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Lawrence (Lonnie) A. Gamble, P. Eng. - "Eating Locally - a report from 3 months in France" (Putting your activism where your mouth is)

Much of the agriculture is based on perennial crops (chestnuts, walnuts, almonds, grapes, kiwi, truffles, wild crafted mushrooms, olives, lavender, silk production from silkworms on mulberries, and all the temperate fruits -apples, cherries, peaches etc) and the year round production of annual vegetables in simple unheated greenhouses. There is also a healthy industry making a wide variety of products from these diverse crops. Both the growing of crops and the production of processed products take place on a wide range of scales - lots of small producers and a few large-scale growers and producers as well. There is also wide spread recognition of the value of all this and the total rejection of GMO foods. You will go wild crafting truffles (mushrooms that grow underground near the roots of oak trees and sell for more than $500 per pound) with the mayor of Rousillon. You will see the operation that Eliot Coleman calls "a model for the future of agriculture" and you will meet M. Audier, who has been growing organically in soil in greenhouses for 50 years.

Lawrence (Lonnie) A. Gamble, P.Eng.

Mr. Gamble is a partner in Abundance Ecovillage, a development of 25 homes where power is generated by solar and wind on site and water comes from rain catchment. Edible, useful, and beautiful plants fill the landscape. This project is under development in Fairfield, Iowa. He is developing permaculture farms in Iowa and Hawaii. He is on the teaching staff for permaculture courses at La Akea Gardens in Puna, East Hawaii, Bullock Brothers Farm in Orcas Island Washington, and Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa. He is a consultant in the development of a four year Sustainable Living Program at Maharishi University of Management. He is active in community organizing in all areas of sustainable living. He and his wife Valerie grow and sell vegetables locally in Fairfield, Iowa. He has been living for 10 years in a solar and wind powered straw bale home. He has published articles in Home Power Magazine and the proceedings of the American Solar Energy Society. He regularly speaks at conferences and seminars including the Midwest Renewable Energy Conference, the Iowa Renewable Energy Conference, the American Solar Energy Society conference, and the Eco-Fair at Maharishi University of Management. Previously, he founded five companies in the areas of telecommunications and renewable energy development.

He has a degree in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University and is a registered professional engineer.

 

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