Bioneers (www.bioneers.org), a nonprofit educational organization that highlights breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet, will kick off its 20th annual conference at the Marin Center in San Rafael, CA on October 16-18. Known as an incubator for cutting-edge solutions and strategies, Bioneers presents leading-edge ideas that spark hope and inspiration for some of our planet’s most challenging issues. Headliners include nationally known visionaries in health and integrative wellness, organic food and farming, green building, the green jobs movement, and social justice.

"Our efforts over the past 20 years to connect people with solutions and each other are meeting an unprecedented receptivity today," said Kenny Ausubel, Founder and CEO of Bioneers. "Combined with our visionary innovators offering presentations in health and nutrition, organic food and farming, green building, green jobs and social justice, Bioneers has partnered with the State of the World Forum to join the newly formed Climate Leadership for Climate Prosperity Campaign. With this call to action at this year’s Bioneers conference, we hope to incite people to become catalysts for change to take positive action. There is cause for real hope."

From how mushrooms can save the world to how Google Earth is protecting the rainforests, the practical solutions that come from the Bioneers conference address many of our most threatening environmental problems. The three-day event will feature well known and soon to be known leaders who are applying nature’s genius and human creativity to solve our most urgent social and environmental problems. Nearly 3,000 attendees will experience stimulating workshops, film screenings, special events, and hear breakthrough ideas and solutions from presenters such including:

Dr. Andrew Weil, the nation’s foremost authority on Integrative medicine, author of numerous bestselling books including Spontaneous Healing and Eight Weeks to Optimum Health. Drawing from his newest book, Why Our Health Matters: A Vision of Medicine That Can Transform Our Future (September 2009), Dr. Weil will illustrate how making the critical link between human and environmental health can transform the healthcare system to benefit public health, the economy and the environment.

Michael Pollan, the award-winning author of bestsellers including The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. As a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, he is among the most influential thinkers on food and agriculture. Pollan will highlight front-line initiatives to redesign our destructive food system, and will portray a new food system and host a screening of the hit film Food, Inc.

Annie Leonard, world-renowned creator of "The Story of Stuff" "“ an Internet film illustrating the environmental and social consequences of consumerism - will explain her film’s influence as a worldwide Internet phenomenon that is making change from classrooms to boardrooms, and will teach people how to be happier by spending less.

As a special evening event, "Visionary Activism" KPFA radio legend and author Caroline Casey will join forces with Dr. Andrew Weil for a stand-up improvisation on the state of the world.

"The Bioneers conference reaches people on all levels - not nourishing minds with ideas, but also hearts, souls and hands," said Nina Simons, President and Co-Founder of Bioneers. "With 150 speakers and over 50 workshops, there is a little something for everyone with this stellar lineup of presenters."

Even though Bioneers is a New Mexico-based organization, the annual conference has been held each year in the Bay Area to tap into the region’s collective hunger for newer and healthier ways of living. Beamed to over 18 locations nationwide from Anchorage, to Boulder to Cleveland, the Beaming Bioneers program reaches 9,000 via satellite, and provides a hub for people who are hungry for change and working to make a real difference in their local communities.

About Bioneers
Bioneers (www.bioneers.org) is a nonprofit educational organization that highlights breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges. A celebration of the genius of nature and human creativity, Bioneers connects people with solutions and each other. Its acclaimed annual national and local conferences are complemented by extensive media outreach including an award-winning radio series, book series, and role in media projects such as Leonardo DiCaprio’s film The 11th Hour.

Bioneers

Bioneers

Bioneers is inspiring a shift to live on Earth in ways that honor the web of life, each other and future generations. Founded in 1990, Bioneers promotes practical environmental solutions and innovative social strategies for restoring Earth's imperiled ecosystems and healing our human communities.

We move our mission into action through the following programs: the acclaimed annual Bioneers Conference, in its 22nd year in 2011; Beaming Bioneers, a companion program of community-based satellite conferences across the US; the Bioneers Youth Program; the award-winning national and international radio series, Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature; film festival and third party documentaries; our website; the Bioneers anthology book series; and 6 year round programs; 1. Public Education and Media Outreach, 2. Education for Action, 3. Localization, 4. Bioneers Global , 5. Moonrise – Women's Leadership and Restoring the Feminine, 6. Becoming Native to Place – Indigeneity. In addition, Bioneers acts as a key source for journalists.

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