October 22, 2003

Seminar seeks to save the planet

Bioneer Conference examines economic and social challenges

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer

       Focusing on practical ways to tackle economic, social and environmental challenges, 350 people gathered this weekend for the Second Great Lakes Bioneers Conference.
      Held at Northwestern Michigan College, the three-day conference focused on local issues and presenters in the morning. Every afternoon for four hours, the audience gathered in the Milliken Auditorium for a series of Plenary sessions featuring nationally - and internationally-renown speakers.
      Talks by these speakers were broadcast via satellite from the Bioneers Conference's home base in California to 12 sites around the country and in Toronto. This is the second year that the 13-year-old Bioneers Conference has broadcast their sessions to remote sites. Last year five sites, including the Great Lakes Bioneers Conference, participated.
      Whether in sessions, during lunch or in informal discussions during a break, the enthusiasm and energy among attendees ran high.
      Ken and Franny Bluhm of East Jordan attended all three days of the conference. Passionate about green building and creating sustainable communities, the pair first learned of the Bioneers Conference by listening to tapes of the 2001 sessions. When they learned of the Great Lakes Bioneers Conference, they eagerly signed up.
      "I attended ecological education seminars and one on food distribution that was very interesting," Franny Bluhm said. "We're about to build some housing and we've always been interested in alternative energy, we go every year to the big alternative show in Wisconsin."
      The caliber and positive messages of the Plenary session speakers - people who most likely would not speak in the area - was exceptional, said Sally Van Vleck, co-director of the Neahtawanta Research and Education Center.
      "The people who spoke are just the top notch people, they are doing inspiring work, they are wonderful speakers and they are doing positive hopeful things that are really making a difference," Van Vleck noted. "That's what people want to see and people need to see."
      "It is amazing how many people sat there three days in a row, four hours a day, for those 15 speakers," she added. "You are riveted to your chair."
      The Neahtawanta Research and Education Center, SEEDS and a consortium of local NMC faculty and local educators sponsored the Second Great Lakes Bioneers Conference.
      Topics of morning sessions ranged from media literacy and raising consciousness through food consumption to renewable energy and the business of resource recovery. Other sessions discussed entrepreneurial agriculture, intentional communities and natural medicine. Many presenters were drawn from the region, eager to participate in the Great Lakes Bioneers Conference. All presenters and exhibitors volunteered their time.
      Topics of specific local interest included an outline of the Fresh Food Partnership and the development plans for the Grand Traverse Commons.
      An exhibit area in the Oleson Center included a variety of non-profit organizations, local business ventures and educational groups. Non-profits included The Watershed Center, the Green Party and the Sierra Club as well as businesses such as Odom Reusable Building Materials, Higher Grounds Coffee and Food for Thought.
      At breaks in the exhibit area, displayers mingled with like-minded attendees. Even though most everyone was largely on the same page in terms of social and environmental issues, conversations sparked.
      "It is kind of like preaching to the choir," reflected Rev. Steven Thompson of the Benzie County National Organization to Reform Marijuana Legislation (NORML) organization. "But even if you touch just one or two people, it is worth it; it's like trying to get people past the 'Reefer Madness' mentality."
      Presenter Christina Snyder, an architect and adjunct professor at Lawrence Technological University, discussed zero-energy homes. Despite the state's cold winters, she asserted that it is not only possible to live without consuming any fossil fuels, but rewarding as well. Everything from lights, heat, clothes drying and cooking can all be fueled with alternative sources of energy, she said.
      "People are asking very intelligent questions, it's obvious they are doing their homework and want to change their lives and make the world a better place," Snyder noted.