On Tuesday, February 28th 2023 Sustainable South Jersey continued its popular Sustainable Meetup series, hosting a free 90 minute Sustainable Meetup at the Flying Fish Brewery in Somerdale, NJ. The Sustainable Meetup featured three lightning talks by local speakers on spring planting preparation, reducing food waste and pet food raw feeding experience, followed by open mic opportunities for local sustainable champions to speak about their events or projects and concluded with networking after the event. The event was catered by Kitchen519 of Glendora, NJ. The event ran from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm.
Thought Leadership Speakers
Food Waste – “Reducing Food Waste: Actions you can start today” Gina Cohl, Tri-County Sustainability
Gardening – “Spring Planting Preparation” Toni Farmer, Rowan University Professor in Earth and Environmental Science
Feeding Pets – “The Raw Feeding Experience” Basil DiCerbo, Founder/CEO of Raw Health Canine Food
Basil DiCerbo – Founder/CEO of Raw Health Canine Food
https://rawhealthcaninefood.com/
Basil DiCerbo is the Founder/CEO of Raw Health Canine Food, formed in 2021 to provide all dogs and cats with high quality food at an affordable price. Basil has two German shepherd dogs (Duke and Athena) that thrive from eating their Raw
Health Canine Food. Basil loves learning about canine & feline nutrition since his dogs have personally benefited tremendously from a raw diet. He is also certified in Holistic Carnivore Nutrition and believes the health of dogs and cats always starts with proper nutrition in which they are biologically designed to eat.
The Raw Feeding Experience
Raw Feeding has become more and more popular in the United States due to the increased health issues in canine and feline health over the years.
Basil spoke about his experience with raw feeding, the benefits of raw feeding and common myths/facts of feeding a raw diet.
Toni Famer – Professor at Rowan University in the school of Earth and Environmental Science
https://www.tonifarmersgarden.com/
Toni Farmer is a professor at Rowan University in the school of Earth and Environmental Science where she teaches The Future of Food, a class about the impact of climate change on agriculture. She holds a Masters of Environmental Science from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master Gardener certification from Rutgers.
She has been a passionate backyard gardener for almost 30 years and if you can grow it in South Jersey soil, she has grown it! She runs Toni Farmer’s Garden, a website and social media based business that teaches citizens to grow their own food organically, sustainably, and abundantly.
Toni is also a supporter and educator for school gardens. In 2012 she built a city-wide public school garden program in Moorestown, NJ and also helps run or consults with school gardens around the country. Toni speaks frequently to garden and horticulture clubs and in the summer she provides the garden video content for SJ Magazine, winning “best of” for 2021. From 2012 – 2016 she was the Garden Coordinator for Live Civilly, a South Jersey non-profit. She has also served as a council member of the Sustainable Moorestown Committee.
As climate change is an increasing threat to agriculture and our food supply, Tonis’ presentation helped reach a larger audience of people on the topic of how to grow their own food in community gardens, schoolyards and backyards. Toni also spoke on how learning to grow food is a critical tool for healthy food access.
Gina Cohl – Mount Laurel Environmental Commission
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gina-cohl-8a198a1/
Food Waste is one of the leading causes of climate change. Gina spoke on how every individual can make real change by just reducing their food waste. This high level discussion outlined what you can start doing today to reduce food waste at home and in your daily activities.
Gina Cohl has always been passionate about environmental causes taking action even as a teenager. Gina is currently on the Mount Laurel Environmental Commission and previously chaired their Green Team. Gina is also head of the TCS Food Waste Reduction committee.
