Seed Saving Initiative
Seed is the source of life and the first link in the food chain. Control over seed means a control over our lives, our food and our freedom.
-Dr. Vandana Shiva
Are you a seed saver? Great Lakes Bioneers announces a new seed saving project! This project is an outgrowth of Dr. Shiva's participation at GLBC's November gathering. Get involved ...
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Join Partners Great Lakes Bioneers McHenry County for their Winter Speaker Series …
How Do We Build a More Sustainable World?
Jan. 22, Jan. 29, Feb. 5 & Feb. 12
7:00 PM
Luecht Conference Center, McHenry County College
8900 U.S. Hwy. 14
Crystal Lake, IL
Experts in local and global issues facing our planet today will present information about building the local food network, quantifying the value of natural areas, Loyola University’s path to sustainability, and what is on the horizon for fracking in Illinois. The speaker series is co-sponsored by McHenry County College, Loyola University Retreat Ecology Campus and McHenry County Conservation District.
The following are seminar topics scheduled through Feb. 12:
January 22, 2013, 7 PM – “Towards an Economics of Shared Prosperity in a Finite World”
Presented by Dr. Jon Erickson, professor of ecological economics and the interim dean of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont
Dr. Erickson’s presentation will help recognize and understand the direct economic benefits of many of the activities we are already beginning to pursue in McHenry County and the larger Great Lakes bioregion. Everything from green building and infrastructure, ecological restoration to conservation easements, provide direct economic benefits that are not currently understood or valued. it is it is vital that we become more adept at recognizing, understanding and incorporating these benefits into our planning processes.
January 29, 2013, 7 PM - “Engaging In Transformation”
Featuring Nancy Tuchman, Director of the Institute of Urban Environmental Sustainability (IUES) at Loyola University Chicago
February 5, 2013, 7 PM - “Building Bridges With Food”
Featuring Linda Mallers of FarmLogix
February 12, 7 PM - “Fracking 101: What, Where, and WHY?”
Featuring Jack Darin, Executive Director, Illinois Sierra Club
Beginning January 29, a national Bioneers Conference DVD will also be screened that presents prominent environmental leader speaking about a topic related to each talk. The speakers via DVD will include:
- Bill McKibben of 350.org on Jan. 29
- Nikki Henderson of People’s Grocery on Feb. 5
- Sandra Steingraber, author of “Living Downstream”, on Feb. 12
This series is free and open to the public. For more information,visit www.mcecoconference.org or contact either Pat Dieckhoff at (815) 479-7817 or Kristine Emrich at (815) 479-7570 or email conferencecenter@mchenry.edu.
What People Are Saying about Our 2012 Event …
- “The biggest love-fest to hit Chicago in the 21st century. It’s for people who choose to prove the cynics wrong, we can create a better Chicago and we’re doing it today.”
- “I attend a lot of conferences as a speaker and have a fairly high bar, but it was exceeded at every turn. Many of the speakers were that perfect blend of inspirational and practical. The measures to minimize the ecological footprint of the conference were very thorough. The Bioneers walked their talk all weekend long.”
- “GLBC was a eye opener to the possibilities of a Living City. It was a one stop opportunity to see a positive future in a world sick with pessimism and worry.”
- “Hearing Vandana Shiva is inspiring, priceless and is mandatory for anyone who cares about the Earth and all life.”
- “I loved the event, the speakers, the food, everything was great. It was especially inspiring and motivating to hear professionals address serious issues realistically and with great candour,- such as Blake Davis and Richard Heinberg. But what I liked most about the event was that for a couple of days I felt like I was surrounded by people who truly understood what was going on in the world. It felt good to be able to listen and talk about the complex issues we are facing with like-minded people, without being judged as a pessimistic radical. Thank you for putting this together. I look forward to next year.”
- “The quality of the presentations was excellent, and mixing in arts–dance and music–lifted my spirits throughout.”
- “The Bioneers conference opened my mind in unexpected ways. Sustainability is something more in the background than foreground of my mind and concerns, but this event helped move it more toward the front. I never knew what a “closed loop” was. Now it’s an important part of my vocabulary.” Continue reading …
Sign the Declaration on Seed Freedom!
A Request from Dr. Vandana Shiva
Dr. Vandana Shiva
Navdanya/Research Foundation for Science Technology & Ecology
(Dr. Shiva will be giving a live keynote address on Saturday, November 3, 2012 at Great Lakes Bioneers Chicago)
Seed Freedom
Seed is the source of life and the first link in the food chain. Control over seed means a control over our lives, our food and our freedom.
Corporations like Monsanto have created a seed emergency – an emergency through patents on seeds, seed monopolies, biopiracy, genetic engineering and creation of non -renewable sterile seeds. Seed monopolies have pushed 250,000 farmers to commit suicide in India. After contaminating farmer’s seeds and crops, Monsanto sues farmers “for stealing their gene”, putting the polluter pays principle on its head, and making it the polluter gets paid principle.
The multidimensional emergency created by patents on seeds and GMOs needs a global collective response.
Collectively, we must stop the patenting of seeds. Join the Global movement on Seed Freedom to stop the corporate hijack of seed and with it, the hijack of our freedom and our future. Read Dr. Shiva’s Declaration on Seed Freedom below and then click here to sign (scroll to the bottom of the page to sign the document and download a .pdf to send to freinds, colleagues and family! Continue reading …
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Bill McKibben, 350.org
Plenary Session 1 – VIDEO
Friday, November 2, 2012
2:45 pm to 3:45 pm
“The Climate Fight Gets Hotter”
Screening of October 2012 Plenary Session, San Rafael, CA
Q&A Facilitated by Chicago Youth Climate Coalition representatives:
- Edward Warden, University of Chicago
- Virginia Baker, Columbia College Chicago
- Tina Verrilli, DePaul University
Possible cameo appearance by Bill via videoconference
The award-winning environmental journalist, author, Co-Founder of 350.org and leading global climate activist will survey the landscape of climate action, including the remarkable holding action by 350.org and others to suspend approval of the Keystone XL pipeline carrying Canadian “tar sands” oil, the “biggest carbon bomb” on the planet. Continue reading … |
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Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow-In-Residence
Post Carbon Institute
Plenary Session 2
Friday, November 2, 2012
5:15 pm to 6:15 pm
“Life After Growth: Why the Economy Is Shrinking and
What to Do About It”
The ongoing economic recession represents a fundamental break with recent history: growth has ceased and may never return in the same way, because energy and resource limits are increasingly constraining economic expansion. But families and communities may actually be better off in a sustainable, “steady-state” economy–one that values people and nature over high-rate financial returns. Continue reading … |
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Nina Simons, Co-Founder - Bioneers
Plenary Session 3
Saturday, November 3, 2012
10:00 am to 11:00 am
“Bioneers 3.0: Re-Envisioning Our Relations with Our Selves,
Each Other and Earth in a Time of Transition”
To be the change we want to see in the world, we need to unearth and heal a cultural legacy of violence that’s insidiously embedded within us all.
Doing this requires investing in the web of relatedness, and re-imagining leadership as ongoing practices that every one of us can do, each in our unique way and in our own circle of influence. This emergent leadership is congruent, collaborative and marked by humility. Above all, it is motivated by love. Continue reading … |
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Vandana Shiva, Founder - Navdanya
Plenary Session 4
Saturday, November 3, 2012
11:00 am to Noon
“Living Seed, Living Food-Living Communities”
Our times are governed by epic myths – that seed and food are industrial manufactures, not the source of life and nourishment; that industrial food systems are the only answer to hunger; that the future of humanity is in jungles of concrete, not in soil and gardens. Dr. Shiva’s keynote will address these myths based on the Navdanya experience, and she will show how the future of the city lies in gardens and organic connections to the countryside: a living city, like any living system, needs food for its nourishment and metabolism. Living cities are cultivated organically, and living seed is the basis of living food and living communities.
Sign Dr. Shiva’s Declaration on Seed Freedom
Continue reading … |
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John Edel, Executive Director, Plant Chicago
Plenary Session 5
Saturday, November 3, 2012
4:30 pm to 5:30 pm
“The Plant, Rethinking Food Production”
What happens when you combine urban agriculture, alternative energy and a food business incubator? The Plant is repurposing a century old meatpacking facility to explore the intersection of recycling, job creation and local growing. By harnessing food waste, this 95,000 sq ft vertical farm is shooting for net-zero energy use while recycling waste products, energy and gasses within the structure between manufacturing, office and growing areas. Nothing leaves but food! Continue reading … |
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Bioneers Gathering Returns!
Watch this site for details and information about this year's keynotes that will be posted soon.
Read what people are saying about our first Chicago Bioneers gathering. Click to view photos from 2012.
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