Lineup
Charles Eisenstein
Charles Eisenstein - US
An independent writer and speaker on topics traversing the economy, society, spirituality and the environment, Charles’s work is renowned for its boldness and poetics. The author of six books – including Sacred Economics, Climate: A New Story and The Coronation, he is an indispensable guide towards “the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible”.
Nathalie Kelley
Nathalie Kelley - Australia
Nathalie is an actor of Quechua descent, most recently starring in the #1 Netflix series The Baker and the Beauty. She is on the board of Kiss The Ground and the Fungí Foundation, and uses her storytelling talents to elevate Indigenous wisdom as the key to coming back into harmony with our ecosystems. She advocates for justice for the human and more than human world, with particular focus on the soil, fungi and forests. At the core of her mission is the preservation of Biodiversity, including cultural and myco-diversity on the planet.
John Perkins
John Perkins - US
Author of the bestselling Confessions of an Economic Hitman and 10 other books, John is an invaluable whistle-blower about the clandestine agendas of powerful economic and intelligence institutions. John also writes on indigenous cultures and what they can teach the Western world about sustainability and transformation. He is founder and board member of Dream Change and co-founder of The Pachamama Alliance.
Bayo Akomolafe
Bayo Akomolafe - Nigeria, India
A one-of-a-kind thinker, Bayo blurs the lines between the personal and the political. His playful and poetic voice calls us to unlearn, rethink and radically imagine the world and our role within it. Bayo is the author of the books, These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home, and We Will Tell our Own Story: The Lions of Africa Speak. He is also the founder and chief curator of the Emergence Network.
Poppy Okotcha
Poppy Okotcha - UK
Poppy is an ecological food grower, garden writer and speaker, inspiring reconnection to land through engaging with food and herbs, from growing to processing and cooking, soil to table. To her, understanding where our food comes from offers a powerful route into a relationship with nature rooted in reciprocity, a necessary shift in our time.
Iain McGilchrist
Iain McGilchrist - UK
Iain is an Oxford literary scholar, and doctor in psychiatry and neuroscience. A champion of genuinely holistic thinking, Iain’s acclaimed book The Master and His Emissary and his more recent The Matter with Things have transformed academic and popular understanding not only of the human brain, but also of the importance of a fundamental worldview shift in dealing with the destructive trajectory of Western civilisation. His works sustain an in-depth critique of reductive materialism, and invite a thorough rethink of humanity’s place in the world.
Jeremy Lent
Jeremy Lent - UK, US
Described as “one of the greatest thinkers of our age,” Jeremy is an impassioned researcher and speaker who investigates the underlying causes of our civilizational metacrisis, and explores pathways toward an ecological civilisation. He is the author of The Patterning Instinct and The Web of Meaning, and the founder of the Deep Transformation Network – an online global community where people can engage in facilitating a deep transformation toward a life-affirming future on a regenerated Earth.
Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva - India
Never flinching at speaking truth to power, Vandana has dedicated her life to protecting seeds, biodiversity and farmers. Trained as a quantum physicist, she began her activism in the 1970s as a key spokesperson for the Chipko (tree-hugging) movement of the Himalayas, and has since inspired and educated activists and thought-leaders all over the world. Vandana is an advocate for food sovereignty and localisation, and has written more than 20 books, including The Violence of the Green Revolution, Stolen Harvest, Oneness vs the 1%, and Who Really Feeds the World. She is the founder of the NGOs Navdanya and Seed Freedom.
Lyla June Johnston
Dr. Lyla June Johnston (aka Lyla June)- UK
Lyla June is an Indigenous musician, author, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages. Her multi-genre presentation style has engaged audiences across the globe towards personal, collective, and ecological healing. She blends her study of Human Ecology at Stanford, graduate work in Indigenous Pedagogy, and the traditional worldview she grew up with to inform her music, perspectives and solutions. Her doctoral research focused on the ways in which pre-colonial Indigenous Nations shaped large regions of Turtle Island (aka the Americas) to produce abundant food systems for humans and non-humans.
Helena Norberg-Hodge
Helena Norberg-Hodge - Sweden, Australia
Helena is a pioneer of the new economy movement and the recipient of both the Right Livelihood Award and the Goi Peace Prize. Through books, articles, interviews, films and public lectures on five continents, she has been promoting an economics of personal, social and ecological well-being for more than 40 years. She is the author of the inspirational classic ‘Ancient Futures’, the producer and co-director of the award-winning film ‘The Economics of Happiness’, and the founder and director of Local Futures.
Zac Goldsmith
Zac Goldsmith - UK
Before becoming a Member of Parliament, Zac was editor of the Ecologist Magazine for which he received Mikhail Gorbachev’s Global Green Award for ‘International Environmental Leadership’. From 2010 – 2019 he was the MP for Richmond Park and North Kingston. In 2019, Zac was appointed as a Minister attending Cabinet with responsibility for climate and the environment. In 2022 Zac was given awards for his international environmental leadership by both Colombian President Ivan Duque and by Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba. In June 2023 he resigned citing the Government’s increasing apathy in the face of the environmental and climate
crisis.
Satish Kumar
Satish Kumar - India
Peace-pilgrim, life-long activist, and former monk, Satish Kumar has been inspiring global change for over 60 years. In 1962 he undertook a pilgrimage for peace, walking for two years without money from India to America for the cause of nuclear disarmament. Now in his 80s, Satish has devoted his life to campaigning for ecological regeneration and social justice. He is a world-renowned author and international speaker, founder of The Resurgence Trust and Editor Emeritus of Resurgence & Ecologist – a change-making magazine he edited for over 40 years.
Jyoti Fernandes
Jyoti Fernandes - UK
A small farmer and Campaigns Coordinator for The Landworkers Alliance, Jyoti both embodies and powerfully communicates the possibility for a more just, sustainable and healthier future through local food sovereignty. On her 20-acre farm in Dorset, UK, Jyoti raises cows, sheep, and fruits, and processes apple juice, wool, jam and more. She is also a spokesperson for the international peasants’ movement, La Via Campesina.
Manish Jain
Manish Jain - India
A unique educator, radical “unlearner”, and ambassador for both human and more-than-human creativity, Manish is adept at turning conventional approaches to education, economics and incarceration on their heads. He is the co-founder of Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development, Swaraj University (India’s first self-designed learning university), and the Ecoversities Alliance, a global network of alternative universities.
Ele Saltmarsh
Ele Saltmarsh - UK, US
Ele is an agroecosystems researcher working in the United Kingdom and United States. She uses model-based methods to produce data-driven policy suggestions and reports for The Landworkers' Alliance, and is currently working on a report that shows how agroecological methods can feed the UK. She also works with the FLAME organisation to promote a sustainable future for youth in farming.
George Ferguson
George Ferguson - UK
Past president of the Royal Institute of British Architects and first elected mayor of Bristol , George is a powerhouse of initiative, especially in local culture, local food and local business. His concern for people and nature has translated into real successes for Bristol, including securing the city as European Green Capital (2015) by freeing streets of cars, encouraging children’s play and local markets and advancing Bristol’s own currency, the Bristol Pound. George prevented the demolition of Bristol’s iconic Tobacco Factory in South Bristol, transforming it into the cultural hub it is today. His consultancy People & Cities continues to advocate the strengthening of local communities.
Mika Tsutsumi
Mika Tsutsumi - Japan
Investigative journalist and bestselling author, Mika is a leading political commentator and voice for economic change in Japan. Her investigations into multinational corporations’ shaping of American media and economy led her to publish USA – Poverty Superpower, bringing a powerful critique of the American model of “growth” to a Japanese audience. She is also fiercely committed to protecting local seeds, farmers, communities and public health through opposing the globalisation of food systems, and to growing the localisation movement through systemic change.
Salim Dara
Salim Dara - Benin
Salim is revolutionizing agricultural education in Benin through a hands-on agricultural entrepreneurship program and his holistic farming model—shifting agricultural education from theoretical teaching to practical skills development that instills in students an appreciation for the natural environment. Through his organization, Solidarité Rurale (Rural Solidarity), Salim works to replace a broken agricultural education system by providing students with the practical experience, confidence, and resources they need to generate food and income from the natural resources around them.
Daniel C. Wahl
Daniel Christian Wahl - UK
Daniel is the author of Designing Regenerative Cultures – so far translated into seven languages. With degrees in biology and holistic science and a PhD in Design for Human and Planetary Health, his work has influenced the emerging fields of regenerative and salutogenic design. His blog and video series Voices of the ReGeneration are part of Daniel's extensive advocacy work. He was awarded the 2021 RSA Bicentenary Medal for his "outstanding and demonstrable contribution… towards an equitable and regenerative world.".
Camila Moreno
Camila Moreno - Brazil
Civil society’s foremost expert on climate policy, Camila’s critical analysis of the nexus of carbon metrics, digitalisation and corporate power is unparalleled. Camila has followed the international climate negotiations closely since 2008, and from that experience has written Carbon Metrics and the New Colonial Equations. She is also a researcher at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro.
Andrew Simms
Andrew Simms - UK
An extraordinary combination of renegade political economist, environmentalist and active optimist, Andrew thinks outside the box to explore better approaches to economic development. His books include Cancel the Apocalypse; Tescopoly: How One Shop Came Out on Top and Why it Matters and his most recent co-authored text, Economics: A Crash Course. He co-founded the New Weather Institute, coordinates the Rapid Transition Alliance and Badvertising – a campaign to stop the adverts fuelling the climate emergency. Andrew is also a research associate at the Centre for Global Political Economy, University of Sussex.
Debra Efroymson
Debra Efroymson - Bangladesh
A committed advocate for localisation, car-free cities, and the empowerment of young women, Debra is the co-founder and Executive Director at Institute of Wellbeing, Bangladesh. She is the author of Beyond Apologies, Defining and Achieving an Economics of Wellbeing, has worked closely with hundreds of international interns from the Asian University for Women and other institutions, and advises on economics, urban and transport planning, reproductive and sexual health, and the prevention of non-communicable diseases.
Juan del Río
Juan del Río - Spain
Juan is the Co-Director of ECOLISE, the European network for community-led initiatives on climate change and sustainability. He is a facilitator, catalyst, consultant and network weaver, with over 15 years experience in ecosocial transition and community development. Juan is co-founder of Transition Spain and the Municipalities in Transition project. He is also the author of “Guía del movimiento de Transición”, and co-director of the new film ALTERNATIVES.
Heydon Prowse
Heydon Prowse - UK
Heydon is a British activist, journalist, satirist, director and comedian. He is best known for writing and performing in BBC Three's The Revolution Will Be Televised. He hosted and co-directed the BBC2 documentary The Town That Took on The Taxman, which gained international press coverage. He has won a BAFTA (twice nominated), a Broadcast Award and a Cannes Lion Gold among other awards.
Ruby Reed
Ruby Reed - UK
Ruby co-founded the transformative education platform advaya in 2015 bringing people together to explore ecological ways of being in the world. In 2019 she co-founded behavioural awareness campaign EcoResolution and in 2023 launched Earthed, a nature skills platform for people learning from and for nature. She brings people and programmes together at festivals, protests, and retreats, and previously worked in modern and contemporary art where she advised on collections and completed two MA degrees. She is a freediver, yoga therapist and swimmer and spends as much time as possible sleeping out in wild places.
Michael Shuman
Michael Shuman - US
A Stanford-trained lawyer and economist, Michael is the world’s pre-eminent expert on local finance. He shares practical tactics to reclaim community wealth from Wall Street. Michael is the author of ten books including Local Dollars, Local Sense, The Local Economy Solution, The Small Mart Revolution and his most recent title Put Your Money Where Your Life Is.
Keibo Oiwa
Keibo Oiwa - Japan
Combining traditional wisdom, philosophy and a deep ecological sensibility with a flare for community organising, Keibo inspires both far-reaching vision and hands-on action for a healthier society through his films, public speaking and books. He is the founder of The Sloth Club, an NGO that promotes slow and sustainable living, and the author of the book Slow is Beautiful: Culture as Slowness. He has also been the catalyst for several gatherings in Japan focused on localisation.
Lucy Jones
Lucy Jones - UK
Lucy is a writer, journalist and mother of young children. She is interested in eco-feminism, earth-thinking-with, maternal subjectivity, and systems change. Her books include Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need the Wild and most recently Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood.
Alnoor Ladha
Alnoor Ladha - Costa Rica
Resisting categorisation, Alnoor works towards the integral healing of culture, people and the living world, affirming the interbeing of spirituality, politics and connection to place. He co-founded The Rules - a global activist collective and thinktank for economic alternatives. He also co-founded the post-capitalist community Tierra Valiente in Costa Rica, where he lives. He is a board member of Culture Hack Labs and The Emergence Network, co-director of the Transition Resource Circle and co-author of Post Capitalist Philanthropy: Healing Wealth in the Time of Collapse.
Thais Mantovani
Thais Mantovani - Brazil
Passionate about nature, Thais co-founded EcoUniversidade, an educational platform that drives systemic change by facilitating dialogues between different worldviews and opening space for a more regenerative human presence on Earth. She holds a MSc in Holistic Science from Schumacher College, is a Youth Climate Leaders fellow, is part of the Global Regeneration CoLab network and works as a consultant on ecosystem catalyzation and organizational development.
Chris Smaje
Chris Smaje - UK
Smallholder farmer, social scientist, writer, and bold proponent of agrarian localism, Chris is the author of A Small Farm Future. His work is an uncompromising look at the state of the world today, and a powerful testament to the real possibility of a future in which humanity and the rest of nature thrive through diverse, small-scale food systems adapted to local ecosystems, cultures and markets.
Anja Lyngbaek
Anja Lyngbaek - Denmark, Mexico
Anja is the Associate Programmes Director of Local Futures. Over the years, she has coordinated a variety of projects under this umbrella, including the Economics of Happiness International Conference Series, the International Alliance for Localization and World Localization Day. Fluent in Spanish, English and Danish, she has been a spokesperson for localization on several continents. Anja divides her time between a Mexican ecovillage and a small island in the Danish Archipelago. She is a passionate community builder and food grower, and is happiest with her hands in the soil.
Rob Hopkins
Rob Hopkins - UK
Rob is a pioneer of the Transition movement, through which communities have withdrawn fossil fuel dependence by building local communities and economies, thus helpig countless people effect tangible positive change. He’s a renowned speaker, an Ashoka fellow and the author of several books including The Transition Handbook and, most recently, From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want.
Rema Kumar
Rema Kumar - India
With over 25 years experience of teaching in schools in India, Rema is currently a Trustee of Bhoomi College and Prakriya Green Wisdom School – two institutions which she has co-created, partnering in the vision of humanising education in tune with nature’s principles. Rema is also keenly involved in programmes on deep inner-work and institution-building. A keen storyteller, she is passionate about deep ecology and education for sustainable living.
Farah Khan
Farah Khan - India
Farah contributed to innovative ways of teaching–learning processes and in developing a curriculum that fosters holistic learning for more than two decades. She has been part of Prakriya Green Wisdom School since its initial years and was instrumental in co- creating its vision of humanising education. Farah is currently the Director of Bhoomi College, Bangalore. In her role, she guides and mentors Bhoomi fellows in following alternate paths for saner living on Earth. She is a facilitator for programmes for deep inner work as well. She enjoys travelling, being in the outdoors and feels at home in wilderness spaces.
Attila Szocs B. Miklós
Atilla Szocs Boruss Miklós - Romania
Szocs is a passionate advocate for agroecology and improved legislation in support of peasants’ rights and access to land. As a leading campaigner for raising awareness of land grabbing in Romania, he has served as President of the Eco Ruralis Association since 2015 and is responsible for coordinating their working groups for the Right to Land, Public Policies, Agroecology, Rural Migration. Between 2020-2022, Attila was elected to the Via Campesina Europa Coordinating Committee, coordinating European-level advocacy activities for the right to land and land reforms.
Patricia Moguel
Patricia Moguel - Mexico
Patricia is an outspoken activist in environmental, human rights and feminist struggles in Mexico, where she has convened broad alliances for localisation. She has a PhD in Agroecology and expertise in biocultural diversity, community resilience and ecopedagogy, in which art is the main pillar.
Jack Harries
Molly Scott Cato
Molly Scott Cato - UK
Molly is a visionary British Green politician, economist and writer, with wide experience of community activism, local food networks, and cooperatives. Her special interests include land ownership and food production, sustainable finance, locally owned renewable energy, co-operatives and self-managed firms, pursuing peace and opposing nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Molly has campaigned for the Green Party since 1988, and currently speaks for the party on finance and economy. She was elected to the European Parliament representing South West England and Gibraltar from 2014-2020.
Jay Tompt
Jay Tompt - UK
Jay is a co-founder of the Totnes REconomy Project and Local Spark Torbay, and teaches economics at Plymouth University and Schumacher College. He’s been at the heart of citizen-led and regenerative economic innovation for the last eleven years, for example co-developing the REconomy Centre, the Local Entrepreneur Forum model, and the international REconomy Community of Practice.
Benjamin Christie
Benjamin Christie - UK
With a deeply held belief in the possibility of a more equitable, and harmonious world, Benjamin Christie works to support NGOs and ethical businesses develop and achieve their goals. With a career spanning the events, media and renewable energy sectors, he has been fortunate enough to gain experience of many different countries, environments and partnerships at first hand. He is co-founder of Frocal, an initiative that seeks to convene, connect and catalyse all aspects of localisation in Forest Row where he lives in Sussex.
Diego I. La Moneda
Diego Isabel La Moneda - Spain
Diego is co-founder and Director of the Foundation NESI Forum of New Economy and Social Innovation, which promotes a new system with people and planet at the core. As a social entrepreneur, Diego has started up several sustainable businesses, social movements, and local political initiatives in his hometown, Palencia (Spain). Diego studied Forestry and Environmental Engineering as well as Global Governance and Ethics.
Rupert Read
Rupert Read - UK
Eco-philosopher, academic, author, campaigner, UK Green politician, and environmental activist, Rupert is an incisive and highly respected thought-leader. He has influenced public and academic opinion on issues including climate, genetic engineering, technological development and advertising to children. Rupert has (co-)authored books including A Film-Philosophy Of Ecology And Enlightenment and This Civilisation Is Finished. He was a key spokesperson for the Extinction Rebellion movement, and now co-directs the ‘Moderate Flank’ Incubator.
Jon Jandai
Jon Jandai - Thailand
Jon is a farmer, earthen builder, seed saver, teacher, philosopher, father, and community activist. He continuously strives to find more ways communities can be self-reliant and people can reconnect with the land and each other. He is the founder of Punpun Center for Self-Reliance, an educational organic farm and earth-building school in Thailand where skills of self-reliance are demonstrated and shared.
Diana Finch
Diana Finch - UK
Diana started her career in bookkeeping and designing accounting systems. When her children were small she got involved in various community development projects, after which she decided to work mainly for non-profits. She has held senior roles in both environmentally and socially focused organisations, and joined Bristol Pay CIC (then Bristol Pound) as MD in 2018. Since 2019, she has spent most of her time thinking about how to develop post-market economic systems.
William Powers
William (Bill) Powers - US
William has worked for more than two decades in development aid and conservation in Latin America, Africa, and North America. His essays and commentaries on global issues have appeared in the New York Times and the Atlantic and on National Public Radio. Powers has also spent several decades exploring the American culture of speed and its alternatives in some fifty countries around the world. He is the author of five books that probe issues of sustainability and the need for a new, bio-centric paradigm.
Nelson Mudzingwa
Nelson Mudzingwa - Zimbabwe
Nelson is a smallholder farmer and core founder of the Shashe Agroecology School, a farmer led initiative in Zimbabwe that has become one of the country’s most successful producers of diverse local foods. He is the National Coordinator for the Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers Forum (ZIMSOFF), a member of the Seed and Knowledge Initiative, and La Via Campesina – for which ZIMSOFF hosted the International Operative Secretariat (IOS) until June 2021.
Tiziana Alterio
Tiziana Alterio - Italy
Tiziana is a journalist, bestselling writer and activist. She has worked for RAI and Mediaset, Italy’s state television and main private broadcaster. Tiziana has travelled as a reporter to Africa, Asia, South America and the Arab countries and is an expert on issues relating to the Mediterranean and EU countries. She founded and was editor-in-chief of the newspaper ILMediterraneo.it and is a speaker in several meetings on the damage caused by globalization and shares her vision of localization. She is author of the books "The Silent War"(2016), Putsch (2018), "The Conquerors" (2019), "Revolutionary Interviews" (2020), "The God Vaccine" (2021), and "Putin" (2022).
Roger Hallam
Roger Hallam - UK
Roger researched the dynamics of mass mobilisations at King's College for five years and has been at the forefront of climate campaigning for many years, including co-founding the Extinction Rebellion, and was ranked as the 34th most influential person shaping Britain’s progressive politics by The New Statesman, 2023. Roger’s acts of civil disobedience have led to over thirty arrests and four periods of imprisonment.
Liz Hosken
Liz Hosken - South Africa
Liz is Director and co-founder of The Gaia Foundation (Gaia), a small, feisty international organisation committed to systemic transformation. For nearly 40 years, Gaia has been upholding Indigenous wisdom and working with indigenous communities to restore their biocultural diversity. Liz co-developed and co-facilitates a three-year training in the philosophy and practice of Earth Jurisprudence, seeding the revival of Earth-centred consciousness, cultures and landscapes in her native soil of Africa, inspired by decades of work with Amazonian communities.
Keri Hopeward
Keri Hopeward - Australia
Keri Hopeward is the Senior Research Fellow on 'Living Lightly Locally: Smarter and Stronger through Citizen Science' and the Course Coordinator for Sustainable Development: A Global Perspective at the University of South Australia (UniSA). Before re-joining UniSA she founded a regenerative research and education consultancy called Dream Awake: Research Education and Design (DARED). DARED was established in 2018, after Keri completed her work as Head of Program for the first full degree Permaculture Program at CQUniversity from 2015-2018. She holds a doctorate in Anthropology/Social Inquiry from the University of Adelaide (2008).
Muhammed Foulds
Muhammed Foulds - UK
A revolutionary individual, Muhammed Foulds is a biologist, conservationist, falconer, and spiritual leader who currently serves as the Head Imam and Principal of Religious Affairs in the UK Prison Service. Muhammed is a proponent of incorporating earth-based spirituality into modern Islam, and has launched trailblazing projects that offer UK prisoners the chance to connect to nature and spirituality through growing food, having contact with animals, and more.
Ruby van der Wekken
Ruby van der Wekken - Finland
With longstanding experience in the Global Justice Movement through working with organisations such as the Siemenpuu Foundation, Ruby has been a producer member of Oma Maa Food cooperative since 2018, which produces food bags for its members around the year. Ruby works on the land, in the kitchen and on the development of the co-op. She has also been working at the core of the process of community currency Helsinki Timebank and she participates in the coordination committee of RIPESS - the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy, as a representative for URGENCI, an international network for CSA’s and other initiatives.
Alex Jensen
Alex Jensen - US
Alex has worked with Local Futures in the USA and India, where he coordinates our Ladakh Project. He represents Local Futures in the Vikalp Sangam/Alternatives India initiative and is part of the core team of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives. He has worked with cultural affirmation and agro-biodiversity projects in campesino communities in a number of countries, and is active in environmental health/anti-toxics work.
Miranda Wilson
Miranda Wilson, UK
Miranda is a writer, mother of teenagers and generally curious person who has for some time been observing the effects of technology on our children's lives. Finally spurred into action by the phenomenon of 'rape culture' in schools, Miranda set up Teched Off to share with parents information and tools about addiction, the effect on mental health, physical health, academic achievement, and exposure to pornography and predatory adults that unfettered access to online devices creates. In the absence of effective legislation, Miranda aims to start changing the culture around what's normal when it comes to our children and technology.
Patrick Holden
Patrick Holden - UK
As the founder and chief executive of the UK’s Sustainable Food Trust, Patrick’s extensive advocacy work centres on the importance of transforming our food and farming systems to address climate change, reverse biodiversity loss, and improve public health. In 1973 Patrick established a mixed community farm in Wales, which is now the longest established mixed organic dairy holding in that country. Patrick founded the British Organic Farmers in 1982, is a Patron of the UK Biodynamic Association, has received a CBE for services to organic farming. In 2022 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Wales Trinity St David.
Darcia Narvaez
Darcia Narvaez - US
Darcia is a Professor Emerita of Psychology (University of Notre Dame), employs a lifespan, interdisciplinary approach to studying evolved morality, child development and human flourishing, integrating anthropology, neuroscience, clinical, developmental, evolutionary and educational sciences. She founded EvolvedNest.org is president of KindredWorld.org. She has many publications including Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom, Restoring the Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Planet Earth (with Four Arrows) as well as the film.
Ben Rawlence
Ben Rawlence - Wales
Award winning writer, activist and co-founder of Black Mountains College, Wales, Ben has written two books about the human consequences of environmental catastrophe in Africa: Radio Congo and City of Thorns. After moving to Wales and beginning to research the coming impacts of climate change closer to home, his attention turned to the Arctic Circle and the boreal forest, leading to his third book: The Treeline. Ben’s work has led him to see that we need institutions like Black Mountains College that promote new ways of thinking and learning.
Laura Kaestele
Laura Kaestele - Germany
Laura is a network weaver, designer, grower, project coordinator, and facilitator in the fields of integrative design, ecological regeneration, community development, permaculture, and holistic living. With a passion for nature, evolution, and creative collaboration Laura has contributed to networks, non-profits, sustainable communities, eco-projects, and regenerative farms around Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Central America to synergize and take transformative action for regeneration. She works for ECOLISE, is engaged in the ecovillage and permaculture networks, mentor for Gaia University, and an intentional eco-nomad.
Ross Jackson
Ross Jackson - Canada, Denmark
Born Canadian, Ross has lived in Denmark since 1964 and for many years has been an innovative leader in both the business and NGO worlds. Ross’ business career has been as an independent IT consultant and software designer, consulting in many business sectors, later specialising in international finance. He is chairman of Gaia Trust, a self-funded Danish-based charitable entity he co-founded in 1987 to promote a more sustainable and spiritual world. His current business interests include Nerve Smart Systems, specialising in leading-edge battery technologies.
Henry Coleman
Henry Coleman - Australia
Henry connected with the work of Local Futures at age 15, and has worked with the organization in Ladakh, India and Australia since 2015. Now almost fluent in Ladakhi, he helps to coordinate our projects there. He also represents Local Futures at public events in Australia, and works on various writing projects. In 2017, he co-founded the NGO Wildspace, where he has further developed his capacity as a community organizer and activist.
Lynn Murphy
Lynn Murphy, US
Lynn is the co-director of Transition Resource Circle and co-author of Post Capitalist Philanthropy-Healing Wealth in the Time of Collapse. For the past 20 years, she has been an advisor for foundations and NGOs working primarily in the geopolitical South. She was a senior fellow and program officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation where she focused on international education and global development. She resigned as a”‘conscientious objector” to neocolonial philanthropy. She holds an MA and PhD in international comparative education from Stanford University. She is also a certified Laban/Bartenieff movement analyst.
Andri Magnason
Andri Magnason - Iceland
Andri is an Icelandic writer born in Reykjavik in 1973. Andri has a diverse body of work in almost all genres from poetry to non fiction, children's books, sci fi and plays as well as being a documentary film maker and environmental activist, mostly know for the words written for Ok glacier - the first glacier Iceland lost to climate change. His latest book On Time and Water has been translated to more than 30 languages. Anri has won major literary awards in France, USA, UK and China. Andri lives in Reykjavík with his wife and four children.
Kunzang Deachen
Kunzang Deachen - Ladakh
Kunzang is a community organiser supporting young farmers, mindful tourism,
and cultural vitality in Ladakh, India. In 2017, she left a job in Delhi and started Infinity Ladakh with a vision to encourage spiritual and physical well-being by promoting yoga, meditation and nature expeditions. Since 2020, she has been coordinating Local Futures’ Ladakh Project, developing an ever-deeper commitment to protecting land-based wisdom and traditional skills in the face of globalising forces. She has become a
leader of the localisation movement in Ladakh.
Dolma Tsering
Dolma Tsering - Ladakh
An elder, grandmother and outspoken community leader, Dolma has been a voice for women, traditional organic agriculture and cultural survival in Ladakh for many decades. She was a founding member of the Women’s Alliance of Ladakh, and her critique of the Western consumer culture was featured in the 2004 documentary ‘Paradise with Side Effects’.
Morag Gamble
Morag Gamble, Australia
Morag is a global permaculture, urban agriculture and ecovillage ambassador, speaker, educator, mentor, and trust-based philanthropist. Since volunteering with Helena Norberg-Hodge in Ladakh in 1992/95, she has championed local community and food programs in 22 countries. She is Founder of the Permaculture Education Institute, curates a blog and practical YouTube channel - Our Permaculture Life and hosts theSense-Making in a Changing World Podcast. Morag also leads the permaculture youth charityEthos Foundation.
Jonathan Rose
Jonathan F.P. Rose - US
Jonathan's business, public policy, teaching, research, writing and not-for-profit work focuses on creating more environmentally, socially and economically resilient cities. He advises the Government of Bhutan on urban and environmental issues. He and his wife Diana Calthorpe Rose are the co-founders of the Garrison Institute. They first met Helena in Ladakh in 1984!
Aubrey Yee
Aubrey Yee - Hawaii
Aubrey is a futurist, facilitator, writer and systems-thinker in service to the emerging, beloved futures. She is the mother to two young world changing souls and friend to all who love the earth. Her work builds on visions of life-centric futures and collective liberation. Aubrey received her PhD in Alternative Futures/Indigenous Politics. She is the founder of Our Beloved Future, catalyzing imaginaries of just, thriving futures. She was Network Weaver for Omidyar Fellows program from 2014-2021. She currently stewards the Rhizome Fellowship with narrative change methods pioneered at Culture Hack Labs and is the Steward of Living Systems for Project Biome.
Matthew Brown
Matthew Brown - UK
Councillor Matthew is Leader of Preston City Council in the north of England, where he has been widely credited as the driving force behind the ‘Preston model’, an economic strategy at the city and county level that presents a comprehensive, interlinked approach to community wealth building as a practical and transformative alternative to austerity and disinvestment. First elected to represent the Tulketh ward in 2002, Councillor Matthew Brown subsequently took on portfolios that included community engagement and inclusion, social justice and policy initiatives, leading to his election in 2018 as Council Leader, and to a position as an advisor to the Labour Party’s Community Wealth Building Unit.
Alice Freitas
Alice Freitas - Brazil
Mother, social entrepreneur and specialist in female economic empowerment, Alice is the co-founder of Rede Asta, a social organisation that has been empowering nano entrepreneurs (specifically those from the handmade product and food segments). Over the last 18 years more than 11,000 women have already been supported in 220 municipalities in Brazil, having generated more than U$ 4 million in income directly for the women. Rede Asta has received recognition from several awards and is now partnering with Totally Locally to test their buy local campaigns Nova Friburgo, where Asta will open its first 100% local market shop in September.
Jurgis Didžiulis
Jurgis Didžiulis - Colombia/Lithuania
Jurgis (Jurgis DID) is a Colombian-Lithuanian with an uncanny talent for bringing people together through the magic of musical co-creation. Also, as a speaker, activist, and entrepreneur, he has navigated the intersection of music and social transformation for 20 years with a focus on upgrading culture (beliefs and behaviors) through culture (creative expression). He has built a career helping companies tackle human and cultural issues through participative music and is currently designing creative containers for the regenerative movement.
Ana Cecilia Dinerstein
Ana Cecilia Dinerstein - UK
Professor of Political Sociology and Critical Theory, University of Bath, UK, Ana is a member of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives, founder of the Standing Seminar in Critical Theory and the Decolonising Knowledge Research Hub (Bath). Her concept 'the art of organising hope', deployed by academic, artistic, and activist communities, draws connections between contemporary struggles and the philosophy of hope. Her publications include The Politics of Autonomy in Latin America: The Art of Organising Hope (2015); Women Theorising without Parachutes (ed. 2016); Against a closing world (co-ed.); A World Beyond Work?, (co-authored 2021)..
Priya Joshi
Priya Joshi - India
Priya is the co-founder of Foodwize, whose vision is to ‘unlock the power of food wisdom’. foodwize works together with the interconnected ecosystem of growers, producers and consumers, to equip all people to build a deeper connection with food and ultimately, strengthen local food growing communities. foodwize supports organisations on the supply side of the food system with transformation and capacity development and on the demand side, learning experiences for urban consumers.
Jason Nardi
Jason Nardi - Italy
Jason is the European coordinator of RIPESS - the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy, president of RIES (Italian Solidarity Economy Network) and co-founder of Solidarius Italia. Jason is an active member of the International Council of the World Social Forum and promoter of the World Social Forum on Transformative Economies. He has a background in communication and media (Princeton University and the University of Florence). Jason currently lives in Florence, where he promotes Community Supported Agriculture projects, mutualism and the Forum Firenze Beni Comuni (Florence Forum of the Commons).
Margarita B. Lujambio
Margarita Barcena Lujambio -Ethiopia
Margarita is a politologist focused on praxis with the passion and skill for understanding food as a vector for liberation and the synergies needed in between. As a bridge builder with program experience in grassroots and international organizations, she serves as Development Strategist at ‘A Growing Culture’. This organization works towards a future of food sovereignty through storytelling that confronts root causes of injustice in our food systems and centers the communities, thereby seeding radical hope for a just and dignified future for all.
Dicte Frost
Dicte Frost - Denmark
Dicte is an ecovillage organiser, advocate and researcher. Working for the European Ecovillage Network (GEN Europe) as the manager of the annual European Ecovillage Gathering, she is passionate about creating transformative spaces. Dicte has been organising diverse projects from ecovillage incubation programmes to emergency interventions in Ukraine. While being part time based in the ecovillage of Findhorn in Scotland and part time in a van, she is co-founding the upcoming ecovillage 'Earthbound' in Denmark.
Christian Jochnick
Christian Jochnick - Sweden
Christian started his career in a Stockholm based NGO, Fryshuset, which operates social projects targeting urban youth from 13-19yrs. After experiencing the challenges around finance in the philanthropic world, he decided to go back to university to get an MSc from the London School of Economics. He then worked as an analyst in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs before becoming an entrepreneur and venture investor. In Christian’s main project today, Juntos Farm, he is using his experience from both the non- and for-profit worlds to support the transition towards a small scale, diversified, organic and regenerative food system.
Patricia P. Vanegas
Patricia Patterson-Vanegas - UK
Patricia’s personal quest incorporates political reform, localisation, environmental protection, social justice, gender equity, inner personal growth and emotional maturity. She serves as a district councillor for Forest Row (Sussex, UK) and co-creator of Frocal (Forest Row Localisation), which drove the successful takeover of the parish council to awaken local democracy. As a director of a number of community companies, she works to help build a world that is ecologically respectful, compassionate and joyful. Patricia is convinced that the way forward is to focus on community resilience through local action. As the tendency to globalise and destroy continues, the more we need to look inside ourselves.
Franco Augusto
Franco Augusto - Argentina
Social activist, unprofessionalised intellectual, co-creator of many open collaborative projects and documentor of alternatives around the planet, Franco has been collaborating with processes of social transformation for more than 20 years now. He is member of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives, leads the research-action Acervus Project and is involved in various thematic networks, such as REEVO, the largest alternative education network of Latin America, the Ecoversities Alliance and the Enlivened Cooperative. Franco is also one of the PostGrowth Institute Fellows.
Kate Taylor-Smith
Kate Taylor-Smith - UK
A strong advocate for community resilience through connection and fun. Kate has worked actively in and around the business of community for over 20+ years. Co-founded 3 community businesses in her village, working consistently on bringing more services and connections into the place where she lives with a mind to sustainability, the ecosystems both bio and human and empowering people to become involved. Bringing jobs to the village, offering meaningful intergenerational volunteering, where building a sustainable and economically viable community is priority, and democracy at the heart.
Carla Denyer
Carla Denyer - UK
Carla is co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. She has been a Bristol City Councillor since 2015, forming a critical part of the largest Green councillor group in the UK. In 2018 Carla proposed the first Climate Emergency declaration in Europe, committing Bristol to go carbon neutral by 2030 and starting a wave of similar declarations from councils and other organisations across the UK. Carla is the Green Party's candidate for Bristol Central in the next General Election. Carla is an engineer, previously working in the renewable energy industry with offshore and onshore wind energy.
Barny Haughton
Barny Haughton - UK
He is Founding Director at Square Food Foundation. Square Food Foundation is Bristol’s community cookery school and the 2018 and 2019 winner of the Crumbs Award for best Cookery School. Barny is widely regarded as an advocate for food education and has taught adults and children to cook for over 25 years. In 2021, he was awarded an MBE for Services to the Community for Square Food Foundation’s emergency response during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also received the Glenfiddich Award in 2011, a Bristol Good Food Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014 and was named Food Hero by the BBC Radio 4 Food & Farming Awards in 2016. Over the last 25 years, Barny has run three award-winning restaurants in Bristol (Rocinantes, Quartier Vert and Bordeaux Quay).
Amy Robinson
Amy Robinson - UK
Amy's environmental career includes Sustainability Manager at Bordeaux Quay, an internationally recognised 'eco-restaurant', Network Director for Low Carbon South West CIC and co-creator of the Go Green sustainable business programme, part of Bristol's programme as European Green Capital 2015. In her current role at Triodos Bank UK, her focus is on affecting positive change within the banking. Recognising the pivotal role that finance has to play in creating a just and nature positive transition, she works across the financial and wider environmental sector to raise awareness and create a more responsible and impactful finance industry.
Gloria Germani
Gloria Germani - Italy
Gloria is a ecophilosopher with a background in Western philosophy and Eastern philosophy. Gloria has traveled extensively in Asia and has worked in the media field for 30 years. Her works are devoted to the critique of the modern vision to clarify a taboo subject: the colonization of the imaginary that underlie so-called "development." Her last book is Truth of Degrowth: Away from Totalitarian Science to Save the World (Rome, 2021).
Nils Agger
Nils Agger - UK
Nils Agger have been working wth social movement organisations since the age of 17, and co-founded Extinction Rebellion in 2018. He trained in organic agriculture and horticulture in Stroud and currently works as Volunteer Coordinator at the Peoples Republic of Stokes Croft in Bristol.
Monika Krol
Monika Krol - UK
Monika has been an organic grower for more than ten years. She trained in Sustainable Horticulture and Permaculture at Schumacher College, where she was then the Assistant Grower, before setting up the Market Garden at Landworks in 2016.. Landworks is an award-winning independent charity providing a supported route back into employment and the community for people in prison or at risk of going to prison. Monika is passionate about inspiring others to be as enthusiastic about growing as she is, and loves the feelings of wellbeing and connectedness that engaging with nature, and working together as a community provides.
Jon Goodman
Jon Goodman - UK
Jon is the Head Grower at Five Acre Farm just outside Bristol, supplying acroecologically-grown produce to the Tobacco Factory and other local businesses. He has over 10 years’ experience working as an organic vegetable grower, including previously running his own market garden business. His particular interests include no-dig growing systems and developing access to growing land for people with the skills and determination to build flourishing local food networks.
Kim Brooks
Kim Brooks - UK
After starting her career as a financial auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Kim was inspired by a local organic veg box to transition to food and farming. She was further propelled by the knowledge and passion shared by organic farmers whilst WWOOFING in Australia. Following her return to the UK, Kim pursued an MSc in Sustainable Agriculture. It was during these studies that she started volunteering at The Community Farm, a Community Supported Agriculture project in Chew Magna. She became bookkeeper in January 2018, Managing Director August 2020 and is currently on maternity leave with her first daughter.
Ruth Potts
Ruth Potts - UK
Ruth is a researcher, facilitator, artist and activist focused on broadening the perception of the possible through a range of interventions designed to catalyse real-world transformation that advances climate justice. Ruth is project lead of Equilibrium at Radical Ecology and head of regenerative economics at Schumacher College, Devon. She led work on the Green New Deal in the office of Caroline Lucas MP from 2019 -2022. She was a member of the Cambridge Commission on Scaling Sustainable Behaviour Change and is a founding member of the secretariat for the Global Alliance for a Green New Deal.
George Thompson
George Thompson - UK
George is a filmmaker, tai chi teacher and communicator of Daoist philosophy: the Way of Nature. His films on YouTube have gained millions of views and 200k subscribers. Over the past 7 years he has studied in China with his Tai Chi Master, Master Gu. George shares what he has learnt in a down to earth, fun and accessible way. Practical philosophy that can help you, and help us collectively, find a more balanced way of being.
Angie Polkey
Angie Polkey - Wales
Angie is a founder member of Lampeter Resilience Hub, with a background in ecology and permaculture. She moved to Wales in 1997 after working for national conservation organisations and is now a facilitator and advisor for land-based & community projects, with a strong emphasis on systems thinking.
Fiona Carnie
Fiona Carnie -UK
Described as "one of the world's most progressive thinkers and doers in the field of learning from key disciplines that focus on well-being", Fiona's work has focused on developing the voice and participation of children, teachers and parents to create equitable, ethical and sustainable schools - in the UK and further afield. She has written and spoken widely about educational transformation rooted in the wellbeing of people and planet. Her books include Rebuilding our Schools from the Bottom Up (Routledge 2018) and Alternative Approaches to Education (Routledge 2017). She is currently Project Lead for the Bristol Education Partnership.
Heloise Balme
Heloise Balme - UK
Heloise has been involved in sustainable food since 2018. After completing her MSc in Sustainable Development at UWE, she worked for The Community Farm in Somerset before joining Bristol Food Network in 2021. As well as being a director at BFN, she is also General Manager, running the organisation day-to-day. Prior to working in sustainability, she spent 16 years in commercial and strategic roles in international tourism.
Chris Sunderland
Chris Sunderland - UK
One of the founders of the Bristol Pound and Sims Hill Shared Harvest, Chris now lives in Emersons Green, where he is pursuing a hyperlocal approach to the environmental crisis, including the establishment of a community nature reserve that includes private gardens and an annual festival known as Earthfest. This initiative is designed to reach deep into the mainstream of people in a local area and inspire respect for the Earth. Chris is also the author of the ebook Imagination is the key – to unlock the environmental crisis.
Srijata Sengupta
Srijata Sengupta - India
Srijata is the co-founder of foodwize, whose vision is to ‘unlock the power of food wisdom’. foodwize works together with the interconnected ecosystem of producers and consumers, to equip all people to build a deeper connection with food and ultimately, strengthen local food growing communities.
Srijata is an expert in transformation, strategy and development. She has spent 25 years building and growing strong organisations. She is accomplished at bringing innovation in systems and in creating experiences which are humane, inclusive and personalised. Srijata is passionate about people and communities and is an advocate for equality and responsible business.
Justin Hyatt
Justin Hyatt - Spain
Justin is a consultant, trainer and urban mobility expert. His passion is for helping cities grow in more sustainable ways; in particular for reshaping transportation policy and practice as well as developing strategic planning tools for change. Further topics of interest relate to civic journalism, citizen participation, community action and placemaking. Having lived in ten countries, Justin strongly believes in the international perspective, in cooperation over competition and in inclusive and holistic approaches. Justin currently lives in Valencia, Spain.
Alicia Miller
Alicia Miller - Wales/ US
Alicia Miller works as a freelance writer and is Content Editor for the Sustainable Food Trust. She uses her understanding of sustainable food from the hands-on perspective of growing food on a small organic horticulture farm in West Wales, Troed y Rhiw Organics, which she runs with her husband Nathan Richards. She is one of the organisers of the Wales Real Food and Farming Conference. Born in the US, she is a long way from home but loves her life in West Wales. Alicia graduated with distinction from Stanford University and also has an MA in the History of Photography from the University of New Mexico. Before finding herself a small scale farmer, she worked for many years in the contemporary visual arts as a curator, gallery educator and art critic.
Laura Corfield
Laura Corfield - UK
Since 2004 Laura has volunteered with a host of community engagement and sustainability groups; including co-founding Transition Keynsham, Frack Free Somerset and participating in Climate Action camps and demonstrations. In 2010 she co-founded Shift Bristol with Sarah Pugh and went on to project manage the Practical Sustainability Course, until starting her family and moving to Frome in 2013. In 2020 Laura returned to Shift Bristol to help navigate the changing goal posts of the Coronavirus pandemic. In 2022 she bittersweetly took up the gauntlet from Sarah Pugh as Creative Director of Shift Bristol.
Ryuhei Kawada
Ryuhei Kawada - Japan
Kawada has been elected to three terms over 16 years as a member of the House of Councillors. Diagnosed with haemophilia at the age of 6 months and infected with HIV through imported blood products, he became the first successful plaintiff in Japan in an HIV lawsuit against the government and pharmaceutical companies to disclose his real name. Kawada later became a member of the House of Councillors under the slogan "Protect Life". He is currently working for the passage of the Local Food Bill, which aims to create a "recycling-oriented food system based on local seeds and organic school lunches".
Eva Henje
Eva Henje - Sweden
Eva has been engaged in mental health activism and education linking the meta-crisis and the globalized economy to the increasing rates of depression especially in teenagers and young adults. She has created the Training Awareness Resilience and Action Program (TARA) to empower and destigmatize young people with psychological suffering for an increased engagement in their future. She has also worked with the Power Threat and Meaning Framework as an alternative to the current psychiatric diagnostic systems. Eva is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, trauma therapist, neuroscientist and associate professor at Umeå university in Sweden.
Pete Russell
Pete Russell - UK
Pete is the founder of Ooooby (Out of our own back yards), an online platform for small farms and local food producers to sell and deliver direct to homes. Ooooby’s mission is to put ‘small-scale’ back at the heart of our food systems. More than 70 UK farms and food hubs are now using Ooooby every week to deliver local food to over 27,000 local households.
Lily Farmer
Lily Farmer - UK
Lily works with the MAZI project, a Bristol youth-led charity empowering disadvantaged 16-25-year-olds through food, with a focus on rethinking our food systems to unlock a better future for people and the planet alike. Lily uses her voice to speak up and address food insecurity in our communities and the right to nutritional food. She believes that healthy food cultures have the power to elevate people emotionally and physically and that eating local produce is the most empowering and active way of creating change towards a more equal and sustainable food future.
Phil Haughton
Phil Haughton - UK
Phil founded the award-winning Better Food Company in 1992. He has been living, working and breathing organic food from the age of 14 when he first became a member of the Soil Association. He started his career in 1974 farming organically in a community in Scotland before moving to Bristol in 1981 and working at Windmill Hill City Farm for several years, where he worked with kids and adults teaching them about food and farming. Phil along with several others founded The Community Farm. It’s a project to enable people from all walks of life to connect with where their food comes from and the importance of organic farming in protecting our wild life habitats. Phil has moved from being MD of Better Food to founder and less hands on, leaving room to offer support and mentoring to others in the field of food, community and business.