Digital Commons Network^™

Developing Metrics For Novel Value-Added Products: The Case Of Hemp In Vermont, Jane M. Kolodinsky, Heather M. Darby, Steven Kostell, Tyler Mark, Eric D. Roy, Eric Bishop Von Wettberg, Hannah Lacasse, Giovanna Sassi, Weiwei Wang

USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Center

Vermont Farm to Plate 2020 identifies hemp as one of ten emergent agricultural products critical for Vermont’s future and has made recommendations for investments in hemp research, education, feasibility, and innovation programs. These investments are essential to develop niche food, feed, fiber, and industrial products, professionals, and markets that go “beyond CBD” (VFP, 2020).

This project develops indicators for an important, value added budding crop in Vermont: hemp. For the purposes of this white paper, indicators are “a way to measure, indicate or point to with more or less exactness,” or “something used to show the condition of a system” …

Nitrogen Removal Performance Of Roadside Bioretention Cells Amended With Aluminum-Based Drinking Water Treatment Residuals, Carl Betz

UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses

Urban stormwater runoff transports a suite of environmental pollutants that can degrade the quality of receiving waters. Bioretention cells, a type of engineered raingarden, have been shown to reduce runoff volumes and remove a variety of pollutants. The ability of conventional bioretention cells to remove nitrogen and phosphorus, however, is variable and bioretention soil media can act as a net exporter of nutrients. This is concerning as excess loading of nitrogen and phosphorus can lead to eutrophication of surface waters. Drinking water treatment residuals (DWTR), metal (hydr)oxide rich byproducts of the drinking water treatment process, have been studied as an …

Soil Carbon Conservation, Land Use Change, And Sustainable Agriculture In The Peruvian Amazon, Julia L. Petty

UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses

The task of integrating the scattered needs of both people and nature at a multitude of scales remains daunting in the field of environmental science. This study examined one facet of this pursuit by determining the potential sustainability and ecosystem services provided by a proposed agroforestry initiative in Loreto, Peru. Specifically, the study evaluates the mechanisms and dynamics of soil carbon sequestration as a response to land use change in the Peruvian Amazon. Both fine root biomass and soil organic carbon (SOC)- measured as loss-on-ignition- was analyzed over a vertical gradient in a primary tropical forest, a traditional slash-and-burn cultivated …

Upcycling Dairy Manure Fine Solids Captured By Dissolved Air Flotation As Part Of A Phosphorus Recovery And Reuse Strategy, Katherine Keith Porterfield

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Dissolved air flotation (DAF) has shown potential to substantially improve phosphorus (P) mass balance on dairy farms by capturing P associated with fine solids from liquid manure, enabling new management options. However, at < 25% total solids, further dewatering and other upcycling is necessary to facilitate export of recovered fine solids off farm for use in bagged or bulk products. I generated plant foods using DAF-captured dairy manure fine solids thermally dried to 45% total solids blended with other organic residuals. Dry biomass of tomato and marigold seedlings amended with 6% v/v plant food was six-times greater than the unamended control and not significantly different from a market alternative treatment. Because thermal dewatering can be prohibitively costly, I generated a second batch of plant foods using DAF-captured dairy manure fine solids conditioned with 3, 4.5 and 6% (w/w) quicklime or lime kiln dust (LKD) and dewatered using a benchtop press for comparison with thermally dried fine solids. Tomato seedling biomass was similar for thermally dried and LKD plant foods, but quicklime plant foods had no effect compared to the unamended control. Quicklime and LKD conditioned fine solids contained approximately 30 and 10 times less plant-available P than thermally dried fine solids, respectively—likely due to precipitation of Ca-P minerals. These studies indicate that DAF-captured dairy manure fine solids could be upcycled to bagged horticultural products with substantial agronomic value, however sustainable materials drying remains a key challenge to realizing this potential.