber

A movement of rural communities in El Salvador called La Coordinadora has led the way in community-based disaster preparedness, building a grassroots democracy movement, and influencing national policy. It’s featured in the new film and book This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis. Hosted by Mariel Nanasi, Executive Director/President, New Energy Economy. With: Estela Hernández, El Salvadoran Congresswoman; Karolo Aparicio, Executive Director, EcoViva, La Coordinadora’s U.S. sister organization; Avi Lewis, filmmaker, director of This Changes Everything.

Recorded Saturday, October 18, 2014 at the national Bioneers Summit Conference in San Rafael, California.

Local, organic food is growing in popularity by leaps and bounds. Beyond the benefits to the growers, our health and the land, could it become a matter of survival? Author and farmer Michael Ableman shares his cross-country journey celebrating the reverent reconnection with food and the land that is transforming how we will produce our food.

Find out more about Michael Ableman and how you can engage with his campaigns and efforts by visiting http://michaelableman.com

First Peoples have long used key sacred plants as powerful healing tools and to communicate with the "mind of nature." In this truly unique session Bioneers associate producer and editor of Visionary Plant Consciousness J.P. Harpignies and ethnobotanist/artist Kat Harrison hosted deeply experienced practitioners of sacred plant traditions from the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, including Mazatec Elder Julieta Casimiro; Maria Alice Campos Freire, a Madrinha in Brazil's Santo Daime Church; traditional Cheyenne dance leader, sculptress and writer Margaret Behan Red Spider Woman; and Bernadette Rebienot, Omyene healer and master of the lboga Bwiti Rite.

Some of the best minds on the planet are busy cataloguing possible solutions to the crisis of climate chaos. Scientists, entrepreneurs and educators on technology’s cutting edge offer a broad array of bio-based solutions that are already working to transition us to a truly sustainable civilization. Biomimics Janine Benyus, Stephan Dewar, David Orr and Jay Harman offer a smorgasbord of startling solutions based on nature’s genius.

After decades of the repression and demonization of these substances, research trials around the country have been achieving remarkable results that validate the profound healing potential of psychedelics such as psilocybin and MDMA. Mounting evidence suggests they positively address such varied conditions as end-of-life anxiety, PTSD, and cluster headaches. Hosted by J.P. Harpignies, Bioneers Conference Associate Producer. With: Robert Barnhart, filmmaker of A New Understanding: The Science of Psilocybin; Philip Wolfson, M.D., leading MDMA researcher; Mitch Schultz, director of the film DMT: The Spirit Molecule.

Recorded Saturday, October 17, 2015 at the National Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, California.

In the burgeoning field of biomimicry, bioneers are designing a technological civilization that harmonizes with nature’s operating instructions. Inventor Jay Harman models the forms and dynamics of water with astounding results. Chemist Paul Anastas is re-inventing a “Green Chemistry” that transforms how we make things. Imitating nature is paying off for the economy, people and the planet.

How do we align political governance with ecological realities rooted in watersheds, foodsheds, culturesheds and regional economies? Hosted by: Kirsten Schwind, Bay Localize. With: David Orr, Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College; Louise Bedsworth, Deputy Director, California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research.

Four extraordinary women leaders share their perspectives on how to break through the stalemates that impede progress to build a world in which we can all thrive. They work in different spaces – from challenging governments and corporations to defending Indigenous people’s rights, education reform, movement building and investing in green businesses.

With: Eriel Deranger, Communications Manager of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation; Adrianna Quintero, Senior Attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council and founder/Director of Voces Verdes; Annie Leonard, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA; Christiana Wyly, Executive Director of Food Choice Taskforce, Director of My Plate Planet initiative. Hosted by Osprey Orielle Lake, co-founder and Executive Director, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN).