“The Father of Plastic Greenhouses”
From The Proceedings of the 25 National Agricultural
Plastics Congress in 1994
Written by Robert G. Anderson
University of Kentucky Sept. 1994
In 1994 Dr. Emery Myers Emmert was posthumously selected
for the American Society for Plasticulture’s Pioneer
Award in honor of his groundbreaking research in plastic
film use. At that time the organization was celebrating
its Silver Anniversary Congress on Agricultural Plastics.
The Proceedings of that event were dedicated to Dr. Emmert.
The following article in the Proceedings commemorated his
work.
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the American Society for Plasticulture and its predecessors, the National Agricultural Plastics Association and the National Horticultural Plastics Association, it is appropriate to consider the impact that the researchers involved with the Society have had on agriculture in the world. Agricultural scientists take pride in “their mission or duty” to serve the people of the world by improving the practices for feeding all people on earth. This Society and its early leaders have had a significant impact. Most people have heard of Norman Borlaug’s “Green Revolution” and recognize its impact on the people of the world. The leaders of this society certainly deserve equal recognition for their impact on food production.
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 ”The Father of Plastic Greenhouses.” It is appropriate that during the celebration of the 25th Silver Anniversary Congress, the American Society for Plasticulture recognize 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 “over-wintering quonset” at container nurseries or a “coldframe” greenhouse by bedding growers in the U.S. Today, this structure produces an enormous amount of food in many areas of the world. Wittwer (1993) indicates that high tunnels and plastic greenhouses cover over 21 billion square feet of land around the world. 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 spoken of a 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 (Wittwer, 1993). 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 a efficiently without plastic mulches, amazingly over 75% of the world’s plastic mulch and row covers are used in China.
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 of 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.
Agricultural technology that is so common today had very simple beginnings. The information that Emmert published in the 1950’s 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 1940’s 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 1950’s that look similar to today’s plant production fields in many places of 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 working 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 Kentucky in Reader’s Digest.
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