October, 2023
Volume 8, Issue 4

How Rotarians catalyze resilient food systems

Rotarians are working worldwide to increase crop yields and reduce food waste. Their humanitarian goal is to improve food security and mitigate climate change. This work ranges from technical assistance to advocacy. It covers the entire supply chain, from rebuilding depleted soils to making sure wholesome food reaches hungry people instead of rotting in landfills.

You’ll see how Rotarians are connecting food solutions to peacemaking, safe water, and community economic development. The leaders you’ll read about range in age from 17 to 75. They come from Africa, the Caribbean, South America, North America, and India.

In addition, you’ll find tools to help your club measure its baseline environmental impact and map a smart route towards Becoming Sustainable. We spotlight a climate-friendly club in the Virgin Islands. Yours could be next! Just click “reply” to tell us what your club is doing to set a great example in your community and District.

We’re thrilled to announce two new job openings at ESRAG. We can do this because of an anonymous donor’s generous matching challenge, which was met by ESRAG’s board and gifts to this year’s Earth Gives Day campaign. This issue explains the crucial work these new team members will do in expanding Rotarians' environmental awareness and action, and how to apply.

Finally, we write in grief over the untimely death of ESRAG Director Jorge Aufranc, a passionate environmental advocate within Rotary's top leadership team, and of Mike Cloutier, who put in countless hours teaching us and troubleshooting the IT systems on which we utterly rely.

Graphic: Rotarian Doug White’s collage of St. Thomas East Eco’s global grant project that provided solar power, battery storage, a walk-in cooler, and storm resilience for the Bordeaux Farmers' Market on St. Thomas. "WGFI" stands for We Grow Food, Inc, the non-profit organic farmer co-op that runs the market. Read more in "Farmers' Market solarizes to save food and money."

Connect with us on social media

Farming carbon to feed the world and reach net zero

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warns that rapid worldwide soil erosion endangers the food security of the world’s growing population. “If we don’t act now, over 90% of the Earth’s soils could become degraded by 2050,” they warn. “Soil erosion can decrease crop yields by up to 50 percent. In addition, crops that do grow tend to be of a lower quality: misshapen, smaller, and less nutritious.”

Restoring carbon in the form of organic humic matter is essential to restoring the fertility of depleted soils. It is also one of the most powerful climate actions we can take and can be implemented by farmers right now. Soils are the fourth largest storehouse of carbon after sedimentary rocks, fossil fuels, and oceans. The fifth is air. Together with greenhouse gas emissions, the loss of soil carbon is an existential danger to humankind.

The solution is to rebuild the soil’s fertility and capacity as a carbon sink. In this article, we’ll outline how. We recommend the creation of a Rotary Climate Change Support Group to help Rotarians promote agricultural practices that durably store carbon in soils, help farmers qualify for carbon credits, promote sound public policy, and leverage other funding for these projects.

Imagine what 1.4 million Rotarians can accomplish! We challenge your club to engage ten farms in your region to implement this solution and demonstrate its benefits. Then catalyze the partnerships to scale it up rapidly.

Graphic: impact of humic acid on nutrient retention and organic matter in sandy soils on a farm in North Carolina, USA. Daman S. Walia, PhD, "Actosol Organic Humic-Fulvic Fertilizer for Increased Crop Yields, Quality, Carbon-Rich Organic Humic Matter and Improved Soil Health," Arctech, Inc. August, 2022.

Soil is Our Common Ground

Join ESRAG on October 25 to preview a clip from the documentary "Common Ground," winner of the 2023 Human/Nature Award at the 2023 Tribeca Festival. Common Ground is the sequel to "Kiss the Ground," which touched over 1 billion people globally and inspired the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to put $20 billion toward soil health.

By fusing journalistic exposé with deeply personal stories from those on the front lines of the food movement, "Common Ground" unveils solutions to our broken food system. The film profiles a hopeful and uplifting movement of white, black, and indigenous farmers who are using regenerative models of agriculture that can balance the climate, save our health, and stabilize America’s economy.

On Oct. 25 we'll get to preview a 25-minute clip plus have the opportunity to ask questions from a member of the film’s team and Rotarian Leeanne Robinson, who is promoting many premieres through Rotary clubs in their local communities.

Register for LIVE Clips + Discussion: Wed 25 Oct, 9 am Chicago, 2 pm UTC, 7:30 pm India (Press for time zone near you.)

Register for RECORDING + Discussion: Wed 25 Oct, 6 p m Seattle, Thu 26 10 am Osaka, noon Melbourne (Press for time zone near you.)

Restoring land and livelihood in Colombia

Colombia has been suffering from internal armed conflict for more than 60 years between the state, guerrillas, and paramilitaries, aggravated by drug cartels. The fighting has been devastating for the civilian population. An estimated 220,000 people - at least 177,000 of them non-combatants - have died as a result of the conflict.

After many setbacks and difficulties, a peace agreement was signed in 2016 between the government and one of the main guerrilla groups. One of the many regions affected by the conflict is in the area surrounding the Siberia Ceibas Regional Natural Park in a state called Huila in Colombia. This story reports how Rotarians and Rotaractors are helping survivors heal the havoc of war by working together on reforestation and economic development.

Carlos Alberto Muñoz, spokesman for the project from the Neiva Las Ceibas Rotary Club, tells us how the inhabitants of this area suffered from the armed confrontation. Bombings, forced displacement, arbitrary detentions, disappearances and recruitment of children as soldiers were the reality of the rural communities in this area for more than 40 years.

He explains that the region was environmentally wracked by illegal mining and extensive cattle ranching, causing deforestation, contamination of the waters of the area's river basins and loss of biodiversity. As a strategy to begin to mitigate the damage in the region, the Siberia Ceibas Regional Natural Park reserve was created in an area of 27,104 hectares. The communities were then trapped in a reserve zone, on unproductive or small plots of land, where they are only able to make limited use of their traditional agricultural practices and can only partially meet their food needs.

The Neiva Las Ceibas Rotary and Rotaract Clubs, wanting to help reforest the degraded areas and find ways to support the economy of the villagers, visited and consulted the local community. In the midst of the incredible beauty of the Park, they found areas with great environmental damage. Non-combatants were coexisting there with former guerrilla fighters who had victimized them.

Photos of the Silberia Ceibas Regional National Park used with the permission of Corporación Autónoma del Alto Magdalena CAM

Farmers' market solarizes to save food and money

One of the major challenges to human food security is that a third of the food we raise ends up spoiling or being thrown away before anyone can eat it. The environmental impact is equally huge, generating one third of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions throughout the life cycle from field to landfill. In that context, heartfelt congratulations to the Rotary Club of St. Thomas East Eco for their global grant project (GG 2231282) to provide solar power, back-up batteries, and a walk-in cooler to a non-profit farmers’ co-op on the Caribbean Island of St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.

The Bordeaux Farmers Market, whose members are organic farmers, now operates completely off the grid! This is a huge economic boon to the producers, members of the non-profit We Grow Food, Inc. (WGFI). They previously endured the double burden of electric costs twice the US average, plus the island’s extremely fragile grid subject to frequent blackouts, which further oppress the community through the financial losses from spoiled food. With on-site solar, batteries, and the cooler, the farmers can now keep produce fresh longer, make more money, and provide more food to the community.

The project also illustrates the growing value of ESRAG as a network. All of the international Rotary Club partners found out about it from members who served on ESRAG teams: the Climate, Plant Rich Diet, and Food Waste Task Forces. Hats off to the Rotary Clubs of Ann Arbor North in Michigan, Toledo in Ohio, Boise in Idaho, and Hanalei Bay in Hawaii, as well as Districts 7020, 6380, 6600, and 5400, and ESRAG’s Eastern North America Chapter.

Click "read more" to see the benefits, which Rotarians can replicate in other communities.

Photo: Project partners happily posing in front of the walk-in cooler: (from left) Doug White, Rotary St. Thomas East Eco, Host Club; Eldridge Thomas, President WGFI; Benita Martin, Grant Manager, WGFI; Dee Brown, President, CFVI; Brian Marinelli, CEO, Silver Sun Solar. Photo: Rotary Club of St. Thomas East Eco.

We'll help your Club become climate-friendly

Rotary is successfully acting to make the world a better place. But all Rotarian activities also cause emissions and contribute to climate change. Just think of all the people travelling to the RICON in Melbourne. We do not want reduced activities but we have to do all of them in a clever way! The project "Every Club Climate Friendly - Become Sustainable!" offers you help and solutions. We will help you to make your Rotary or Rotaract Club climate-friendly and sustainable!

We have developed a CO2 footprint calculator that enables clubs to calculate their emissions for all club activities for one Rotary year. The calculator has been translated into 5 languages already and makes data input very easy. Based on your data, our project team will send you a report and propose actions for your club to reduce CO2. We will also provide ideas for local or global projects to compensate for and reduce CO2.

Only 18 months after the start of the project "Every Club Climate Friendly - Become Sustainable!" we have more than 100 interested or participating clubs from 20 countries!

• If you live in Africa, Europe, Latin America, or North America, join now. Scan the QR Code or send an Email to info@becomesustainable.org with your name, your club name and district!
• If you live in Oceania or Asia, please send an email waghorne@dcsi.net.au with your name, your club name and district!

You can look back at the last Rotary year to calculate a baseline to use for your club.

We are also looking for additional members to our project team! Together we will make Rotary climate-friendly and sustainable - and I have personally promised that I will not rest until we have achieved this!

Climate-friendly in the Caribbean

The Rotary Club of St. Thomas East Eco’s President Debbi Jackson welcomed 7020 District Governor (DG) David Kirkaldy to the DGs Annual Visit to the club with a delicious plant-based meal and a review of its environmental projects. “The East Eco meeting was great, and we had a super plant-based meal. The club is doing such a great job by being focused versus trying to be all things to all people, ” he said.

The completely plant-based, vegan and organic menu (shown here, with Rotarians digging in enthusiastically) consisted of a kale Caesar salad, eggplant parmesan, vegan mofongo (spicy baked plantains topped with black lentils and home-grown broccoli sprouts - see the recipe in this issue) and a sumptuous vegan cheesecake desert, prepared by Katherine Shegrud and my wife Leslie White and me, local club members of the ESRAG Plant Rich Diet Task Force. The dinner was enjoyed by all, including the DG, his wife Christina, Assistant DG Heflyn Royer, guests, and club members.

After dinner the club showed a PowerPoint presentation featuring its current environmental projects (click "read more" to discover what they are!)

Mourning Jorge Aufranc

The ESRAG Board reports with great sorrow the death of their fellow Director Jorge Aufranc of Guatemala on Sept. 5. He was a leader at Rotary’s highest levels, including serving as a Rotary International Director, Rotary Foundation Trustee, and on the Council of Legislation. He drew on every one of these roles and relationships to advocate for Rotary’s endorsing the environment as an Area of Focus, which the RI Board and Foundation Trustees voted unanimously to approve in June of 2020.

As a member of Rotary’s Enhancement Grant Model group, he helped shape Rotary’s environmental policy, defining a broad and bold array of actions eligible for Rotary global grants.

Aufranc had just joined ESRAG’s board in June of 2023, and was working through his Rotary networks to expand ESRAG’s visibility and impact. The loss of his leadership, experience, and connections across the Rotary world is a huge loss to us.

We will sorely miss Mike Cloutier!

We’re devastated to report the death of dedicated Rotarian and ESRAG member Mike Cloutier on September 17. His kindness, IT skill, and resourcefulness have made a giant contribution over the past three years as ESRAG’s membership and activities expanded enormously.

Starting at the height of the pandemic, Mike worked with ESRAG IT Chair Mike Terrelonge to customize ESRAG’s new iMembers system, setting up the systems we rely on for membership enrollment, communications, event scheduling and registration. He also organized training sessions on iMember’s key tools.

Over the subsequent years Mike Cloutier dedicated countless hours listening to, troubleshooting, and imparting confidence to ESRAG leaders as we have been learning to use the tools. To this he brought years of experience managing IT systems and teams in the US Navy, the private sector, and Rotary.

“His contributions were wonderful,” says ESRAG Director and Technology Chair Mike Terrelonge, who teamed up with Mike Cloutier and DACdb staff to ensure ESRAG could successfully navigate this transition.

Photo: one of Lori Cloutier's favorite pictures of Mike.

Announcing: Rotary Fellowship of Vegans!

When Rotary leaders Ambaree Majumder (Singapore), Jose Alberto Oliveira (Portugal), and Haresh Mirchandani (Jamaica) met face to face for the first time at the Rotary International Convention in Melbourne, they wanted to create a community in the Rotary family for vegans, the vegan-curious, and those transitioning to a vegan lifestyle. The Rotary Fellowship of Vegans was born from their idea and desire to offer a fun opportunity to share and learn about a vegan lifestyle, which involves more than eating a plant-based diet. Future plans include a vegan food tour for Fellowship members at the 2024 Rotary International Convention in Singapore.

The Vegan Fellowship welcomes new members. Register here. You can also contact them via email: rotaryvegans@gmail.com.

Photo: a selfie of Rotary Fellowship of Vegans President Ambaree Majumdar enjoying a gorgeous plant-based meal.

Go Caribbean with Vefongo! (October plant-rich recipe)

Here’s a great Caribbean recipe, part of the vegan, organic menu St. Thomas East Eco Club served to District 7020 Governor David Kirkaldy during his visit this summer. “The St. Thomas East Eco meeting was great, and we had a super plant-based meal. The club is doing such a great job by being focused vs trying to be all things to all people,” said DG David.

Vefongo is a plant-based variation of Mofongo, a classic Puerto Rican plaintain dish. Our version is topped with lentils and sprouts. This recipe serves 4-6 people, depending on the size of the plantains. For your health and our rivers’ and oceans’ health, please buy organic whenever possible.

Here’s how to make Vefongo.