[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 16056]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




HONORING JOSEPH GEREMIA AS HE IS HONORED BY THE CONNECTICUT GREENHOUSE 
                          GROWERS ASSOCIATION

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ROSA L. DeLAURO

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 24, 2011

  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today 
to join the Connecticut Greenhouse Growers Association as they pay 
tribute to one of their outstanding members and my good friend, Joe 
Geremia. Joe's extraordinary contributions to Connecticut's agriculture 
industry have gone a long way in ensuring that the needs of greenhouse 
growers are not only heard but acted upon. In fact, just last year, Joe 
was recognized for his incredible work by the State of Connecticut when 
he was named the 2010 Outstanding Young Farmer.
  With an estimated three hundred commercial greenhouse businesses, 
housing eight million square feet of production space, greenhouse 
production is a critical piece of Connecticut's agriculture industry. 
Today, the production of flowers and plants is the biggest segment of 
Connecticut agriculture, accounting for nearly three-fourths of all 
crop agriculture. This makes Connecticut second in the Nation in terms 
of the proportion of ornamental horticulture to crop agriculture.
  Agriculture is not only Joe's occupation, it is in his blood. Coming 
to America just after the turn of the century, Joe's grandfather raised 
vegetables on the family's sixteen-acre farm. His passion for growing 
was passed on to his children and eventually on to Joe who got started 
in the business working with his father. In the beginning, Joe's father 
had just half an acre in greenhouse production. Just after leaving high 
school, Joe jumped into the wholesale greenhouse business with both 
feet--and he has never looked back.
  What is so wonderful about Joe is that he is always looking to learn, 
to expand his knowledge and apply all of that to his business. He 
traveled to the Netherlands to learn about the latest greenhouse, 
agriculture, and distribution technology as well as Ontario to observe 
their vegetable production research and learning systems. He brought 
the best of these lessons back to his own business and shared them with 
his fellow greenhouse growers. His dedication to finding solutions to 
agriculture's challenges is probably best evidenced in the research 
greenhouse that he built at Connecticut's Agriculture Experiment 
Station's Lockwood Farm where, in partnership with the Station and the 
University of Connecticut, Joe and scientists are investigating methods 
of eliminating wastewater and reducing fertilizer in run-off--a win-win 
by providing the industry with more efficient and cost-effective 
irrigation methods while also protecting the environment which they 
depend on for success.
  One of the issues that Joe has devoted much of his time to is energy 
efficiency and it is through these efforts that I have gotten to know 
Joe so well. Over the last few years, he has retrofitted his greenhouse 
to be heated with biomass boilers instead of traditional oil. Utilizing 
this technology, Joe has not only created new business choices for 
himself, but has created new business for local arborists and 
landscapers whose wood waste products would otherwise be left to decay. 
I have been so impressed with his work that I have taken every 
opportunity to get our federal officials, like USDA Deputy Secretary 
Kathleen Merrigan, out to see his operation. He is leading the way for 
Connecticut's agricultural future.
  I am proud to stand today to join the Connecticut Greenhouse Growers 
Association as well as his wife, Dawn; their children, Madeline, Luke, 
and Liam; and the many family, friends, and colleagues who have 
gathered to recognize the outstanding efforts of our friend, Joe 
Geremia. Congratulations Joe--with your enthusiasm, commitment and 
energy, there is nothing that you will not accomplish.

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