The following pages are journals from participants in the Just Us for Food Justice Program at the Bioneers Conference! Learn more about the Just Us for Food Justice Program by clicking here!
I really enjoyed my time at the Bioneers conference. i felt like i was in a place where people shared similar ideas to mine, everyone cared about the earth and its well being. Rha Goddess was one who stood out to me, so alive and demanding authority, and every word containing a sense of wisdom everyone could receive if they had an open mind. Seeing other teens who were as conscious as I, was also quite lovely, and seeing so many people from all over the world was a wonderful experience. Before coming to the Bioneers conference, I never thought it possible to find anyone else who was as obsessed as I am about changing the madness that is ever so depressing in our society around food. Urban neighborhoods like Oakland in which people can’t buy fresh or reliable produce. if it weren’t for hearing about peoples grocery, I would like to think there would be no hope for such a place. but once again, change lies in the hands of us youth.
Conversing with many of the people at Bioneers, I found myself fascinated and repelled by society and the media, MacDonald’s and various candies that I still adore. It also made it much easier to say no when I was offered something along the lines of "junk food". Bioneers was also motivation in the fact that, I no longer feel like I’m the only person aware or concerned about the world and our eating habits, and would like to see change.
It was somewhat of a "downer" that I was only able to go due to scholarship, I feel like more people should be available to this sort of knowledge. However, I am extremely grateful I got to have this wonderful experience, and that I have knowledge to take back and spread about in the world and everywhere I go, in hopes that this society can be changed simply by the thought, kinda like the saying "the revolution will not be televised."
I would love to go to many more Bioneers conferences in the future and hope to do so next year, it was really heart warming to know many people want change. I am honored to have gone and my special thanks to everyone I met and all those out there who strive like me for change.
-Dawn Carraway, age 16
I had an interesting experience at the Bioneers conference. I saw all kinds of people there. I saw people who came from lower and upper class backgrounds. I also saw people of all kind of colors. I saw that some people there were open minded to a few of the speakers that were talking about topics that are usually outside of the box.
The workshop on diversity was pretty interesting. The question of whether white was a color came up in the room, which brought up some dialogue around the issue.
I think this was the most interesting of them all. We got into pairs with people we did not know, to discuss about what we found as something that was alien to us. For example, my partner said that she found racial discrimination something she could not understand
The real downside was the food. I think there could be more variety and options to suite everyone that is coming to the conference. Also the music at the party was not good. They should have more old school hits and existing hip-hop hits. Overeall this was an interesting experience I might come back next year.
Lawrence De Freitas
Geisha Ramirez has been working with The Food Project for the last three years and has attended the Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, CA in 2005 & 2006. Read below for some insight to her experience as part of the Just Us for Food Justice Program which is a group of young people that focus on Food & Farming while at the conference!
Geisha's Bioneers Experience 2005
Geisha's Bioneers Experience 2006
"Loving Bioneers"
Posted by Geisha Ramirez on November 8, 2005
In mid-October a small group of TFP staff and youth traveled to the 2005 Bioneers Conference. Geisha is one of the youth that attended.
Well what can I say? Bioneers was a great trip. I really enjoyed myself. I have to say that Bioneers really changed me. I learned so much, and took so much to teach others. You can see I went from just a girl to a girl who is now a tree hugger.
When we got to California it was really a change of pace .We got lost for three hours just on our way to the hotel. My fellow members and I looked on the positive side and considered it touring instead of being lost for an hour. When we finally got to Bioneers that is when I began to get so amazed. When we sat down to see the plenary I just couldn’t believe the atmosphere, it was so welcoming. Then when it came to the workshops my mind was in shock, in pure shock.
I attended many workshops a lot of them were geared to youth changing the world and what part we play. The workshops really put many things in perspective for me. The best part of the conference was the workshops, I loved them.
If I had a chance to go again I would not hesitate to say yes I would be up in a flash. The next group will honestly be the luckiest people on the world to go to Bioneers; I know that if I enjoyed it anyone will. I LOVE BIONEERS. It is all connected, and it is all relative.
Attending the 2006 Bioneers Conference -->
Posted by Geisha Ramirez on November 21, 2006
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My name is Geisha Ramirez. I am 17 years old and I have worked with The Food Project since the summer of 2004. I work in our Kitchen internship where we use the organic produce that we grow to cater events such as weddings and banquets. This year I got to attend the Bioneers Conference for the second time. IT WAS GREAT. I met many wonderful people my age and got to learn lot of knew ideas. Bioneers was more fun to me this year because I knew what to expect, not to say that Bioneers is predictable. I knew what to expect, in terms of the environment around me and how to get around the civic center. I knew the structure of the schedule and therefore could fill in my co-worker and my supervisor on how Bioneers gets down.
When we first got there we met with Bioneers’ Food and farming track that was made of youth around the world that work around the same work and issues that we here at The Food Project focus on. I met this group called TEAM and Sembrando Semillas. “The purpose of the Sembrando Semillas, Acequia Youth Project is to keep the land-based traditions of New Mexico alive by providing opportunities for New Mexico’s youth to participate in and experience first hand the traditions and customs integral to New Mexico’s cultural heritage. According to RJ Chavez, a youth participant from Taos, “Our acequias are precious and we want to keep them alive.”
We also got to be part of this thing that is called the grub dinner. Bryant Terry and Anna Lappe wrote a book about having grub dinner, which basically means bringing good organic food into an urban kitchen with some friends and family and some good music. He was great and we got to help him prepare this meal for all the other youth in the track. We prepared the best meal! We ended up making butternut squash pizza with sage, Swiss chard and raisin pizza with pecorino cheese, pasta with his famous tomatoes sauce with roasted eggplant, a green salad with a balsamic vinaigrette (that I personally made) and for desert we had a Asian pear and apple crisp.
The best part of this was that we got to help him make it and go shopping for the produce at the local Marin County farmers market that by the way is gigantic. What I liked best about my time at Bioneers was that Bryant Terry asked me to do a workshop with him that was actually a cooking demo. I felt so special that he picked me to mirror him in the cooking demo, it was just enormous to me that he chose me. I learned many things while at Bioneers. There was some great speakers and grand workshops that I enjoyed, but the one thing that I learned was organic food does not always have to be green and mushy but it can have some color and some good flavor. It doesn’t have to be the tasteless food that people dread to eat. I want organic food to be a food that everyone can enjoy as much as they enjoy the junk food that they eat. I would love to stay connected with the other youth that I met by having an e-mail list and a mail list also. This is where we can exchange ideas, Recipes and other things about food and framing. We could also exchange things that are happening at our jobs. I had a great time at Bioneers I just hope that I get to attend next year’s Conference because every year my heart and brain get filled with new and wonderful things.
On the first day of Bioneers we went to a farmers market The market was big and fun . At the farm we talked. planned and worked. I got a pumpkin for social studies. Now we are at Pasta Pomodoro
At the end of our group we interacted and talked it was fun
My experience was great even though I kind of knew most of it. The good thing was I got to meet and talk to great people. Another good thing about the conference was the “JUST US FOR FOOD JUSTICE”group because it was fun and exciting. The bad thing was the food. Some suggestions I would make would be to make the food warmer and add more seasoning. The exciting people that spoke really caught my attention. Overall the conference was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you
Sarika Duren
It was a cool experience, met some new people. Learned about healthy food and community fellowship because these different people are doing their own thing to bring healthy food to their communities.
My experience at the Bioneers conference were> I got to meet a lot of interesting people from different parts of the country who were interested in learning about healthy living, healthy foods, cultural diversity, women’s rights, spiritual messages, keeping the planet clean. It was a great experience working with those people.
As a result , I took home some positives from the conference. Like the need for a healthy diet because healthy eating means healthy living. The speakers at the conference had powerful messages, no matter what their topic of discussion was.
What impressed me most was the youth. The youth that were there are trying to make a difference in their communities that they reside in.
The conference had a good deal of diversity and that’s good to see people come together. The people came together as one.
Preston King
Sarah Michelson, also of the Food Project, shares her experience at the 2005 Bioneer Conference!
"Embracing Bioneers 2005"
Posted by Sarah Michelson on November 8, 2005
In mid-October a small group of The Food Project staff and youth traveled the 2005 Bioneers Conference. Sarah is one of the youth that attended.
Brian paused, searching for the right words. “It’s a little out there,” he said. “Some might call them hippies.”
I knew then that I would enjoy the conference, and I did.
It wasn’t as “out there” as I expected. I saw many people who appeared to be talking to themselves but were really using hands-free cell phones. The conference was broadcast to several other sites via satellite. It all took place right by a highway.
At first I wondered how raw idealism could fit neatly next to these technologies. As I participated in the weekend’s conference, I started to understand, and to appreciate something very unique about Bioneers.
It occurred to me when Rha Goddess was speaking at the plenary of empowering women. The audience whooped and cheered. And that’s when I realized that anyone who was doing anything to make the world a better place would be embraced at Bioneers. The conference reached people from so many different backgrounds, with a variety of focuses: social and political action, indigenous knowledge, anti-oppression, performances and media, the science of healing the earth…and it all came together seamlessly.
The panels were particularly inspiring, and it was exciting to see Wil Bullock, one of our own, demonstrating our place in the movement. I also enjoyed Michael Ableman’s slides of farmers from around the country, and Omar Freilla’s explanation of how he brought “green-collar” jobs to the South Bronx.
I ached when I went to the workshop First Peoples: Protecting and Restoring Indigenous Cultures. Native Hawaiians lived on land for generations only to lose access and see the land turned into golf courses and multil-million dollar houses. The speakers were working to bring indigenous customs back to the young people in Hawaii.
Bioneers was an amazing experience because it didn’t showcase politicians, writers, and speakers talking about how things should be. It united community organizers who were truly making things happen.
As I return to the fall of my senior year of high school, to tests and college applications and GPA’s, I think often of how I will make my mark on the world. What will I have to share years from now when I return to the Bioneers conference?