Fresh From SEEDS

Last Monday was a typical potluck at the Neahtawanta Inn; many splendid dishes of food; kids running around; lots of animated conversation; a selection of wine; and some Bioneers literature strewn around.

What set it apart as a special occasion were the guests of honor: Nina Simons and Kenny Ausubel, founders and co-directors of Bioneers. They live in Santa Fe where the main Bioneers office is located. They were in Traverse City to attend a Kellogg Foundation sponsored conference, Food and Society, held this year at the Grand Traverse Resort.

After filling our plates and stomachs with an incredible array of amazing food (we do potlucks well), we settled in for a discussion with Kenny and Nina. What followed was a wide-ranging conversation about the ripples that Bioneers is making in this country and beyond. We heard from Nina about her work helping to train women in leadership skills and empowerment and how important it is in these challenging times to have women in places of power. She spoke with genuine admiration about the depth and richness of the Bioneers communities sprouting up at each satellite site. Kenny talked about how excited they are to be getting involved in their own community around local issues, now that there’s a satellite site in Santa Fe. This local organizing has spawned a state-wide initiative in New Mexico about local food.

The Bioneers community is very also excited about a film called The 11th Hour, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, that is based on interviews with over 70 people, most of who are past plenary speakers from previous Bioneers conferences. Kenny is in the film and he and Nina met with Leonardo and advised him about the film. It will be widely released in the fall of ‘07, right before the conference. We talked about the fact that many of the Bioneers principles and concepts are creeping into the mainstream and how this challenges us to redefine the “new normal”.

They raved about the line-up of the 2007 Bioneers plenary speakers for this year’s conference, giving us a sneak preview of some of the new voices to Bioneers (13 of the 15 speakers are first-time plenary speakers). The evening came to a close with a few moments of silence as we all soaked in the energy and deep connection in the room.

We were honored and pleased to have them as guests, and welcome them back anytime for one of the best potluck dinners out there. —Sally Van Vleck

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 28th, 2007 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.