I slacked a bit and never got around to Day 3... until now! :)
The conference experience was wonderful and I would love to attend their 2020 conference. I believe students should attend as well. Who knew this many people are interested in the science of compost. It has become a profitable business for many and a source of improving their livelihood.
Here are some of the highlights from Day 3:
Jeff Lowenfels of Anchorage, Alaska is the author of The Teaming Series Books for Organic Growing. His books include Teaming with Microbes, Teaming with Fungi, and Teaming with Nutrients. Each of these books delves into major detail about the different elements essential to crop growth. I was especially interested in his talk because he is an expert on the microbial communities of compost. It is difficult to squeeze the benefits of each microbe into a 20 minute talk, but the gist of it was that microbes are so important to plant development! When people think of microbes they generally think "eww germs", but in reality we cannot survive without them. If we were to take a heap of soil and remove all microbes from it, there will be no life that will come out of it.
Another important speaker that impressed me was Rick Carr from the Rodale Institute in Kutztown, PA. Because this town is somewhat close to home, I went ahead and looked into possibilities for student internships. Here is the page that I found from their website (internships are located at the bottom). This talk focused on the research that has been done at Rodale Institute regarding how utilization of compost has suppressed the issue of plant diseases that many farmers have to deal with. His research focused on common parasites that target the farmers' cash crops and they relied on his research to help them combat these challenges they were facing. This talk brought to light the importance of having a good biological community.
The last session of the day was focused around regulations regarding how different states enforce their laws regarding composting. The first talk of this session was by Matthew A. Karmel, environmental lawyer and founder of the New Jersey Composting Council. I was thrilled to meet someone from New Jersey who shared a passion for reducing food waste. He was able to share some information regarding some of the goals New Jersey has for the future, including their legislation to reduce our state's food waste by 50% by the year 2030. I was very excited to speak with him after his talk. We exchanged business cards and discussed ways in which students at Bergen Community College could help contribute to this goal.
In closing, I think this conference helped me to see just how far behind we are in terms of how we are managing our waste. However, I am very happy to have made a contact that I believe will help us to create sustainability goals at our campus.
