This is a special edition of Creative Business Ideas. The focus isn’t on business-as-usual, but rather my notes and sketches (something I’ve learned about my listening style is that I can remember talks better if I’m sketching while listening) from the various sessions I attended at the Bioneers Conference held in San Rafael in October. I was inspired by all the presenters to do more, to care more, to think more about people, our planet, and how we inter-relate.
If you have any questions about any of my notes, please contact me.
If you want to listen or watch the presentations for yourself, click here
Paul Stammets
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- Kingdom -> Kindom
- 30% of human DNA is the same as fungi
- fungi are 90-100 million years old
- 1 cu in of soil has 8 miles of mycelium cells
- mycelium are sentient – aware of surroundings
- 1 cell wall thick – catch water and filter micro nutrients/spongy
- mycelium network similar to internet model
- first land-based life
- “microzoic fungi will inherit the earth”
- Largest living thing on earth is 2400 acres/2200 year-old fungi
- Strong enough to push through asphalt
- Initiator of habitat restoration
- has patent that can eradicate any queen-based insect colony using 1cent of material
- Friend of Dr. Weil
- Bioshield Department – NPR interview
- Fumitopsis officianis (can treat smallpox) only found in old-growth forest -> save old-growth for national defense
- 51 years old
- “Life Box” – The way to re-green the planet. Cardboard box which has mycelium impregnated. Add soil, water, seeds. 6-8 weeks later harvest!
- First got turned on to nature in kindergarten, watching a planted sunflower plant’s leaves turn to the sun.
- “Myconol” – using mycelium to break down carbs + yeast = alcohol (fuel)
- Wants to make Healing Arts Centers (aka Mushroom Centers)
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Sarah Crowell |
- People learn using words, numbers, movement, sound, images, and spaces
- Project Destiny – 18 years old, working with 15 schools in East Bay
- Satisfaction study, in 1956 US pop peaked in satisfaction.
- Need real personal contact
- Spend <-> Distract cycle of consumerism
- Project Destiny is a “stew” – it takes years to build trust
- Fear is naturally easier to tap into than Bliss (“Emotion Game”)
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Michael Pollan
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- America is in “Deep Fat”
- 3/4 of the sewers in America are at 1/2 capacity, clogged with fat (from fast food?) which produces increasing number of sewage spills
- Stonyfield yogurt – blueberries come from Canada, Strawberries from China, and Milk powder from New Zealand
- The difference in experience/community between shopping at a farmer’s market and a supermarket
- 17% of the energy use in US is for Food distribution
- Farmer Market size has doubled twice in the last 10 years
- Get local support for the Farm Bill = Food Bill. No more corn/soybean subsidies.
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James Hillman
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- We are paralyzed by too much self-awareness
- Need to separate mind from action
- Math should be considered a foreign language in school – lots of learning issues
- Capitalism, by its very definition, is no guarantee of security
- The job of “education” is long-term job placement
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Lois Gibbs
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- Love Canal
- Found out that poisoning people is not illegal (if you have a permit)
- Corporate license – allowed to take babies vs. hunting license (not allowed to hunt babies)cost benefit analysis includes cost of human life
- Science is not enough
- Anti-pvc campaign (pvcfree.com) (movie)
- Precautionary principle: If safer, must use technology
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Joan Blades
Peggy O’Mara
Gary Ruskin |
- Traits of healthy families: appreciation on a regular basis, commitment (to each others’ welfare), communication (free-flowing), time with each other, spiritual wellness, and coping ability (ask for help)
- Traits are undermined by consumerism, materialism, (lack of) health insurance, not enough money, and lack of paid (family) leave
- salary.com calculates a mother’s worth is $131,000/year
- Genius is a happy accident. Parents are amateurs
- No evidence-based health-care
- Joan Blades (momsrising.org / moveon.org), Berkeley Systems, Mediate Your Own Divorce, Motherhood Manifesto
- breastfeeding symbol contest
- Many mothers are one sick child away from being fired
- Gary Ruskin – Commercial Alert
- Marketing-related diseases (33% of children in US are obese/overweight)
- “Born to buy”
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Rachel Naomi Remen
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- Mastery -> Mystery
- Read Hippocratic Oath Prayer
- Tikkun Olam
- Bless (out load) others (including strangers)
- Grandmother Spider – web of connection
- Kabbalah – “Everything has a dream in itself”
- All life needs from us is our faithfulness
- Anger is a tool of change
- Lamed-Vav (36) – # of people capable of carrying the suffering of the world. Since no one knows who they are, need to have compassion for everyone
- Commitment to future patients – “May you find in me a mother’s healing”
- Wholeness of world one heart at a time
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Maria Elena Durazo
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- Cesar Chavez
- Apollo Alliance
- Attempting to unionize truck drivers for ports
- Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class — And What We Can Do About It
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Spencer Beebe
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- Ecotrust
- Natural Capital Center, Portland (1st environmental bank)
- “Bumble” – dog’s name
- Fire on raft floating down the Columbia (to make s’mores)
- Competitive advantage: bioregions > nation-state
- Should copy nature – there’s no other model!
- Jane Jacobs
- Tom Linzey
- New Mythology
- Local movements: forest, banking
- “Follow The Fish” -> Salmon Nation
- Progress Traps
- 5 year-olds know more than experts?
- We live in an “orange society” (segment everything) – should live in an “apple” society
- “To Save the Environment — Stay Home”
- “If you’ve come here to save me go home now. If you see yourself in me, maybe we can work together”
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Sofia Quintero
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- Women earn 2/3 of men in business, yet only 1/4 in the arts
- Hip-hop fiction
- “Black Artemis”
- “Divas Don’t Yield”, “Picture Me Falling”, “Burn”, etc.
- Chica Luna – the F Word (Feminist)
- Invisible or targeted choices?
- Can engage people on diff levels: individual, collaborate, or entrepreneurial
- Commercial consciousness
- I’m not here
- Need to meet people where they are to take them someplace better
- Wants to create a “Sundance Festival” for women of color
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Paul Hawken
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- Positive Social Change
- “Blessed Unrest”
- Van Jones
- Enlightenment is not the goal – Charity is
- NGO
- Golden Rule
- All life is sacred
- Committee responsible for our children
- Salmon Nation
- Create conditions that are conducive for life
- Can no longer import our lives
- Spiritual awakening (Karen Armstrong)
- A tree cut down by a logger should affect a black child as much as a black child cut down by a gun should affect a logger
- Powerful words (Rosa Parks): There comes a time…
- Compassion
- Environmental/Social Justice Movement
- Immune system response
- We are born with altruism
- We have a quadrillion cells
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