Speakers

2012 Speakers

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Speaker tickets:  $20.00 per day – $15.00- for Students with Id and Seniors over 62.

2 Day tickets – $30.00  – $25.00

Weekend Pass – includes all workshops and speakers – $50.00/$45.00

Workshop passes $5.00 – 3/$12.00

Tickets Available at Briar Patch and Brown Paper Tickets

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John Robbins

John Robbins is the author of The New Good Life: Living Better Than Ever in an Age of Less.

He is also author of the international bestseller DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA: How Your Food Choices Affect Your Health, Happiness, and the Future of Life on Earth, THE FOOD REVOLUTION: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World, HEALTHY AT 100: The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World’s Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples, THE AWAKENED HEART: Meditations on Finding Harmony in a Changing World, and RECLAIMING OUR HEALTH: Exploding the Medical Myth and Embracing the Source of True Healing.

John’s work has been the subject of cover stories and feature articles in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Life, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and many of the nation’s other major newspapers and magazines. His life and work have also been featured in an hour long PBS special titled Diet For A New America.

The only son of the founder of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire, John Robbins was groomed to follow in his father’s footsteps, but chose to walk away from Baskin-Robbins and the immense wealth it represented to “…pursue the deeper American Dream…the dream of a society at peace with its conscience because it respects and lives in harmony with all life forms. A dream of a society that is truly healthy, practicing a wise and compassionate stewardship of a balanced ecosystem.”

David Crow

David Crow is an acupuncturist and herbalist with over thirty years experience. He is the author of “In Search of the Medicine Buddha,” a book about his studies of Tibetan and Ayurvedic medicine in the Himalayas.  He is the founder of Floracopeia, Inc., a company that supports ecologically sustainable agriculture through the production of essential oils and aromatic treasures, and Medicinecrow.com, an online botanical community dedicated to sharing the knowledge and wisdom of plant-based medicine. He is the founder of The Learning Garden, one of the country’s largest school gardens, which has helped bring cultivation of organic food and medicinal plants into the Los Angeles public school system. Through writing, teaching, and activism, he is promoting the creation of a grassroots healthcare system. He can be contacted at www.floracopeia.com and www.medicinecrow.com.

Dr. Kevin Danaher

Described by The New York Times as the “Paul Revere of globalization’s woes,” Dr. Kevin Danaher received his doctorate in sociology from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1982 with a dissertation on “The Political Economy of U.S. Policy Toward South Africa.”

He was a policy analyst at Food First/the Institute for Food and Development Policy, an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, and for four years he taught in the School of Government at American University in Washington, DC.

In 1988 he co-founded Global Exchange, an international human rights organization based in San Francisco. Global Exchange educates the public through diverse mechanisms: Fair Trade stores in 5 cities, Reality Tours to more than 30 countries, publishing books and other educational materials, and events such as the Green Festivals.

Dr. Danaher is a Founder and an Executive Producer of the Green Festivals, two-day events bringing together hundreds of green economy companies, social justice and environmental organizations, speakers, live music, organic food and drink, and tens of thousands of attendees hungry for a transition to a sustainable economy.

He is also the Executive Director of the Global Citizen Center — a real estate plan for creating a permanent Green Festival. The Global Citizen Center is planned to be a downtown San Francisco building that will unite the local Green Economy in a mixed-use, multi-tenant facility featuring non-profit offices, green businesses, multi-cultural event space, and housing for school teachers. He is the creator of GreenGuardians.ning.com, a green career website with 200 green training videos and other green job resources.

Dr. Danaher has published numerous articles and is the author and/or editor of twelve books, including his latest (which he co-authored with Shannon Biggs and Jason Mark), Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grass Roots (PoliPointPress).

Dr. Danaher has traveled widely in Africa, the Caribbean, Central America, China, North America and Europe. He is familiar with the problems and prospects of economic development in diverse cultural settings. Dr. Danaher is a veteran educator with special expertise on the following subjects: the Local Green Economy; the Two Globalizations (Elite vs. Grassroots); US Foreign Policy and Activist Strategies for Creating a Sustainable World.

In his many public presentations he not only provides a detailed analysis of what is wrong in the world, but he also gives inspiring examples of what we can do to make things right. He is also very experienced at media interviews; he has appeared on television and radio shows around the country.

Ocean Robbins

In spite of, or perhaps in response to, the many pressing challenges of our times, a movement is afoot. It is alive in the hearts, spirits and  actions of millions of people, of every religious, economic and cultural background, who are rising up to make a difference with their lives.  Ocean Robbins has spent more than half his life collaborating with some of the outstanding young leaders of our times, and working at the  forefront of worldwide movements towards a thriving, just and sustainable future. His presentations are rich with stories of inspiration  from his learning journey, reflections on the pivotal moment we face as a species, and an invitation to bring our lives into alignment with  our values. • Founder, at age 16, of YES!
(Youth for Environmental Sanity) • Author of Choices For Our Future and The Power of Partnership
• Internationally acclaimed speaker with audiences of more than 200,000 to date • Winner of the national Jefferson Award For Outstanding Public Service • Adjunt Professor of Peace Studies, Chapman University • Son of bestselling author and visionary leader John Robbins (who walked away from his father’s Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire to become a spokesperson or health and social concerns)
• Extraordinary first-hand stories from work with outstanding leaders and social change movements in
more than 65 nations.

Matt Stone

Health, the culinary arts, traditional agriculture, exercise, and nutrition have been interests, hobbies, and/or professions of mine my entire life.  In 2005; however, I decided to “kick it up a notch.”

I launched a full-scale independent investigation into human health, sticking my nose into a wide spectrum of authors over the past century, cutting-edge scientific discoveries in the field of endocrinology, and many more disciplines and “-ologies” as diverse as paleopathology and psychoneuroendocrinology.  Hoping to find something good – really learn and discover something important, I was not disappointed.

Very distinct themes emerged amongst nearly all of the avenues I explored.  It became abundantly clear, we’re talking absolute crystal clarity here, that the typical ideas that the mainstream has about health don’t make much sense, are not congruent with history or even the most basic logic, and are more incorrect than you can imagine.

The time has come for drastic revisions in the way we define a healthy diet, a healthy lifestyle, and human health in general.  It is time to open up to new strategies, new ideas, and new understanding.  It is time to step in and replace the mistaken assumptions that have a foothold in the minds of everyone who has been educated about such things.  It is time that the ‘alarming trends’ in mental, physical, and emotional health be halted and reversed.

Valerie Love

Valerie is a trainer & program coordinator with Generation Waking Up, a campaign to ignite a generation of young people to bring forth a thriving, just, sustainable way of life. She has worked to develop the WakeUp experience, a peer-led educational workshop that explores the challenges & opportunities facing the current generation and moves young people towards lasting hope and inspired action.

Valerie is a passionate & committed changemaker dedicated to youth empowerment, sustainability, justice, and vibrant local economies. Prior to working with Generation Waking Up, Valerie managed campaigns at Clean Water Action, coordinated Buy Fresh Buy Local programs, and consulted with Responsible Purchasing Network to increase to increase socially and environmentally ethical purchasing in government contracts. She has also facilitated courses & trainings exploring transformational leadership for social change.

 

Leonard Robinson – EnviroBro

Mr. Robinson hosts a weekly talk radio show called “Going Green With EnviroBro” that broadcast on Sacramento radio station KDEE 97.5FM and streams world-wide on the internet at www.kdeefm.org (click on listen live). He is known as EnviroBro, “the hardest workin’ man in the environment”. His show is the only “green” radio show on an urban radio station in the nation. Every week he is joined by the movers and shakers in the environmental world. He is dedicated to providing his listeners

with the opportunities and challenges of the “green economy” information that will affect them; their families and their bottom-line.

Robinson was originally appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004 as Chief Deputy Director of DTSC. He was one of the highest ranking African Americans in State Government. During his time as a gubernatorial appointee he was part of the executive team that developed the Green Chemistry Initiative and Climate Change Policy. He also chaired the AB 1109 Lighting Efficiency and Toxics Reduction Task Force. During his political career, Robinson has served four California Governors.

 

Allison Cook

Allison designs the media, outreach and advocacy strategies for all our movies, most recently for The Story of Citizens United v. FEC and The Story of Broke. The Project’s longest serving staff person, Allison managed the production of several successful offline learning tools, including a curriculum for high school students and a study guide for faith communities. Prior to joining the Story of Stuff Project team, Allison worked with the Sustainability Funders workgroup and the Funders Network on Transforming the Global Economy. She also currently volunteers as a medic with the Berkeley Free Clinic.

Michael A. Bedar

Associate Producer of the documentary film, Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days, and became director of Bay Area Movement to Reverse Diabetes Naturally in 2009.  Bedar studied and served as a teacher for over five years at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center under the direct training and live-food nutrition instruction of Gabriel Cousens, MD, from 2004 to 2009. Previously, in 1999, Bedar had founded ‘Environ-Mental Productions” and the films he has visioned and helped make between 2000 and today have been featured at the Newport International Film Festival and Oakland International Film Festival, and won awards such as Best Documentary at the Imperial Beach International Film Festival, the “Silver Award” at the Conscious Life Film Festival, and “Notable Contribution” at the Santa Cruz EarthVision Film Festival.  Bedar has a health consulting practice, is a speaker in health centers and conferences, including UCSF, Stanford, Berkeley, Kaiser, the ADA, Alta Bates, Lifelong Medical, Slow Food San Francisco and many others,  and leads workshops and “funshops” on evolving the intersection of well-being and media as an expressive healing modality.  Further, Bedar, who earned an interdisciplinary BS from UCSD, is also the founder of one of the premier streaming media companies for natural health media.  Bedar is serving actively as Director and Co-Founder of the Rawality Program and the documentary film on Rawality.

Mat Stein

It was a true epiphany that started Mat firmly on the path of self-reliance, emergency prep, and sustainability. Around Thanksgiving of 1997, during his morning session of prayer and meditation, in answer to a simple request for “guidance and inspiration”, Mat received a fully developed “story board” type of pictorial outline that popped into his head instantaneously. It was the outline for a massive handbook to help people be more self-reliant, live more sustainably, and prepare to weather the coming storms as we pass through this age of uncertainty and change. After three years of work, this “cosmic download” crystallized into his first book, When Technology Fails.

Stein has appeared on numerous radio and television programs and is a repeat guest on Fox News, MSNBC, Lionel, Coast-to-Coast AM, and the Thom Hartmann Show. He has also written several articles on the subject of sustainable living and is a guest columnist for the Huffington Post.

Mat still enjoys playing around in the vertical world of rock walls, though since suffering (and recovering from) a serious injury in a 50 foot ground fall (gravity sucks!) he no longer “pushes the envelope” quite like he used to.  Wintertime finds Mat volunteering as a guide and cross country ski instructor for the blind with the Sierra Regional Ski for Light program.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2011 Speakers

Bryan Welch - Beautiful and Abundant

Bryan’s new book Beautiful and Abundant is a  groundbreaking book cuts through the pessimism and denial that pervade today’s discussions of sustainability and invites readers to visualize a verdant and prosperous future for humanity and all the living things that share our planet. As a practical guide, it offers a process for making our current lifestyles more sustainable and inspires us to look beyond the immediate obstacles to nurture the “destination fixation” that stimulates all humanity’s greatest achievements. In the lives and accomplishments of farmers, gardeners, inventors and entrepreneurs, “Beautiful and Abundant” finds a path toward a world vision we can proudly pass on to future generations – a vision that is aesthetically beautiful, economically abundant, ethically fair and irresistibly contagious.

On any given day, Bryan Welch might spend his early morning hours tending to the cattle on his farm near Lawrence, Kan., his lunchtime polishing an essay for Utne Reader at his Topeka office and his evening attending a Hollywood cocktail reception for the launch of a green media initiative.

Welch and his family raise cattle, sheep, goats and chickens on their 50-acre farm. All their animals range freely, and the grazing animals are strictly grass-fed. He grew up in New Mexico where, starting at age 9, he cared for a neighbor’s dairy goats and other livestock.

When he’s not farming, Welch runs Ogden Publications, Inc. (www.OgdenPubs.com), a diversified media, consulting and affinity marketing company. His company has grown rapidly over the past few years and now publishes 10 magazines for people interested in self-sufficiency, sustainability, rural lifestyles and farm collectibles, including Mother Earth News, Utne Reader, Natural Home and The Herb Companion. Its Web sites, including the groundbreaking carbon-offset shopping site www.EarthMoment.com, are growing exponentially and attract more than 3 million unique visitors each month. Ogden also publishes books and markets insurance and financial services to its subscribers, and provides companies of all sizes with strategic consulting services on marketing to the green-focused consumer. About a third of its gross revenue comes from these ancillary marketing programs.

 

ARI DERFEL – Slow Money Alliance

In June 2010, Ari Derfel accepted appointment as Executive Director of Slow Money. Slow Money’s mission is to build local and national networks, and develop new financial products and services, dedicated to:

• investing in small food enterprises and local food systems

• connecting investors to their local economies

• building the nurture capital industry

Ari spent the last two years building Gather Restaurant at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California. The David Brower Center houses environmental and social justice non-profits and triple bottom line enterprises.

Beyond that Ari has a wide range of professional expertise and experience. In 2001 he founded Back to Earth inc. with Eric Fenster.

In addition to building Gather, Eric and Ari run two businesses together – Back to Earth Organic Catering and Back to Earth Outdoor Adventures. Both companies are a direct expression of their values. Both companies operate with the same mission: “We provide experiences that celebrate life, and enhance our awareness of self, community, and the earth.”

In addition to all of the above endeavors, Ari is also known as “The Trash Guy”. In 2008 he received international attention for his reality challenging project of saving every single piece of his trash for an entire year during 2007.

In 2008 he received international attention for his reality challenging project of saving every single piece of his trash for an entire year during 2007.

The SF Chronicle broke the story on December 30th, and by New Year’s day the story had spread around the world. Ari appeared on CNN, MSNBC, Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC and the discovery channel produced a segment on his project for “The G Word” on Planet Green. In addition, the story was covered in newspapers and magazines around the world as well as radio and podcasts.

In Ari’s eyes the project was simply a meditation – a personal experiment that provided him with an opportunity to deeply reflect on what he consumes, what he puts into his body, how he spends his money, and the role he plays in the never-ending lifecycle of “stuff”.

DAVID WANN – The New Normal

David has  written 10 books and produced a handful of TV programs about sustainable communities, agriculture, transportation, restoration of nature, consumerism, energy… all things sustainable. Now, in his senior years, he’s trying to identify and report synergies among these systems. His goal is to create a future scenario in which Americans can experience twice the satisfaction for half the resources.  That’s what the The New Normal is about. In that book he wrote, “Until we change the direction of our plug-and-play, no-effort-required lifestyle, we’ll continue to be an endangered as well as dangerous civilization. We’ll continue to generate game-ending carbon dioxide as we convert ecosystems to must-have, easily broken gadgets and nutrition-free, processed food.”

Temra Costa – Author of Farmer Jane

Temra Costa is a nationally recognized sustainable food and farming advocate. Her recent book, Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat is the product of the past seven years she has spent working to promote a more vibrant local food economy in California and beyond. In addition to the book, she has written for numerous publications on hot-button issues such as Farm to School, eating locally, food safety, and how to create regional food systems. Her previous role as statewide director of California’s Buy Fresh Buy Local campaign, and other positions held with Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), worked to engage stakeholders in our food system, from farm to fridge.

Farmer Jane features the stories of over 30 women and how they are changing our food system for the better as farmers, educators, mothers, chefs, businesswomen, and policy wonks. The book also explains how eaters, farms and businesses can get more involved in

changing how our country eats and farms.

DMITRY ORLOV – Reinventing Collapse:The Soviet Example and American Prospects

Dmitry Orlov, author of the award-winning book Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects, was born in Leningrad and immigrated to the United States at the age of 12. He was an eyewitness to the Soviet collapse over several extended visits to his Russian homeland between the late eighties and mid-nineties. He is an engineer who has worked in many fields, including high-energy Physics research, e-commerce and Internet security. Recently, Dmitry has been experimenting with off-grid living and renewable energy by giving up his house and car. Instead, he has been living on a sailboat, sailing it up and down the Eastern Seaboard, and commuting by bicycle. Dmitry believes that, given appropriate technology, we can greatly reduce personal resource consumption while remaining perfectly civilized.

CHARLES DURRETT – The Co-Housing Movement

Charles Durrett, with his wife Kathryn McCamant, introduced the concept of cohousing to the U.S. with their book Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves. They coined the word “cohousing” for which they are credited in the Oxford English Dictionary. Charles recently authored, Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living-The Handbook.

Charles has designed over fifty cohousing communities in the United States, including Muir Commons, the first cohousing community in North America. He has also consulted on many more around the world. His work has been featured in Time Magazine, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Architecture, and a wide variety of other publications.

Charles and Kathryn have received numerous awards for their work, including the recent World Habitat Award presented by the United Nations, and the Mixed Use/Mixed Income Development Award, presented jointly by the American Insititute of Architects and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

DR.HARVEY BIEGELSEN – Doctors Are More Harmful Than Germs: How Surgery Can Be Hazardous to Your Health – And What to Do About It

Harvey Bigelsen M.D. , Nevada City, Grass Valley, CA* is the first medical doctor in history to practice Isopathy or Biological Medicine in North America. He is a trained MD for 39 years with more than 25 years of experience in alternative medicine. As the first president of the Arizona Homeopathic Medical Board, he drafted the guidelines and standards for the practice of ‘Holistic’ Medicine in Arizona that set the precedent in the United States. He helped to author the law that made Arizona Homeopathy what it is today.

He founded Kids vs Global Warming when he was 12 years old after watching Al Gore’s movie, “an inconvenient truth.”  Feeling the weight of the global situation and a sense that he could make a difference, Alec felt compelled to tell other kids about the problems we are facing.  His message is deeply rooted in hope, encouraging kids to speak up and let their voices be heard on this issue.