President Frank Perez opened the virtual meeting of the Centerville Rotary Club and welcomed everyone including potential members Carol Galloway and Ginger Clark. Frank Perez led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and Dick Hoback led us in prayer.
Frank Perez gave the following announcements:
- The 4-Way Speech Contest is a go! It will be virtual and we’re waiting for email from the District with details.
- New recommendation on in person meetings will be discussed at the next Board meeting. Rotary International is saying it is up to individual clubs, but their recommendation is to hold off through this Rotary year, until July 1st. Please reach out to me or any Board member if you have a comment or suggestion.
- Next Board meeting is Monday February 15th at 5:30. It will be a zoom meeting and all members are welcome to attend. I will send out the zoom link to club members on Monday. Uriah Anderson and Carol Galloway were reminded that new members are asked to attend a Board meeting in the first couple of months.
Sofie Ameloot gave a last call for feminine hygiene product donations for Artemis - drop off by this Friday for delivery this weekend.
Judy Budi reminded all that Rotarian family members not eligible for our $2,000 scholarships but please spread the news to high school seniors. The application is due Apr 16. The application is available on our website
HERE
Arnie Biondo reminded about the golf outing in May. Watch for and email from him as we will be asking each member to secure at least one sponsor - just like Pancake Day.
Our Happy Bucks recipient is St. Paul, United Methodist Church Food Bank. You can send your check to the club mailbox: Centerville Rotary Club, PO Box 41431, Centerville, OH 45458.
Boyd Preston was our Sergeant at Arms today.
Pat Beckel gave $20 for being our speaker today and also opening up 2 new entertainment businesses in downtown Centerville.
Chuck King gave $10 as his snow blower worked 2 days in a row.
Ron Hollenbeck gave $20 being happy to see Pat Beckel.
Dick Hoback gave $20 happy his neighbors are plowing his driveway.
Peachy Metzner gave $20 for getting the first COVID shot and seeing the beautiful face of Patrick Beckel on the zoom today.
Arnie Biondo gave $10 and is happy Ginger Clark is here today and will be submitting an application for membership.
Sofie Ameloot gave a $5 penalty for being on a walk during the recent golf meeting.
Elda Gotos-Gay gave $20 for just being happy
Harvey Smith gave $20 for a Service above Self recognition for Boyd Preston - Harvey hasn’t been to a grocery store for 10 months thanks to Boyd’s generosity!
Carol Kennard gave $10 for Ginger Clark being a potential new member and is already thinking about committees she could be on.
Matt Kuhn gave $20 because it is 55 degrees and sunny where he is in California.
Carol Sue Galloway gave $10 as she met the VP of operations at their new community today and is excited to see the progress. Expect to open by mid-July.
Kim Senft-Paras gave $10 as she gets her first COVID shot on Friday and she had been talking about hydroponic gardening so she’s really interested to hear Pat’s presentation today!
Arnie Biondo introduced our speaker who didn’t need any introduction, Rotarian Patrick Beckel to talk about Hydroponic Vertical Farming.
Pat noted Last June, his wife was let go from General Electric after 15 years, and was not sure what to do from there. They decided they wanted to be more environmentally friendly and started looking for something to change the world. They discovered information about Hydroponic Vertical Farming and looked into it closer. It started with row houses to grow fresh vegetables nearby cities, using rooftop gardens. Then giant greenhouses were developed, but they are dependent on the correct amount of light, etc.
Pat said a true hydroponic vertical farm can help solve many world problems:
Solves water shortage and availability
Solves food shortage
Solves Global warming
And still be profitable.
Phase 1 - Green leafy vegetables
- Secure at least 1 acre land; 2 acres under roof produces 1200 acres of product.
- Put in trays full of water & nutrients in clean room
- Use grow lights using LED
- Seed to harvest is only 21 days (17 harvests/year)
- No dirt, no bugs
- 95% of plant is edible
- Once harvested, on the shelf in 3 hours, so fresher product
- Local delivery so every day harvest to shelf
- Using electric delivery vans to save fossil fuels
- No pesticides used as long as not crossing state lines
- 98% of the nutritional value is retained due to short harvest to store timeframe
- Can produce for less cost due to lower energy costs. (renewable energy) Produce energy for almost nothing using solar.
Phase 2 Products
Fruits, vegetables - strawberries, cucumbers, etc
- Requires 2.5 times electricity than green leafy vegetables
Phase 3 Staples
Grains, corn, rice
- Take 40x more electricity to grow
- Still working to have that solved by 2030
Amount water saved
Phase 1 - saves 1.5% world’s drinkable water
Phase 2 - saves 40% world’s drinkable water
Phase 3 - saves 91.9% world’s drinkable water
Take 2 acres to grow 1200 acres of food; Can reforest former farm fields to assist with Global warming, using native plants, natural cycles reclaimed.
Food not dependent on weather, rainfall, temperatures. One plant can serve multiple counties. Everything is grown inside a controlled environment.
Hard to get people to enjoy their fruits and vegetables. Changing colors of lights changes flavor of fruits and vegetables. Make it taste amazing to kids - people then want to eat these superfoods.
Pat believes we should look at doing this all over the world.
Pat is spearheading a project in Springfield with the Turner Foundation to purchase an old tennis facility for hydroponic vertical farms (1 acre under roof, 25 levels shooting for) 2 acres solar fields to generate electric credits to sell back, eventually produce own seed, too.
Pat said for $80,000 you can get a starter - lights, watering system, and first round of seed.
No minimum or maximum size needed. Figure out how many people to serve. There are videos available to explain how it works and how you think about growing food.
How it works - open container with LED grow light above; rows of containers on pull out shelves. Change in LED light technology is what has really changed the process.
Cost for these vegetables is almost double the cost, but healthier and fresher. Product is available at Whole Foods now.
