Eric Holt-Giménez on Day 3

Eric Holt-Giménez, FoodFirst/Institute for Food and Development Policy, Oakland, CA

Eric Holt-Giménez has been executive director of Food First / Institute for Food and Development Policy since July, 2006.  Eric is the author of the latest Food First Book, Campesino a Campesino: Voices from Latin America’s Farmer to Farmer Movement for Sustainable Agriculture which chronicles the development of this movement in Mexico and Central America over two and a half decades. Eric worked with farmers, participated in their farmer-to-farmer trainings, and recorded their triumphs with his camera and pen. Eric came to FoodFirst from the Bank Information Center in Washington D.C. where he has served as the Latin America Program Manager.

Food Policy Council: www.foodfirst.org

A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil

Maria Terezinha Vaz, an Ecocity presenter and special guest, is the producer of A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil, an informative, inspirational documentary aimed at sharing ideas to provoke environment-friendly and cost-effective changes in cities worldwide.

The documentary focuses on innovations in transportation, recycling, social benefits including affordable housing, seasonal parks, and the processes that transformed Curitiba into one of the most livable cities in the world.

Through photography, Maria Terezinha Vaz integrates other passions, some of them lifelong. Trains, train tracks, the patterns and geometry of the rails and the machinery, have always held a fascination for her. She highly values historical and cultural preservation such as the Mayan land in Mexico, especially the sacred city of Chichen Itza. Preservation of the natural environment is also of great importance to her.

Preview:

The film includes interviews from world renowned Curitiba’s mayors Jaime Lerner and Cassio Tanigushi, as well as other brilliant minds who made Curitiba a world class model.

If you are interested in learning more about the specifics of many of Curitiba’s programs, take a look at her web page on the project, organized into the following:

Transportation

Recycling

Parks

Housing

Creators

DVDs can be purchased at:

http://www.amazon.com/Convenient-Trut…

Written and Directed by Giovanni Vaz Del Bello

Produced by Maria Terezinha Vaz

Sound Design and Mixing by Lars Hidde

Music by Levanta a Vela

Singer & Berimbau Player: Papiba Godinho

Band: Sambada

Interview with Fiona Ma

Assemblywoman Fiona Ma is interviewed on Mornings on 2 about her Toxic Toys bill (AB 110 that was recently signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger.

Featured Presenter: Fiona Ma

Assembly Member Fiona Ma’s life seems the stuff of dreams: born to immigrant parents and now making history as the highest-ranking Asian-American woman in the state Legislature.

Ma has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, a master’s degree in Taxation from Golden Gate University and an MBA from Pepperdine Unversity. Her CPA career started in the tax department of Ernst & Whinney’s Manhattan office, followed by five years working for Ernst and Young in San Francisco. Next, Ma joined the tax practice at Ghiasi & Company, where she worked for 10 years, specializing in real estate, hospitality and high net worth individuals, after which a series of events led her into public office.

Ma’s ties to her roots remain strong, as she’s taken her local concerns to Sacramento—along with her skills as a CPA. California CPA talked with Ma (D-San Francisco) about her journey to the Capitol and Sacramento politics. …(read on)

SAN FRANCISCO TO HOST ECOCITY WORLD SUMMIT 2008

World’s Best and Brightest Will Gather to Design the City in Balance with Nature

San Francisco will host the 7th International Ecocity Conference (Ecocity World Summit), next April 22-26 2008. The event will be convened by nonprofit Ecocity Builders and held at UC Berkeley Extension and Nob Hill Masonic Center/Grace Cathedral.

“Times are crying out for a much larger effort in the direction of the city that restores, not destroys, the biosphere,” says Richard Register, President of Ecocity Builders and author of (New Society Publishers, 2006). The answer to many of our pressing social and environmental problems, he believes, is to redesign and rebuild cities for people and revitalization of nature instead of for cars and sprawl.

The world-renowned series follows the first, held in Berkeley in 1990, and five subsequent conferences in Australia, Senegal, Brazil, China and India. Ecocity World Summit 2008 will take center stage before the highly influential Bay Area community of architects, planners, designers, policy makers, green businesses, political and nonprofit leaders, with the added participation of international experts and delegates.

Speakers include architect and master planner Jaime Lerner, former Mayor of Curitiba Brazil; former Governor of Maryland Parris Glendening, President of Smart Growth America Leadership Institute; Wang Rusong, President of the Ecological Society of China; Fiona Ma, CA State Assemblywoman and Chair of the Congressional High Speed Rail Caucus, Stephen Schneider, Stanford University Climatologist; plus architect and design visionaries like Paolo Soleri and Richard Register, and directors from nonprofits such as Global Footprint Network, who have important sustainability accounts for entire countries.

The conference will also draw high profile journalists and media attention; conference organizers are already signing on media partners and are receiving requests for interviews and articles.  According to proponents of the ecocity approach, the healthy built human habitat is the “walking city,” of which some parts of existing cities are already good examples. Whether small scale or large, it would cover a small fraction of the land consumed by today.s sprawling cities and towns. The guiding principle is “access by proximity.”

“The idea is to design communities so that instead of having to drive “over there,” what you need or want is “just around the corner,” says Register.

Current conference sponsors include SF Environment, UC Berkeley Extension, SF AIA, EDAW, BART, SF Neighborhood Parks Council, SPUR, Ecological Society of China, SF Bicycle Coalition, Ecocity Builders, Green Century Institute and organicARCHITECT.

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For more information or to schedule an interview with Richard Register or other Ecocity World Summit speakers, please call Amy Senn at 312.528.9111 x102 or e-mail Amy at AmySenn@sensiblecity.com.