Michael Brownlee
Co-founder, Transition Boulder County

The Global Future of Food is Local!
Humanity is now eating more food than it is producing. As global food prices soar to record levels, food supplies are threatened by water shortages, soil loss, rising energy prices, competition from crops grown for biofuel and other factors. In this presentation, Michael Brownlee shows that to be sustaining and sustainable, agriculture must and can transition from an oil-based industrial model to a more labor-intensive, knowledge-intensive, organic and localized model, with production being devoted primarily to local consumption.

DURATION:
Shortest: 30 minutes
Standard: 45-60 minutes
Half-day seminar available (3-4 hours)

TRANSITION: The Most Inspiring Movement in the World and How to Bring It to Your Community
Converging global crises—peak oil, global warming, and economic instability—represent a perfect global storm, bringing with it massive waves of change. Michael Brownlee shows that the most promising way to adapt to such tumultuous change is to relearn how to provision our essential needs locally. Transition empowers communities to squarely face the local impacts of global crises, and to unleash the collective genius of their own people to find the answers to this momentous question: For all those aspects of life that this community needs to sustain itself and thrive, how are we going to drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to climate change), significantly rebuild resilience (in response to peak oil), and greatly strengthen our local economy (in response to economic instability)?

DURATION:
Shortest: 45 minutes
Standard: 90 minutes - 2 hours
Half-day and full-day seminars available

About the Speaker: Michael Brownlee is co-founder of Transition Boulder County (www.transitionbouldercounty.org), a non-profit social venture committed to increasing public awareness of the challenges and opportunities of "The Long Emergency," converging global crises of peak oil, global warming and economic chaos. A catalyst for Transition/Relocalization—developing community resilience and self-reliance in food, energy, and economy—Michael spearheads the organization's campaign to rebuild community and strengthen the local economy. Transition Boulder County recently became the first Transition Initiative in North America (see www.transitiontowns.org), and is a Chapter of the Relocalization Network organized by Post Carbon Institute (www.relocalize.net). Besides being an international leader in Transition/Relocalization efforts, Michael is a founding member of the Boulder County Food and Agricultural Policy Council, a recent graduate of the Authentic Leadership Program at Naropa University's Marpa Center for Business and Economics, and recently served as Board President of the Boulder Independent Business Alliance. He is a frequent speaker on sustainability issues, and a trainer for the Transition Network.

FOR BOOKING & ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Email Michael@earthworks-expo.com or phone 970-416-8700