Theme: Food and Farming
Thursday, November 11th
Building on their highly influential “Dirt Trilogy” (Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations; The Hidden Half of Nature; and Growing A Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life), geologist David Montgomery and biologist Anne Biklé will preview their forthcoming book, You Are What Your Food Ate. They’ll share the growing body of scientific evidence underlying how soil health dramatically affects the health of crops and animals, and ultimately human bodies. The intimate connections between the life of the soil and the nutritional quality of food points to the profound importance of farming practices that can imbue the human diet with the nutrients and compounds that underpin health, or rob us of them. They will discuss how a growing vanguard of farmers pioneering regenerative practices is proving that farming practices that are good for the land are good for us too.
November 11th | 11:42 am to 11:59 am
Keynote
David R. Montgomery
Professor of Geomorphology | University of Washington
David Montgomery is a professor of Geomorphology and, along with his wife and collaborator Anne Biklé, co-author of The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health a landmark exploration the microbiome. Montgomery's research looks at the process shaping Earth’s surface and how they affect ecological systems—and human societies. He has studied everything from the ways that landslides and glaciers influence the height of mountain ranges, to the way that soils have shaped human civilizations both now and in the past. He is an elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and has received many awards throughout his career, including a MacArthur Fellowship and the Vega Medal. In addition to The Hidden Half of Nature, Montgomery is the author of the seminal Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations and Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back To Life.
Anne Biklé
Biologist, Avid Gardener and Author
Anne Biklé is a biologist, avid gardener, and co-author, along with her husband, David Montgomery, of The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health. Biklé is among the planet’s leading experts on the microbial life of soil and its crucial importance to human wellbeing and survival.
Permaculture, based on the ethos of “earth care, people care and fair share,” has provided millions of people the principles and tools to live and work in right relationship to the earth and to produce and harvest abundance without degrading the environment. At a time when the world is desperate for a new approach to living on the planet, can permaculture scale-up to create the global ecological and social changes that are needed for human survival? With Permaculture co-founder David Holmgren, Maddy Harland, co-founder and editor of permaculture magazine and author/ regenerative farmer Mark Shepard. Hosted by Permaculturalist Penny Livingston.
November 11th | 12:45 pm to 2:00 pm
Panelists
David Holmgren
Leading Ecological Thinker, Teacher, Writer and Speaker
David Holmgren is (along with Bill Mollison) the co-originator of the Permaculture concept, following publication of their seminal 1978 text, Permaculture One. Globally recognized as a leading ecological thinker, teacher, writer and speaker who promotes Permaculture as a realistic, attractive and powerful alternative to dependent consumerism, he is the author of several books, including: Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability; Future Scenarios: How Communities Can Adapt To Peak Oil and Climate Change, and, most recently, RetroSuburbia: The Downshifter’s Guide to a Resilient Future.
Maddy Harland
Co-Founder | Permaculture Magazine
Maddy Harland co-founded a publishing company, Permanent Publications, in 1990 and Permaculture Magazine in 1992 to explore traditional and new ways of living in greater harmony with the Earth. She is the author of Fertile Edges—regenerating land, culture and hope and The Biotime Log. Maddy and her husband, Tim, have designed and planted one of the oldest forest gardens in Britain: once a bare field, it is now an edible landscape and haven for wildlife.
Mark Shepard
CEO, Author and Regenerative Farmer | Restoration Agriculture Development Inc
Mark Shepard, CEO of Restoration Agriculture Development, runs New Forest Farm (in Viola Wisconsin), a cutting-edge solar, wind and local biofuel-powered 110-acre commercial-scale perennial agricultural savanna, one of the first of its kind in the USA. Mark also teaches agroforestry, Permaculture and Restoration Agriculture and designs natural resource and agricultural properties worldwide and is author of the award-winning books: Restoration Agriculture: Real-world Permaculture for Farmers and Water for ANY Farm. A certified organic farmer since 1995, Mark is also a founding member of the American Hazelnut Company, on the board of the Stewardship Network, and a lead designer for the Valley Foundation of the Reed Jules Oppenheimer Foundation.
Penny Livingston
Prominent Permaculture Teacher, Designer and Speaker
Penny Livingston, one of the most renowned and respected leaders in the field of Permaculture, has been teaching internationally and working professionally in land management, regenerative design and permaculture for 30 years. She has extensive experience in all phases of ecologically sound design and construction and specializes in the site planning and design of resource-rich landscapes that integrate rainwater collection, agroforestry systems, edible and medicinal planting, pond and water systems, habitat development and watershed restoration for homes, farms, co-housing communities and businesses. She is currently teaching online courses with Ecoversity and the Permaculture Skills Center.
Saturday, November 13th
We humans tend to look mostly around, sometimes up, and occasionally down, but even then, only at the surface of things. It turns out, however, that all of life on Earth actually depends on the extraordinarily dynamic life hidden beneath our feet, in the incredibly complex interrelationships of plants, bacteria, fungi, insects and minerals that make our continued existence above ground possible. In this session three of the world’s leading specialists on different aspects of those underground ecosystems will share their cutting-edge research. With: Suzanne Simard, Ph.D., Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia, one of the planet’s leading experts on the synergies and complexities of forests, and a highly influential, world-renowned pathfinder on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence, and author of the current best-selling Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest; Anne Biklé and David R. Montgomery, a wife and husband team of scientific researchers whose groundbreaking work on the microbial life of soil has revealed its crucial importance to human wellbeing and survival. Dave, a professor of Geomorphology, is the author of the seminal Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, and Anne, a biologist and science communicator, co-authored The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health. Their latest collaboration, What Your Food Ate, to be published spring 2022, tells the sobering and inspiring story of how agriculture can help restore health to the land—and ourselves. Moderated by Bioneers’ Restorative Food Systems Director Arty Mangan.
November 13th | 12:45 pm to 2:00 pm
Panelists
Suzanne Simard
Professor of Forest Ecology | University of British Columbia
Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia, one of the planet’s leading experts on the synergies and complexities of forests and the development of sustainable forest stewardship practices, Suzanne Simard is a world-renowned pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence whose work has influenced several major filmmakers and novelists. She is the author of the currently best-selling Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.
Anne Biklé
Biologist, Avid Gardener and Author
Anne Biklé is a biologist, avid gardener, and co-author, along with her husband, David Montgomery, of The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health. Biklé is among the planet’s leading experts on the microbial life of soil and its crucial importance to human wellbeing and survival.
David R. Montgomery
Professor of Geomorphology | University of Washington
David Montgomery is a professor of Geomorphology and, along with his wife and collaborator Anne Biklé, co-author of The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health a landmark exploration the microbiome. Montgomery's research looks at the process shaping Earth’s surface and how they affect ecological systems—and human societies. He has studied everything from the ways that landslides and glaciers influence the height of mountain ranges, to the way that soils have shaped human civilizations both now and in the past. He is an elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and has received many awards throughout his career, including a MacArthur Fellowship and the Vega Medal. In addition to The Hidden Half of Nature, Montgomery is the author of the seminal Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations and Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back To Life.
Arty Mangan
Restorative Food Systems Director | Bioneers
Arty Mangan, Bioneers' Restorative Food Systems Director, joined Bioneers in 1998 as Project Manager for the Restorative Development Initiative. A former board president of the Ecological Farming Association and member of the Santa Cruz GE Subcommittee that banned GE crops, Arty has worked with farmers and agriculture since 1978, first as a partner in Live Juice and later with Odwalla, where he was in charge of fruit sourcing.
Co-Sponsored by the New Leaders Initiative/Brower Youth Awards
The Brower Youth Awards, named after the late, legendary environmental giant, David Brower, are one of the most prestigious prizes for youth activists, and we at Bioneers are delighted to be able to highlight the work of this year’s cohort of winners, an exceptional array of young mobilizers, organizers and paradigm-shifting leaders, who will discuss their activist trajectories, the challenges they face, and their aspirations for the future. Hosted/moderated by: Mackenzie Feldman, founder/Executive Director, Herbicide Free Campus. With: Sonja Michaluk, 18-year old NJ-based young scientist and citizen science activist, founder of the Conservation Communities Initiative, which encourages people to monitor and protect their local aquatic habitats; Peter Pham, 22, San Jose, CA-based environmental and transit justice activist with Turnout4Transit; David Baldwin, 18, Fort Lauderdale-based invasive plant researcher and activist with Everglades Restoration Ambassadors; Artemisio Romero y Carver, an 18-year old, Santa-Fe, NM-based artist, poet and organizer, co-founder of Youth United for Climate Crisis Action (YUCCA) (who was also Santa Fe’s 2020 Youth Poet Laureate!).
November 13th | 12:45 pm to 2:00 pm
Panelists
Mackenzie Feldman
Founder and Executive Director | Herbicide-Free Campus
Mackenzie Feldman is the founder and Executive Director of Herbicide-Free Campus, an organization that works with students and groundskeepers around the country to advocate for an end to the spraying of synthetic herbicides at schools and a transition to organic land management. Her campaign resulted in the entire University of California system going glyphosate-free, and Mackenzie worked with a coalition to get herbicides banned from every public school in the state of Hawaii. Mackenzie is also a Food Research Fellow for Data For Progress and was a winner of the prestigious Brower Youth Award in 2019 for her work with Herbicide-Free Campus.
David Baldwin
Invasive Plant Researcher and Activist | Everglades Restoration Ambassadors
David Baldwin, a Fort Lauderdale, FL-based 18-year old, who has done research alongside members of the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience and interned in a biogeochemistry lab at Florida Atlantic University, has been doing groundbreaking work on finding innovative land-management solutions to invasive weeds in his region. A member (since he was 14) of Everglades Restoration Ambassadors, a nonprofit that removes nonnative plants, he educates elementary school students about nonnative species using educational modules he developed. Baldwin was also just recently announced as a 2021 Brower Youth Award winner.
Sonja Michaluk
Founder | Conservation Communities Initiative
Sonja Michaluk, a Princeton, NJ-based 18-year old young scientist and citizen science activist who participated in her first freshwater bio-assessment as an eager six-year-old, founded the Conservation Communities Initiative, which encourages people to monitor and protect their local aquatic habitats and advocate for data-driven environmental decision making. The initiative runs a microbiology and genetics lab that facilitates use of a genetics-based bio-assessment method that Michaluk developed, which can identify the presence of threatened, endangered, and nonnative species from trace water samples. Michaluk has recently helped secure several big wins for aquatic environments, including the modification of a natural gas pipeline to protect ecologically critical land in Central New Jersey.
Peter Pham
Transit Justice Activist | Turnout4Transit
Peter Pham, a San Jose, CA-based 22-year old environmental and transit justice activist with Turnout4Transit, a coalition of environmental advocacy groups, labor unions, and social justice organizations, has been fighting for better public transit throughout the San Jose metropolitan region and beyond with the goals of slashing regional emissions, decreasing traffic congestion, and increasing local residents access to opportunities. This past year Pham and his colleagues helped pass a ballot measure to generate $100 million for rail services in San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties, and he is a just recently announced 2021 Brower Youth Award winner.
Artemisio Romero y Carver
Co-Founder | Youth United for Climate Crisis Action (YUCCA)
Artemisio Romero y Carver is an 18-year old, Santa-Fe, NM-based artist, poet and organizer who helped found Youth United for Climate Crisis Action (YUCCA), a youth-led nonprofit working to hold elected officials accountable for the health of the planet, future generations, and BIPOC communities by leading protests, lobbying for federal and state legislation, endorsing candidates, and educating voters. Romero y Carver, currently a steering committee member and spokesperson for YUCCA, served as its Policy Director during New Mexico’s 2021 legislative session during which three of the organization’s priority bills were passed, and was also Santa Fe’s 2020 Youth Poet Laureate.
To understand how we steward the land appropriately in harmony with nature and natural forces, it is necessary to understand our relationship to the primal elements and their relationship to each other. Join a discussion that will bridge ecological science, permaculture and Traditional Ecological Knowledge and how they are applied to land management in ways that nurture ecosystem resilience and regeneration. With Permaculturist Penny Livingston; water protector and permaculturist Carmen Gonzales (Diné); and Bill Tripp (Karuk Tribe), Deputy Director of Eco-Cultural Revitalization for the Karuk Tribe. Hosted by Bioneers’ Restorative Food Systems Director Arty Mangan.
November 13th | 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm
Panelists
Penny Livingston
Prominent Permaculture Teacher, Designer and Speaker
Penny Livingston, one of the most renowned and respected leaders in the field of Permaculture, has been teaching internationally and working professionally in land management, regenerative design and permaculture for 30 years. She has extensive experience in all phases of ecologically sound design and construction and specializes in the site planning and design of resource-rich landscapes that integrate rainwater collection, agroforestry systems, edible and medicinal planting, pond and water systems, habitat development and watershed restoration for homes, farms, co-housing communities and businesses. She is currently teaching online courses with Ecoversity and the Permaculture Skills Center.
Carmen Gonzales
Permaculture Designer and Environmental Scientist
Carmen Gonzales, a permaculture designer, environmental scientist and activist, grew up on both the Navajo Reservation and in Southern California, and her work for the past 16 years has focused on collaborating on wise design strategies in water retention landscaping and water and air quality programs for tribal nations in Northern Nevada and California, working with tribes, land planners, and scientists to balance good science, traditional knowledge, personal healing, and cultural evolution. She is driven by the vision of supporting the revitalization of Native communities through building relationships that nourish land and life for the benefit of all beings.
Bill Tripp
Deputy Director of Eco-Cultural Revitalization | Karuk Tribe
Bill Tripp (Karuk from the Klamath River Basin) is the Deputy-Director of Eco-Cultural Revitalization for the Karuk Tribe’s Department of Natural Resources. A specialist on forest management and the lead author on the Karuk Eco-cultural Resource Management Plan (ECRMP) and co-author of the Karuk Climate Adaptation Plan, his work involves developing partnerships and strategic action plans to enable large landscape collaborative management throughout Karuk Aboriginal Territory and beyond.
Arty Mangan
Restorative Food Systems Director | Bioneers
Arty Mangan, Bioneers' Restorative Food Systems Director, joined Bioneers in 1998 as Project Manager for the Restorative Development Initiative. A former board president of the Ecological Farming Association and member of the Santa Cruz GE Subcommittee that banned GE crops, Arty has worked with farmers and agriculture since 1978, first as a partner in Live Juice and later with Odwalla, where he was in charge of fruit sourcing.
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