The third Annual National Horticultural Plastics Conference was dedicated to the late Dr. Emery Myers Emmert by unanimous vote of the conference. Dr. Emmert is considered to be "The Father of Plastic Greenhouses" based on his work in the development of his "field greenhouse" just after World War II. At the celebration of the 25th Silver Anniversary Congress, the American Society for Plasticulture recognized Dr. Emery Emmert with the Society's Pioneer Award for his service to the world with his introduction of plastic greenhouses and with his pioneering work with plastic mulches and row covers.
Emmert's introduction, the "field greenhouse," is now generally called a "high tunnel" by vegetable growers around the world or an "overwintering quonset" at container nurseries or a "coldframe" greenhouse by bedding plant growers in the U.S. Today, this structure produces an enormous amount of food in many areas of the world. In 1993, Wittwer indicated that high tunnels and plastic greenhouses cover over 21 billion square feet of land around the world (Wittwer, S.H. 1993. World-wide use of plastics in horticultural production. HortTechnology 3(1):6-19). China, Japan and Korea account for 50% of this area, where high tunnels are used for the production of many vegetables, e.g. cucumber, tomato, pepper, onion, etc., strawberries and cut flowers. Even though plastic greenhouses are the predominant structure in the $ 4 billion a year U.S. greenhouse business, U.S. greenhouses are less than 2% of the world's total.
Dr. Emmert was called the "plastic surgeon" because of the outstanding work he did in the use of plastics as a substitute for glass in greenhouses and also the use of black and clear plastic in the field culture of vegetables. The use of plastic mulches and row covers has changed food production in the world because it significantly reduces weed pressure and conserves water for the crop. Over 2500 square miles of agricultural land use plastic mulch and row covers for crop production in the world . Anyone who has seen the major horticultural crop production fields in California, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio and Michigan would be surprised that all the plastic mulch in these areas and the rest of the U.S. is less than 4% of the world's use of plastic mulch and row covers. While most vegetables (melons, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers) and strawberries sold in U.S. supermarkets and restaurants could not be grown as efficiently without plastic mulches, amazingly over 75% of the world's plastic mulch and row covers are used in China.
Agricultural technology that is so common today had very simple beginnings. The information that Emmert published in the 1950s is surprisingly similar to many of the uses of plastics today.
When Dr. Emmert's publication "Low-Cost Plastic Greenhouses" was published in June of 1955, he mentioned that he had used plastic film to cover greenhouses on his farm for the past eight years. Thus the late 40s were the initial time for the use of plastic for greenhouses. The early line drawings still have significant value to anyone involved with greenhouses.
The University of Kentucky's College of Agriculture photo archives have many photos from the 1950s that look similar to today's plant production fields in many places in the world. Dr. Emmert's publications list most of the benefits of plasticulture that are common in today's horticultural production textbooks. Since Dr. Emmert was truly a pioneer worker with plastic materials as they applied to horticulture, the gospel of plastics was dispersed throughout all countries by a write-up of the work at the University of Kentucky in the Reader's Digest.
Emery Myers Emmert was born in Cedar Rapids Iowa, July 18, 1900 and graduated from Mt. Morris School Academy in Illinois in 1919. He attended Mt. Morris College and received his B.S. degree there in 1923. The following year was spent at Iowa State University from which he received his M.S. degree with a major in Horticulture in 1925. In the fall of 1926, he was made Professor of Chemistry and Dean of Men at Blue Ridge College in Maryland and served there for two years. In the fall of 1927, Emery was chosen to serve as Instructor in Chemistry at Iowa State University and, while there, found it possible to continue his studies in his chosen field of horticulture. He came to the University of Kentucky as Instructor in Horticulture and Research Assistant in the fall of 1928 and was granted his Ph.D. degree from Iowa State in 1931. Dr. Emmert passed away in 1962 just before the third Annual National Horticultural Plastics Conference that was dedicated to his vision into the use of plastics in the production of horticultural crops.