President Thais welcomed Gordon Fischer as a new club member.  Brenda LaMarche who couldn’t attend sponsored Gordon and so Anna Moyers Stone introduced him.

 

President Thais presented Usha Balakrishnan, Brianna Wills and Linda Farkas with awards for recruiting new members to the club. Jeff Disterhoft and Steve West received Paul Harris Fellows awards, and Verne Folkmann received a Major Donor award.

 

President Thais read plaque recognition from our sister Rotary Club in Xicotepec, Mexico, honoring our club’s 100^th Anniversary.

 

Dave Westphal, CEO of D3Consulting
Shawn Hedlund introduced Dave Westphal to speak about achieving food security in Africa. Westphal addressed the issues of food security from his perspective of having served in senior executive positions with Holden Foundation Seed, L.L.C., Monsanto-Johannesburg S.A., and Seed Product Line Africa for Cargill, Inc.

 

Westphal spoke on the themes:  Food availability, Food access, and Food use.  He believes that food security rests on sufficient quantities of corn, soybeans and wheat grown regionally.  He has led efforts focused on addressing the challenges of the lack of trained crop breeders, poor quality seed and poor storage.  The Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa for Africa Seed Systems is enabling advanced training at the graduate level in seed breeding, providing demonstrations in villages so local farmers can see the value of improved seeds and production systems, and training agricultural dealers to be able to consult with local farmers.