Freund Farm in Connecticut has come up with a clever way to add value to its farm’s cow manure by turning it into biodegradable, compostable pots and packaging.
The company’s first product, created over two decades ago, was a variety of pots for all your planting needs. But since growing is a seasonal thing, it decided to make a new item that could be in demand year-round – CowPots Packaging corners.
Recently unveiled at the Las Vegas PACK EXPO, the packaging is as protective and solid as the fiberboard customarily used to ship frames and other delicate goods. In both cases, the idea was to benefit the environment, and the packaging is indeed 100% compostable and biodegradable.
The farm’s story began over twenty years ago when founder Matthew Freund started experimenting with using manure to mitigate the environmental impact on the family’s dairy.
Retired soil scientist Thomas Morris, who worked with farmers for the University of Connecticut Extension at the time, stated that people had started becoming aware of phosphorous buildups on dairies. Phosphorous is beneficial in moderate doses. All life forms need it to survive, but too much exposure sucks the oxygen out of life.
Nichole Embertson, a nutrient management specialist at Washington’s Whatcom Conservation District, explained:
If applied in excess, if the crops can’t take it up or if Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate, that extra nutrient has the potential to run off the field and enter our surface waters.
Phosphorus in waterways encourages the growth of nuisance aquatic fauna and algae. Furthermore, it affects stream life by ‘starving’ the water of oxygen.
In the dairy farm, phosphorus is supplied to the soil from animal effluent (poo) and typical rock and soil weathering. Once in the ground, it can runoff into the waterways, causing damage. So, with the help of Morrison, Freund Farm began collecting the animal waste and turning it into pots to avoid phosphorous buildup.
Morris supported Freund Farm Inc., with assistance from government grants, it developed safe and compostable manure plant pots.
Morris said of the Freund family:
They’re the leaders in the Northeast in trying to figure out ways to produce milk with the least environmental footprint.
The CowPots took off, even earning the company a feature on Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe. Nowadays, the product is a hit with horticulturalists.
Rich Morris, the owner of New York’s Toadflax Nursery, recently received an extensive research permit from his state to develop hemp. He raved about the 6,000 or so CowPots he utilized to plant his seeds.
He stated:
You start to see the hair roots in a matter of weeks. That’s unheard of. It’s magical. And the earthworms love them.
Nancy Livensparger, a faithful Connecticut customer of CowPots for over five years who is a self-described “organic farmer and herbalist,” utilizes the nutrient-dense forms to up-pot herbs and vegetables for her 23-member CSA. She loves being able to place them directly into the ground—no plastic necessary.
She said:
We’re zero waste.
But as popular as CowPot pots were, the family decided to diversify and contribute to helping the world transition away from plastic packaging. Amanda Freund said that although CowPots were successful, they were seasonal and only making them money or helping the environment for half the year.
She said:
It’s very seasonal. People are only looking for a seed-starting, or transplant pot from January to May, [but] our cows are providing us with manure every day of the year.
Therefore, her father, Matthew Freud, embarked on developing another use for animal waste – the packaging corners. Amanda said it takes some persuasion to get visitors to think of “poop” as a “material.” Still, the family believes they can offer an alternative to some of the other unsustainable packaging materials available on the market.
The best part is that the renewable packaging material doesn’t need to go through recycling.
Amanda enthusiastically said:
You can throw it out into your front yard, and as it breaks down, it’s providing a soil amendment.
Thomas Morris, a retired UConn scientist, said there’s no question about the material’s soil benefits.
He said:
Although some nitrogen is probably lost during the composting process, you’re taking the manure fibers and nutrients from the manure and putting them in the soil. They also disintegrate a lot better than comparable products like peat.
Research conducted by the Mississippi Agricultural Forestry and Experiment Station in 2015 unearthed that CowPots break down four times as quickly as similar products in the market.
But are you concerned about safety? No need be. The FDA has given both the pots and packaging the greenlight to be utilized as “secondary packaging” for meal items. Also, the USDA has certified the material safe for shipping to your European Union.
