<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small">Good morning! I have no RSVP's from my earlier email, so perhaps there was a problem with the way the invite was sent via our calendar this week. HEre is the information from our calendar:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(245,245,245);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">Soon to be Newest Mendocino Rotarian Matt Drewno will be our guest speaker. Matt is the manager of the<span> </span> Victory Gardens for Peace (VGFP) program at the Stanford Inn. They are a project of Ecology Action, a 501(c)3 non-profit run by John Jeavons, author of How to Grow More Vegetables, in Willits. From Matt:</span><br style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(245,245,245);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><span style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(245,245,245);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline"> "We have several research, education and demonstration gardens in Mendocino County and with partners around the world -one of which is located at the Stanford Inn by the Sea in Mendocino. Here, we train individuals in the Biointensive Method of Food Production- a method that can produce 2-6x the yield using 1/3rd the water resource, 99% less energy,50-100% less purchased fertilizer and builds soil 60x faster than in Nature. We approach agriculture scientifically, but our method is designed to be universally applicable and easy to utilize- it is based on a "best practices approach" to agriculture and the result of studying thousands of years of agricultural history to develop a small scale, non-mechanized, simple form of agriculture that almost anyone can do."</span><br style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(245,245,245);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><br style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(245,245,245);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><span style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(245,245,245);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">VGFP has an opportunity to train a strong candidate for their 2-month program this year, who has relationships with Rotary in his home country of Nicaragua. David Omar Ponce, a member of Rotary Grenada (Nicaragua) runs a small program that is growing rapidly, and his work is being integrated into a larger network of farmer-teacher-trainers who are working to help communities around Nicaragua live healthier and less reliant on a broken system which weighs heavy on their resources, lands, forests and communities. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in Latin America, next to Haiti.<span> </span></span><br style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(245,245,245);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><br style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(245,245,245);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><br style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(245,245,245);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><span style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(245,245,245);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">I don't know about you, but I want to learn more, and I am thrilled that the VGF Peace and Matt are in our midst. Please come join us, and invite a guest. Happy May Day! Beltane! It is fertility time, enjoy!</span><br></div><div><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Donna Schuler</div><div>Strategic Management Consulting</div><div>President, Mendocino Rotary Club</div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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