PHOTO © JAN MANGAN, Bioneers
Last week, a cohort of Veggielution staff and VeggieYouth participants had the honor of attending the annual Bioneers conference in San Rafael. We spent five days together camping in China Camp State Park and refocusing on how our mission at Veggielution is tied to so many other people and projects. So what is a bioneer? The organization describes bioneers as social and scientific innovators working to find visionary solutions for restoring the earth. Quite the word!
The conference is unique in that it hosts a special youth track and works to engage high school students in a wide array of social movements. Veggielution was invited to bring a group of our Fall Youth Leaders to the conference and also to a special pre-conference called Just Us for Food Justice. We spent the entire day connecting and collaborating with other Bay Area youth programs, including FoodWhat?!?, Farm Fresh Choice, Alameda Point Collaborative, and the Marin Youth Center. Thank you to all our new friends!
The day started off with a group discussion on how we can use healing foods and traditions to support the health and vibrancy of our communities. We then headed off to the Marin Farmers Market where youth program members Lizette Zelaya and Jessica Rodriguez spoke with a local chef about his value-added products and got some tips and tricks for our upcoming line of tomato sauce at the farm! The cafe at the Marin Youth Center graciously hosted our group and we all worked together to prepare nutritionally dense and tasty dinners for local clients battling cancer and AIDS as a part of the CERES project. We reconnected with the idea of preventative healthcare and using food as medicine. We also came together to create murals and creative writing pieces to bring our message to the rest of the conference. To see Manny Madrigal’s spoken word piece performed at the Youth Open Mike, click the video.
And that was just the first day! Over the course of the conference, we connected with other youth and networked with other organizations. We had the opportunity to hear key-note speeches by Jane Goodall, John Francis, Gary Hirshberg, John Warner, and many others. In the afternoons we attended smaller workshops with leaders in campaigns connected to education, women, farming, and “Dreaming New Mexico”. We practiced sharing the mission of our organization with others and explored new realms of activism. All in all it was a wonderful experience and we plan on bringing even more youth to the conference next year!
