Hayley Covarrubias & Michael Coppola

Hayley is a certified Permaculture Designer, a sustainability and food systems academic and educator, land activist, and lover of plant medicines. She has facilitated educational spaces and conversations centered around these topics for multiple years, at music festivals up and down California, permaculture convergences, social justice conferences, and in urban farms around the Bay Area.

Michael has a B.A. in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Global Food Systems from UC Santa Barbara. He has worked for multiple years with companies prioritizing ethical and conscious food. From sustainable fisheries, to navigating the ins and outs of American partnerships with worker cooperatives in the global south, Michael has seen many sides of the global ethical food system. With additional interests and studies in eco-psychology, Michael is also passionate about mending the the disconnect between the human and the non-human through evaluating parallels in the structure of the inner and outer worlds.

Workshops & Presentations

  • Participating in an Ethical Food System - Understanding GMO's

    75 min | Altar of Earth

    We plan to dissect a food label that has transformed the American grocery shopping experience in the last five years: “Non-GMO Project Verified”. The end-goal of this workshop is for the participants to feel educated and empowered surrounding the subject of GMO’s, and leave with a deeper understanding of what goes into being a conscious consumer in the global food system. To do this we will discuss:

    1. How GMO foods actually are actually classified within the Non-GMO Project , and where GMO’s are most commonly found in your diet.

    2. The ethics and social impact of GMO’s in the global food system, specifically addressing the business and government structures surrounding the GMO industry and their impact on farmers and economies around the world.

    3. And finally, we will analyze the importance of verification and the role and place of GMO’s (or the lack thereof), in your local or global food system.

  • DIY Salve Making with Medicine Plants

    60 min | Altar of Earth

    Salves are oil and beeswax based skin rubs that are a gentle yet very effective way to administer the healing properties of plants, such as for relieving muscle soreness, soothing skin ailments such as eczema and rashes, and even for elevating mood, the list goes on! We will run through the process of utilizing dried medicinal herbs to make powerful healing salves. Our process includes everything from how to dry your medicine plants, to how to process them for salve-making, to the medicinal oil infusion, to the final oil + beeswax recipe for your salve. We plan to demonstrate every step (bringing some things such as the infused oil, which typically requires 1-3 hours to make, premade) with the workshop attendees so everyone leaves feeling comfortable with the process and ready to start making salves at home!

  • "But it’s Sustainable!" : Deconstructing the sustainability buzzword.

    60 min | Altar of Earth

    Sustainability, green design, eco-friendly...all these catchy terms are densely populating the conversations in contemporary public society, yet what does it actually mean for something to be truly “sustainable”? In this workshop we will discuss how we as consumers and members of conscious public society can deconstruct the buzzword to understand which of our actions and purchases do have a positive effect on the environment, and which are just fallacies. We will also delve into a new term: “regenerative”, and challenge the idea of sustainability as a whole. We hope to empower people with a new depth of understanding around these important concepts of sustainability/regeneration/conscious consumption. We will also co-create with attendees a list of substantial actions that we believe are ways to truly act with environmental consciousness and social awareness.

Festival Locations:

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