Speaking at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, following an Olin Arts Center screening of the documentary Food, Inc., Gary Hirshberg P’13 is president and “CE-Yo” of Stonyfield Farm, the world’s leading organic yogurt producer.

Hirshberg is the husband of freelance writer Meg Hirshberg and the father of three yogurt eaters, including Bates junior Ethan Hirshberg. Gary Hirshberg is the author of Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World (Hyperion Books, 2008) and a frequent speaker on topics including sustainability, climate change, the profitability of green and socially responsible business, organic agriculture and sustainable economic development.

Offering remarks at the dedication of Hedge and Roger Williams halls at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, Paul Marks ’83 was the first student to study Chinese at Bates. He is chairman and CEO of the aerospace materials maker Argosy International Inc.

Founded in 1988 and headquartered in New York City, Argosy is a leading global supplier and manufacturer of aerospace composite materials, supporting such major aerospace companies as Boeing, Sikorsky and Airbus.

Also on Thursday, George Mitchell offers the Bates Unbounded: Open to the World keynote address at 5:30 p.m.in the Chapel. Mitchell, who served as U.S. special envoy for Middle East peace from January 2009 to May 2011, is one of the most accomplished politicians and diplomats that Maine has produced in recent decades. In 2008 Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential persons in the world.

Mitchell received an undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College and a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. He served as U.S. attorney for Maine from 1977 until 1979, and U.S. district judge for Maine in 1979 and 1980.

He was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 1980 to complete the unexpired term of Sen. Edmund S. Muskie (a member of the Bates class of 1936), who resigned to become secretary of state. Mitchell was elected to a full term in the Senate in 1982 in a stunning come-from-behind victory.

Mitchell left the Senate in 1995 as majority leader after an illustrious career in that body. He led the successful 1990 reauthorization of the Clean Air Act, including new controls on acid rain toxins, and wrote the first national oil spill prevention and clean-up law. He was a key player in legislation including the nation’s first child care bill, the low-income housing tax credit program and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

From 1996 to 2000 Mitchell served as the independent chairman of the Northern Ireland Peace Talks. Under his leadership the Good Friday Agreement, a historic accord ending decades of conflict, was agreed to by the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom and the political parties of Northern Ireland.

Mitchell has published four books, including Making Peace (Knopf, 1999), an account of his experience in Northern Ireland.

The screening begins at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, in Olin Arts Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. The film is 90 minutes long.

Hirshberg appears in the film, which scrutinizes the food we eat and how it is produced. He’ll be joined in the Bates event by college Dining Services Director Christine Schwartz. The event is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-6476.

Produced and directed by Robert Kenner, Food, Inc. aims to reveal the inside story of American food, the corporations that often place greater value on profit than consumer health, and the regulatory agencies, like the USDA and FDA, that oversee the industry.

Called “an essential, indelible documentary” by Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers, Food, Inc. features interviews with such respected experts as Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, and Omnivore’s Dilemma author Michael Pollan. Food-industry figures striving to change the status quo, like Polyface Farms’ Joel Salatin and Stonyfield’s Hirshberg, are featured describing their efforts to improve the quality of the food Americans consume.

Now chairman, president and “CE-Yo” of Stonyfield, Hirshberg came to the organization in 1983 as director of the Rural Education Center, the small organic farming school (with only seven cows) that spawned the yogurt operation. A renowned speaker on topics such as sustainability, organic agriculture and socially responsible business practices, Hirschberg is author of the 2008 book Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World (Hyperion).

The Londonderry, N.H.-based Stonyfield joined forces with Groupe Danone in 2001 to create Stonyfield Europe, of which Hirschberg was named managing director in 2005. Today, Stonyfield Farm makes an estimated $320 million in annual sales while always keeping its social and environmental missions square in its sights.

Hirshberg, who has overseen Stoneyfield Farm Inc.’s growth from infancy in 1983 to current annual sales of $60 million, has espoused corporate responsibility, sustainable agriculture and what he calls “healthy profits” during his successful tenure. He is the founding chairman of Eartha’s, a natural fast-foods enterprise, and founder of the Social Venture Institute, a “boot camp” for socially minded entrepreneurs. The President’s Council on Sustainable Development and the national nonprofit group Renew America awarded Hirshberg and Stoneyfield Farm Inc. two of the nation’s top environmental honors, the National Award for Sustainability in the category of climate change and the Robert Rodale Environmental Achievement Award.

“I like to make the case that doing good in and with your company can be the most empowering and financially successful strategy you could implement,” Hirshberg said. “It is the companies who do the most good, both internally and externally, who will be the commercial leaders of the 21st century.”