124.Ed Rau on Sustainability, Research, and Greener Futures through New Cultivars

Have you ever considered adding Moringa or Hoodia plants to your farm’s production? Joining us today is Ed Rau, founding owner and President of Sustainable Bioresources. Sustainable Bioresources is a small business primarily engaged in research and development of new cultivars of plants for organic, sustainable cultivation as crops, educational purposes, and uses in new proprietary products including drugs, nutraceuticals, foods, and biopesticides. Their capabilities also include provision of consulting services relating to environmental health practice, hazardous waste management, and sustainable purchasing systems. Ed is a Registered Hazardous Substance Professional and is licensed in Maryland as a Environmental Health Specialist. He has over 40 years of professional experience in environmental health practice, hazardous materials management, and research. With such experience, his area of expertise is quite bountiful! Be sure to check it out and absorb his 4 decades of knowledge!   You’ll hear: An overview of Sustainable Bioresources 1:12 How Ed got started with the nursery 3:28 About the uses and qualities of the Moringa plant 7:30 The best way to get started with Moringa 19:21 What to do with the Moringa stems 25:58 Where you can learn more about Ed and Sustainable Bioresources 34:47 How to ship Moringa or Hoodia seeds to the US 35:24   About the Guest:Edward Rau is the founding owner and president of our company, and Principal Investigator for its several active research projects.  Ed has an undergraduate degree in biology and a master of science degree in environmental and occupational health from California State University at Northridge.  He also completed an additional certificate program in hazardous materials management at the University of California, Davis. Ed has over 40 years of professional experience in environmental health practice, hazardous materials management and research.  Prior to leading the company on a full-time basis, he worked in various positions in the private and public sectors as a chemical technician and Registered Sanitarian.  In 1978, he joined the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) as an officer and was assigned to various positions of increasing responsibility in the Indian Health Service and hazardous waste management at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  After 30 years of service he retired from active duty with the USPHS as an Environmental Health Director holding the rank of Captain.  He continued working with the NIH for another five years in a civilian position as a Special Assistant to the Director of the Division of Environmental Protection.  In that capacity, he created and lead sustainability innovation projects including the Substances of Concern Reduction Initiative and development of novel methods to facilitate incorporation of diverse sustainability related requirements into electronic purchasing systems. Over his career, Ed received numerous uniformed services and civilian commendations.  He created and led the Mad as a Hatter Campaign for a Mercury-Free NIH and developed new training materials to improve awareness of the potential role of mercury contamination in promoting development of resistance to antibiotics in bacteria.  For the campaign effort, he received the American Chemical Society’s 2005 Howard Fawcett Award for outstanding contributions in chemical health and safety.  Two projects that he subsequently created and promoted while assigned to the NIH received White House GreenGov presidential awards from the Bush and Obama administrations.  In 2009, the NIH laboratory building decontamination and decommissioning process, now referred to as Sustainable High Efficiency Deconstruction (SHED) received the Closing the Circle GreenGov award for the category Seeds of Change, and in 2013 the Substances of Concern Reduction Initiative received the award for the category Sustainable Innovation. While assigned to NIH Captain Rau carried out applied research activities relating to his hazardous waste management responsibilities.  This included development of minimization and treatment methods for mixed waste (radioactive hazardous waste) and other multi hazardous waste streams generated by biomedical research activities.  Working with other NIH investigators he also devised novel apparatus and experiments to investigate the extreme resistance of prions, the agents responsible for mad cow disease, scrapie and other spongiform encephalopathies to thermal inactivation.  The apparatus simulated conditions in a medical waste incinerator and captured emissions from burning tissues containing a thermally resistant strain of scrapie.  These studies defined the extreme conditions necessary for inactivation of the agent and led Ed to propose a new theory of agent replication by means of inorganic templates.  This work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and co authored with Dr. Carleton Gajdusek, a Nobel Laureate and other leading prion researchers. Ed is a Registered Hazardous Substance Professional and licensed in Maryland licensed as an Environmental Health Specialist.  He holds active memberships in the American Chemical Society, National Environmental Health Association, Alliance of Hazardous Materials Professionals, Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council, the Cosmos Club of Washington DC, Medical Reserve Corps of the Hawaii Department of Health, and a newly formed local Community Emergency Response Team for the Discovery Harbour area of Hawaii.   Resources:Website - https://sustainablebioresources.com/