George Siemon - Organic Valley

Saturday, September 20th, 12pm

One of the nation's foremost organic agriculture advocates for nearly two decades, George L. Siemon is best known for his leadership in organizing farmers and building market support for organic agriculture.

In 1988, Siemon joined a half-dozen neighboring family farmers to found the Organic Valley® Family of Farms, in Wisconsin. Under Siemon's leadership, Organic Valley has become the largest organic farmers' cooperative in North America.

As chair of the Organic Trade Association's Livestock Committee, Siemon was instrumental in developing effective national standards for organic certification, a process directed by the United States Department of Agriculture. He just completed serving a USDA-appointed, five-year term on the National Organic Standards Board. The board advises the Agriculture Department on matters associated with the organic industry, including reviewing and selecting acceptable organic ingredients and establishing standards of organic practice.

Siemon and his family have owned and operated an organic farm since 1977. The land is located in one of the many beautiful valleys, called "coulees," in Southwestern Wisconsin. Vegetables, chickens, cows, pigs, and horses all can be found on the Siemon farm. He received his bachelor's degree in animal science from Colorado State University, Ft. Collins.

Ed Begley, Jr - Actor-Activist

Saturday, September 20th, 2pm

As environmental issues become more pressing, there are two possible responses: forget it and hope that government and corporations will figure it out, or take action yourself.

In the "take action yourself" camp, a few individuals are leading the way. One such person in California is Ed Begley, Jr. Turning up at Hollywood events on his bicycle, Begley has been considered a charismatic environmental leader in the Hollywood community for many years. He serves on the boards of The Coalition For Clean Air, The Thoreau Institute, The Environmental Media Association, and The Earth Communications Office, among many others.

Begley's work in the environmental community has earned him a number of awards from some of the most prestigious environmental groups in the nation, including the California League of Conservation Voters, the Natural Resources Defense Council, The Coalition for Clean Air, Heal the Bay, Santa Monica Baykeeper, and the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation.

Rahima Baldwin Dancy

Sunday, September 21st, 12pm

Rahima Baldwin Dancy is an internationally-known parenting educator and Waldorf early childhood specialist. Her book, You Are Your Child's First Teacher, has been translated into Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Hebrew, in addition to a UK edition. She is the founder and president of Informed Family Life, a nonprofit educational organization based in Boulder, since 1977. Rahima worked for many years as a midwife and childbirth activist and is also author of Special Delivery and co-author of Pregnant Feelings. She was a primary midwife and co-director of The Birth Center in Dearborn, Michigan for nine years, serving couples from 43 different countries. Together with her husband, Agaf Dancy, she has raised four children who are now 28-37 years old.

Kevin Danaher

Sunday, September 21st, 2pm

Dr. Kevin Danaher is a co-founder of Global Exchange (1988), founder and Executive Co-Producer of the Green Festivals (2001), and Executive Director of the Global Citizen Center (2004). He was the founding Board Chair of TransFairUSA, the fair trade certifying agency for the United States.

Kevin received his PhD in sociology from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and his BA from Sonoma State University. He is the author and/or editor of 11 books, including his latest, with Jason Mark and Shannon Biggs, Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots, published in 2007 by PoliPoint Press.

Kevin's current projects include the Green Festivals (www.greenfestivals.org), a weekend gathering (co-produced with Coop America) of 400 green companies, nonprofit social change organizations, more than 100 exciting speakers, organic vegetarian restaurants, diverse live music and much more. His other project is the Global Citizen Center (globalcitizencenter.org), which is developing a 120,000sf nonprofit building that is bringing together green retail, a restaurant, offices of nonprofit social justice and environmental organizations, event spaces, and affordable housing for teachers and first responders in a downtown location in San Francisco. This building is being developed as a prototype that can be replicated in other cities around the world to unite the green economy movement.