12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Food is being delivered from farther and farther away as the global distribution system delivers tomatoes from Holland and cantaloupe from Chile. Agricultural chemicals banned in North America are nevertheless showing up on our dinner plates. Rising oil prices are perpetually raising the price of our long-distance, imported diet.

Steve Meyerowitz, “Sproutman®” is a health crusader whose passion is to return to the concept, practiced for hundreds of years, in which most families grew their own food. The only transportation involved in this approach is the one from the garden to the dinner table. But what if there is two feet of snow outside your door! Meyerowitz’ solution: “Kitchen Gardening.” —A no-soil approach using baby greens and micro-greens. Because they concentrate nutrition at this early stage, he calls them “The World’s Healthiest Vegetables”.

Sproutman will demonstrate how you can grow your own victory garden of fresh organic foods and become more independent of the commercial food network. It’s easy. It’s delicious. It’s healthy. Kids love it and you can literally watch your food grow. His motto is “One week from seed to salad®.” Find out how to grow these amazing living foods and how they can add energy to your days, and years to your life.

Steve Meyerowitz is the best selling author of titles such as The Kitchen Garden Cookbook, Sprouts the Miracle Food, The Organic Food Guide, Wheatgrass Nature’s Finest Medicine, Power Juices Super Drinks, and other books.

Steve Meyerowitz was christened “Sproutman” in the 1970s in a feature article in Vegetarian Times because his New York City apartment was always filled with gardens of mini-vegetables. They were part of his lifetime fight against chronic allergies and asthma. After 20 years of disappointment with orthodox medicine, he became symptom-free through his use of diet, juices, and fasting. In 1980, he founded “The Sprout House”, a “no-cooking” school in New York City teaching the benefits of a living foods diet.

Steve is a health crusader and author of 10 books including Power Juices Super Drinks, Wheatgrass Nature’s Finest Medicine, Juice Fasting and Detoxification, and Food Combining and Digestion. His most recent book is “The Organic Food Guide: How to Shop Smarter and Eat Healthier.” He has been featured on PBS, the Home Shopping Network, TV Food Network, and in Better Nutrition, Prevention, Organic Gardening and Flower & Garden Magazines. His sprouting inventions, such as the “Hemp Sprout Bag” are sold nationwide. You can visit him at Sproutman.com.

Back to Speakers Page

10:10 am – 11:10 am

Jenny Brown is a longtime animal advocate and Co-Founder & Director of Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary in Woodstock, NY–a non-profit farmed animal shelter and advocacy organization located in the Catskill Mountains of New York. She previously worked in film and television until when she went undercover in Texas to film farmed animal abuse. That experience led her to dedicate her life to helping farm animals and raising awareness of their plight. Jenny’s story and the work of her sanctuary has been featured in the New York Times, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine, New York Magazine, HLN’s Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell, NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show and more. Her new book The Lucky Ones: My Passionate Fight For Farm Animals (Avery/Penguin Group) was just awarded Book of the Year in the 2012 VegNews Awards. You can read more about her and the sanctuary www.WoodstockSanctuary.org.

Back to Speakers Page

1:40 pm – 2:40 pm

A founding member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Michael Greger, MD, is a physician, author, and internationally recognized speaker on nutrition, food safety, and public health issues. He has lectured at the Conference on World Affairs, testified before Congress, and was invited as an expert witness in the defense of Oprah Winfrey in the infamous “meat defamation” trial. He is a graduate of Cornell University School of Agriculture and Tufts University School of Medicine. Currently Dr. Greger serves as the Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at The Humane Society of the United States. Hundreds of his nutrition videos are freely available at NutritionFacts.org, with a new video uploaded every day. http://nutritionfacts.org

Back to Speakers Page

11:20 am – 12:20 pm

Mary Clifton, MD practices internal medicine in Northern Michigan where she teaches her patients about the importance of following a plant-based diet. Dr. Clifton is a Health Educator at Greenspire Schools, Nutrition Consultant for Cancer Survivor’s Group, and currently conducting a funded study that is researching the effects of plant-based diets on arthritis and fibromyalgia. Dr. Clifton is an Academic Advisor at Nutrition Elective MSU-CHM, where she lectures to the CHM-COM students on nutrition, and organizes the lecturers responsible for nutrition education at medical colleges. She is a graduate of Michigan State University.

The subject of her talk will be how a plant-based diet will help your weight, osteoporosis and sexuality. It will include tips on how to easily transform your diet. Dr. Mary Clifton is co-author of Waist Away and health blogger at DrMaryMD.com. You will leave with several simple tips that will get your meat-eating habit under your thumb in no time.

Back to Speakers Page

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

Peter Young has been an animal rights activist for over 15 years. He was the first person charged with Animal Enterprise Terrorism after carrying out Animal Liberation Front actions which saw the release of thousands of mink from midwest fur farms in 1990s. After 7 years as a fugitive, Young served 2 years in federal prison. Since his release, Young remains active in the fight for animal liberation as an activist, speaker, and spokesperson for those who work outside the law to save animals.

Back to Speakers Page

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Taught nutrition at the college and university level since 1980 having served as a faculty member at Florida State University, Broward Community College and Miami-Dade Community College At the latter institution he created the nation’s first credit program in Vegetarian Studies. He is the founder of VEGEDINE, the Association of Vegetarian Dietitians and Nutrition Educators, the forerunner of the Vegetarian Nutrition Practice Group of the American Dietetic Association. He has worked at Miami Children’s Hospital, Wesley Woods Nursing Home in Atlanta, and several public health agencies in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. Lectures at national and international nutrition conferences, and has written articles for the Journal of Nutrition Education, and Vegetarian Times. Now teaches the VEGEDINE Correspondence Course in Vegetarian and Vegan Nutrition, and textbook author for the course. Author of The Most Noble Diet, now in fourth edition. He is the Nutrition Director of the Coalition for Cancer Prevention through Plant-Based Eating, and authored the book Don’t Let Your Diet Add to your Cancer Risk. www.coalitionforcancerprevention.org

Back to Speakers Page

2:50 pm – 3:50 pm

Use a plant-based whole food diet to fuel a better body for better health.
Learn how to eat to fuel your athletic interests, how to lose weight, gain muscle, lower stress and prevent injuries. Champion vegan bodybuilder and best-selling author Robert Cheeke shares the most important lessons to be learned in the process of building a better, healthier body. Author of the book *Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness – The Complete Guide to Building Your Body on a Plant-Based Diet.* As a two-time natural bodybuilding champion Robert has been considered one of VegNews Magazine’s Most Influential Vegan Athletes. He tours North America giving talks about his story transforming from a skinny farm kid to champion bodybuilder. Currently Robert works full-time for Vega, a line of vegan whole-food products, as a representative of the new pro-vegan film Forks Over Knives and runs Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness. Robert recently moved to Austin and continues to spread the vegan way of life leading by example as an accomplished vegan athlete. To learn more about Robert go to www.veganbodybuildingbook.com and http://www.robertcheeke.com

Back to Speakers Page

12:45pm to 1:00pm
at the Veggie Runway

Kelly Serbonich has an A.A.S. in Culinary Arts, a B.S. in Culinary Nutrition and a M.S. in Holistic Nutrition. She was the Executive Chef of the Hippocrates Health Institute and co-authored their raw food preparation manual,* Healthful Cuisine*. Kelly is also the contributor for 5 Permacharts on the raw food lifestyle and the website www.eatingfoodraw.com. She currently cooks for the Moosewood Restaurant and is mother to a 5 1/2 year old son, Noah.

Back to Speakers Page

4:30pm – 5:30pm
Presentation Room B

Melanie Joy, Ph.D., Ed.M. *is the author of the acclaimed *Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism*. Dr. Joy is a Harvard-educated psychologist, personal/relationship coach, professor of psychology and sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and celebrated speaker. Dr. Joy has written a number of articles on psychology, animal protection, and social justice, which have been published in a variety of journals and magazines. Dr. Joy is the leading researcher on * carnism*, the psychology of eating meat, and she has been interviewed for numerous magazines, books, and radio on her work, including the BBC, NPR, PBS, and ABC Australia. She has presented her work at national and international academic and grassroots conferences. Dr. Joy is also the author of Strategic Action for Animals.

Back to Speakers Page

10:15am – 11:00am
at the Veggie Runway

Please join Amie Hamlin, Executive Director of the New York Coalition for Healthy School Food, center stage. She will be welcoming attendees to our expo and provide enlightening information about healthy foods in our schools.

Amie Hamlin has been the Executive Director of the New York Coalition for Healthy School Food since its founding in 2004. Previously she was the director of a non-profit environmental organization on Long Island and director of a tobacco-control program in Binghamton, NY. In her current position, she works to promote healthy food in schools across New York State. Amie is also the founder of Club Veg: Vegetarian Education Group based in Binghamton and Ithaca, NY. Amie founded Club Veg in 1995.

Back to Speakers Page

Presentation Room A
3:00pm – 4:00pm

After college, marriage, and two years in the Peace Corps in Ghana, West Africa, David went to graduate school at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in physics earning a Ph.D. Since 1974, when gas was hard to come by, David has researched, lived and taught solar energy–the only sustainable energy resource for life on this planet. Since 1982 he and his family have lived in a solar house that gets 85% of its energy from the sun, and they generate 30% more electricity than they use which they sell back to the grid. Besides vegetable gardening, they grow some berries and fruit and nut trees. David’s work with old and new buildings has demonstrated how homeowners can become carbon-neutral and energy-positive, living better with sunshine. David teaches “Solar Devices and Energy” at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY and consults on solar energy buildings, boats, and projects.

Back to Speakers Page

2:30pm – 3:30pm
Presentation Room B

Tim VanOrden, creator of the Running Raw Project, is a raw vegan athlete with an international reputation for excelling in some of the world’s most grueling sports. Tim is a 3 time U.S. Trail Running Champion, the 2010 U.S.A Masters Mountain Runner of the Year and he finished 4th (top US finisher) in the 2011 stair climbing world championships up the Empire State Building. He has been featured in GQ, The Wall Street Journal, VegNews, The London Guardian and the Food Network show “My Life in Food”. Over the past 5 years, Tim has transformed himself from a sedentary couch potato suffering from severe depression and chronic fatigue syndrome into one of the world’s fittest men over forty. He did this by adopting a simple, plant-based diet. Tim is a sought after coach and presenter in the fields of diet, health, and athletic performance. He has lectured extensively in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Back to Speakers Page

Presentation Room A
2:00pm – 2:30pm
Q & A 2:30pm – 3:00pm

Ann Crile Esselstyn graduated from Smith College and received a Masters in Education from Wheelock College. She taught English and some history for 27 years. Through the years she juggled 4 chlldren, teaching, and figuring out plant-based, oil free ways to cook. She stopped teaching in 2000 and focused on creating the recipes to prevent and reverse heart disease.

Back to Speakers Page

Presentation Room A
1:00pm – 2:00pm
Q & A 2:30pm – 3:00pm

A retired Cleveland Clinic surgeon, Dr. Essselstyn conducted a twenty year study of coronary artery disease using diet and lifestyle modification. In 1991 he organized the first national conference on the elimination of coronary artery disease. He also chaired a follow up conference, the Summit on Cholesterol and Coronary Disease. In April 2005 he became the first recipient of the Benjamin Spock Award for compassion in medicine. His newly released book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease relates to results of his 20 year study on curing heart disease with diet.

Back to Speakers Page

Presenation Room A
4:00pm – 5:00pm

A character in the documentary Peaceable Kingdom, The Journey Home, spent over half of his life in agriculture. Growing up on a beef farm in Michigan and later working in the dairy industry Harold has been involved in the behind the scenes operations of food production that uses animals. Today Harold is an activist advocating for sustainable food production, social and environmental justice, animal rights and peace through non-violence. He is the founder of Farm Kind and currently tours the US. http://www.farmkind.org

Back to Speakers Page