MCC Bioneers Speaker Series to feature experts' ideas on water diversion, food systems, pollinators
Join McHenry County College's Bioneers Speaker Series for new perspectives on critical environmental topics. The free series takes place at 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Feb. 9, 16 and 23, in the Luecht Conference Center, 8900 Route 14 in Crystal Lake.
Experts will share their views on: Great Lakes water diversion and how that might impact McHenry County, building a global community for safe, healthy, and nourished eaters; and one of the most ecological issues of our time - the decline of pollinators.
The speaker series is sponsored by the McHenry County College Sustainability Center and the Bioneers Steering Committee.
The first lecture on Feb. 9 will feature "The Great Lakes Water Diversion Controversy," presented by Peter Annin, a veteran conflict and environmental journalist who previously wrote for Newsweek. He will speak about the diversion of water from the Great Lakes and will explain how recent changes may alter the way McHenry County accesses water. Annin also wrote the definitive work on the Great Lakes water controversy, titled "The Great Lakes Water Wars." In addition, from 2010-15, Annin served as managing director of the University of Notre Dame's Environmental Change Initiative. He earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University in New York.
On Feb. 16, "The Recipe for a Better Food System" presentation will feature Danielle Nierenberg, president of Food Tank, an organization focused on building a global community for safe, healthy, nourished eaters. An expert on sustainable agriculture and food issues, she has written extensively on gender and population, the spread of factory farming in the developing world, and innovations in sustainable agriculture. Her talk will include preventing food loss and waste, building soil, empowering women, and cultivating the next generation of agricultural leaders. Her knowledge of global agriculture issues has been cited widely in more than 8,000 major print and broadcast outlets worldwide, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The Washington Post. Nierenberg earned a master of science in agriculture, food, and environment from the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. She spent two years volunteering for the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic.
The series concludes on Feb. 23 with "Pollinators, Plants, and People on the Edge of What's Left," presented by Robert Michael Pyle, founder of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, which now has the largest team of pollinator conservationists in the world. He also wrote 20 books, including "Chasing Monarchs," "The Thundertree," and "Wintergreen," which won the John Burroughs Medal. A Yale-trained ecologist and a Guggenheim fellow, Pyle will delve beyond planting milkweed and bring his unique level of expertise to share and heighten the importance of pollinators while offering practical solutions to the most critical ecological issue of our time.
Selected area organizations will be available, along with the speakers, for further discussion after the presentations.
The speaker series is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the MCC Sustainability Center at (815) 479-7765 or visit www.mchenry.edu/bioneers.