Bioneers Draws Leading-Edge Innovators to Present Breakthrough Ideas at 20th Annual Conference

Bioneers Draws Leading-Edge Innovators to Present Breakthrough Ideas at 20th
Annual Conference
World-renowned experts to address changing state of healthcare, green jobs
movement, food and farming issues, and social justice

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- 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.

SOURCE Bioneers

Laura Noss, +1-415-317-4070, laura@socialplanets.com, for Bioneers; or Jessica
Scadron of Bioneers, +1-415-713-9150, Jessica@bioneers.org