ARBOL  ...Protecting the EARTH one SEED at a time!

We are a grassroots group involved in building action and relations through organizing for the well-being of our community.

OBJECTIVE

Our objective is to integrate all families and individuals who are interested and have the will to prepare and train in agricultural techniques and practices. Once a person achieves the knowledge in organic gardening, he/she must use these skills and commit to recruit and train others in the community. As a result, the cycle of learning and practice of organic agriculture will be in constant movement.

ARBOL will include local organizations, businesses, authorities and media sources to ensure the project’s success for the benefit of our health, the environment and the economy in Marin County.

We want to integrate development organizations who offer resources and capacity in establishing training programs, practice and techniques to facilitate our community’s education in organic agriculture.  

FOUNDER

Flor A. Emert aka Campos-Emert was born in Puebla, Mexico and she has been a Marin County resident for more than 25 years. Flor is a community activist who has helped and educated immigrants through journalist pieces in different media. She is producer of “Nuestras Voces” TV program (Community Media Center of Marin & Novato Public Access TV). Her background is in human resources and administration holding management positions in different industries. Her company, Campos-Emert Enterprises, a certified woman and minority owned business, supplies promotional products and marketing services to small businesses, organizations, schools, non-profits, special events and government offices. She has received several recognitions including the 2008 Latino Business Leadership Award by the San Francisco Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the SF Business Times. www.campos-emert.com

PERMACULTURIST

Sarah Dawn Hampton is an earth loving permaculturist, natural builder, educator, soil builder and community activist. She has a degree in Community Studies from UCSC and a BFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute. Sarah lived in rural sustainable communities throughout Spain for 5 years: growing our own food, supplying our own energy, educating people on renewable energies and environmental activism and practicing consensus decision making (www.escanda.org  www.canmasdeu.net).  She just finished a year long apprenticeship at the Regenerative Design Institute in Bolinas, CA www.regenerativedesign.org. Sarah is very involved with local climate change organizations (Rising Tide North America, Transition Town West Marin and Mobilization for Climate Justice), which are action based but also educating people about how to shift into a new lifestyle, living more in union with nature.

Sarah spent 6 months in the Canadian Gulf Islands doing a natural building apprenticeship with Cobworks (www.cobworks.com). Sarah helped build an entire cob house in Mexico, cob ovens, benches and did the finishing plaster work with relief and sculptural designs. She has converted diesels to run on recycled veggie oil, bulilt compost toilets, pruned many orchards, and spent years working and teaching in permaculture gardens. For two years Sarah managed 300 olive trees and cooperatively produced organic olive oil. Sarah is dedicated to teaching sustainable living skills which are mandatory for the well being of humankind and our planet.