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A BRAVE NEW MOVEMENT is afoot and barely a whisper has reached Washington. It's happening instead in community centers and on university campuses nationwide. Grassroots activists and public servants, farmers and entrepreneurs, artists and engineers, shamans and scientists are coming together to bridge the Republican versus Democrat, fundamentalist-secular humanist divide to shape an upbeat vision for America. It's a movement that emphasizes community and cooperation over rampant materialism. A movement dedicated to the common cause of healing our impoverished inner cities, endangered health, and fouled land and water. A movement that draws on the ancient wisdom of indigenous peoples, eight billion years of evolutionary history, and practical innovations made possible by modern research into natural systems. And
thus far, it's a movement whose blip has barely registered on the
radar screens of the mainstream media. |
The Bioneers movement emphasizes community and cooperation over rampant materialism |
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If you pay attention, though, you'll find evidence of a change in the air. Locally stocked, nutritious farmers markets are restoring a decent standard of living to family farmers. Worker-owned recycling plants in inner cities are creating dignified jobs for unemployed African Americans. Sprawling metropolises are cleaning up their acts with solar-powered, microbe-treatment wastewater plants and emission-free wind energy farms. The participants in this movement call themselves bioneers, or biological pioneers, because they regard themselves as purveyors of life and innovation. Linked by satellite and the Internet, they're sharing their knowledge at an annual national conference that was beamed this year to 16 sites across the country. For two years running, Utah State University has been the only site to host the bioneers conference in Utah. USU boasts some of its own biological pioneers. They may not all be involved in the movement, but they're living up to the ideals of this land grant university, whose mission is proving to be as relevant today as it was on its founding 118 years ago. -Jane Koerner more |