November 20, 2023

Mulch – with Ben Weis

Ben is from Philadelphia and has been interested in food systems since an early age. He attended his first natural products expo before kindergarten because his parents worked in the natural foods industry. During late adolescence, he started a prolific tomato garden that blossomed into a B.Sc. in Horticulture from Temple University (TU) in 2019. He interned at the Rodale Institute and worked at an organic farm in New Jersey as the lead rice cultivator. At this farm he had the opportunity to help problem solve through research, leading him to pursue graduate studies and extension work. He is passionate about sustainable technologies, closed-loop agriculture, and urban farming.

This presentation will discuss hydromulch—an exciting new sprayable mulch technology for organic agriculture. Currently, organic agriculture has no biodegradable options for mulch, meaning large amounts of plastic are used to grow organic foods. This is due to America’s National Organic Program banning any biodegradable mulch not made from 100% biobased feedstocks. Such materials are not currently available, forcing organic farmers to rely on plastic mulches, which are single-use plastics and usually wind up in the landfill. Enter hydromulch—a biobased, certifiably organic mulch technology that could replace black plastic in organic agriculture. This talk will discuss research done during the summer of 2022 on the use of paper-based hydromulch in organic strawberry.

This will be a Zoom meeting only:

1. All ZOOM meetings will begin at 7:00 pm.
2. All IN-PERSON meetings: doors will open at 6:30 pm, meetings start at 7:15 pm.
3. In-person meetings (presentation only) may also be accessible by ZOOM from your home.

HOW TO ATTEND:

All current CVHS members will receive a Zoom invitation prior to this meeting.

IN-PERSON Meeting: Doors will open at 6:30 pm, meeting starts at 7:15 pm.

NOT A MEMBER?

If you are not a CVHS member and would like to join us, please CLICK HERE to purchase a guest pass by Friday, November 17, for $5.50

Please join us!