Farmers in Connecticut are looking to turn cow manure into money and, they want your leftover food scraps too. That’s because a burgeoning technology called “anaerobic digestion ” can take that waste, and keep it out of landfills, while turning it into electricity and profit.

You can think of an anaerobic digester as a big metal stomach. Biodegradables go in, get broken down, and turn into energy. Matthew Freund is president of Freund’s Farm in East Canaan. He says anaerobic  technology let him diversify his business. An old unit took in cow manure, and it allowed him to create a new product: biodegradable planters called “CowPots.”

“We’ve got a flow chart of the cow. She backs up to an anaerobic digester, does her business. We digest it and make energy. And then we create the fibers, making the “CowPots.” So it’s full circle – the cow gives us everything,” said Freund.