Okay, here’s the poop on cow power: Dairy farmers from Wisconsin to Vermont are learning that they – and their bovine partners – can produce more than milk and manure. By converting the methane from cow patties into electricity, rural farms can provide their community with power – and in the process, eliminate the odors associated with dairy farming.

“The neighbors like it,” quips Steve Costello of the Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS)’s Cow Power program, which supplies 4,000 customers with the help of  6,000 cows. “You can have a barbecue on the Fourth of July without worrying the dairy farm next door is going spread some manure and wipe everyone out!”

Much more than that, of course, are the ecological benefits of using cow power:

• It’s a renewable energy source, not a dirty or fossil-fuel fed one (half of the energy used in the U.S. comes from coal).

• It reduces methane emissions, which are more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, trapping more heat in the atmosphere pound per pound.

• The final, solid product – after a process that includes a “digester” which breaks down the chemicals and bacteria, while the methane is trapped to generate electricity – can be used for bedding that is similar to straw, which typically has to be trucked in. (Once soiled, the bedding can be recycled yet again – returned to the digester and covnerted to topsoil or sold as fertilizer.

• Farmers use the slurry product that comes out the other end of the process, so to speak, to fertilize their fields, but with much less danger of spreading bacteria and toxins into the soil when they spread their manure.

• The digester itself kills most of the pathogens found in maure, includin E coli.

• Bonus fact: One cow can keep two 100-watt lightbulbs lit 24 hours a day, presumably in perpetuity.

“You’re taking a huge amount of waste out of the stream, if you will,” says Costello, explaining that CVPS started Cow Power in 2005 and is one of four such programs in Vermont.

“Nationally, cow power may not work so well – you’re talking about cows, so it’s typically got to be in rural areas – but it replaces dirty energy when it can. And a lot of our farms are using the heat left over from the generator to heat water for cleaning – supplanting either propane or number two, heating oil. That’s thousands of gallons that they’re not burning.”

Cows: An electric idea

Costello is an enthusiastic promoter of cow poo as energy, but out in Waterloo, Wisconsin, Crave Brothers Farms is helping their cattle reach their ultimate potential: To make dairy products, while converting their poop into energy for their home and cheese factory, as well as hundreds of Wisconsin homes. (Crave cows produce 650 KW per hour, which can power 550 households).

Mark Crave, who has come in from his 1,800-acre spread to talk on the phone, says the idea isn’t a new one to the family, which produces Farmstead Classics brand cheeses. He and his three brothers own and run the farm, along with their combined 12 offspring, and some of their offspring. He says there are a number of reasons why the family has jumped on the poop train, not the least of which is that, once through the digesters and generators and presses, their cow manure has almost totally eliminated the need to buy commercial fertilizers. The Craves like that, financially and ecologically.

The brothers started their poop power program about three years ago, although elder brother Charles Crave had been contemplating it since he founded the farm/cheese factory in 1981.

“It’s something that’s always been on our radar. We grew up on a dairy farm about 60 miles from here. My dad loved farming and he loved innovating. He oftentimes, when we were growing up,  would take us to farming trade shows and on field trips. And in the car on the way home , he’d say, ‘Boy, wasn’t that something?’ Or ‘What if we tried this?’ … Having four of us around, we were constantly kicking that ball aorund, if you will: How to change things, how to improve things. … Charles was always interested in (cow power), but until recently, there weren’t that many options. The only system that was in place was  farmer-engineered, as I like to call it. Built by the operators.

“The system we have is actually owned by Clear Horizons – an offshoot of a large electricity contractor in Milwaukee,” Crave says. “They’re looking at green energy as a growth industry. … But our motivation for doing it was that it allows us to better manage the nutrients in our soil. It changes how those nutrients escape into the system, so we can actually apply them to our fields. … It hasn’t saved us any money – yet. The initial capital outlay is more than $1 million. But we expect to (recoup) in about ten years.” (Note: The Craves send their energy to a power utility and then buy it back to power their farm.)

In addition to having 1,100 cows and 900 head of young stock – with a total of 950 milking cows – the Crave family grow corn, soybeans and alfalfa. (They also make an allegedly killer cheddar). And when it comes to fertilizing their crops, they, like all farmers, have limits on the amount of phosphorus (which fertilizer contains) that can be put into the soil.

“Most of the phosphorus (translation: fertilizer) that’s in manure is in the solid portion of the manure,” Crave says, explaining why dairy farmers spread their cows’ poo over their fields (thus the potential July Fourth stink-out), to create a better yield.  ”Our cow manure,  as it goes into the system, is 12 percent solid. Once it goes through this digestion process – which takes anywhere from three to four weeks’ retention time in the digester – it changes byproducts like nitrogen from an organic to a mineral state, and that makes it (nitrogen) less volatile. So that means It’s more stable in the soil, so it doesn’t leach out with rain.

“But by doing this, we’re also able to better manage the nutrients in our soils,” Crave adds. “The number one limit for applying manure to our cropland is phosphorus. Historically, before we had the digester, when we would go apply manure to the soil, when we reached our limit, we’d have to test it. … Now, we can apply manure as fertilizer at whatever rate that crop will use, and we can meet our fertilizer needs without having to to buy commercial fertilizer. It (the whole process) allows us to separate our manure into different components, where we can use it.” And literally recycle it!

Here’s essentially how it works: The cow’s manure is routed to anaerobic “digester”, which is kept around 100 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-30 days. Bacteria break down the waste, producing, among other things, methane gas, which builds up pressure in the digester. Next, the biogas is delivered through a pipe into a modified natural gas engine, which in turn fuels the engine, making it spin the generator, creating electricity.

In addition, as Mark Crave explains it, “when the manure comes out of the digester we put it into a screw press and separate out about half of the solids. What we do with those solids is multiple-use: Number one, those solids (which, pressed, become thin, fibrous organic compound – voila cow “straw”) go back into the barn and are put into the stalls.  It’s a very inert product that has very little odor, it’s very much like green sawdust and in fact probably has less of a small than even sawdust. It’s a fluffy, very loose laying product, and the cows just love to lay in it.”

What remains after that bedding is used, is again recycled using the digester, and can be sold as potting soil.

“It’s basically a closed loop system,” says Crave.

Who knew poop had so many positive qualities?

(Photo credits: Blue Spruce Farm — Steve Dvorak, left, and Melissa Dvorak, right, talk with Eral Audte and David Dunn at Blue Spruce Farm while the separator behind them takes solids out of the liquid manure after it is digested, so the liquid can be used as fertilizer and the solids used as animal bedding; Earl Audet, left, co-owner of Blue Spruce farm, and David Dunn, program Manager for CVPS Cow Power^TM, examine dry solids left over from the digestion process.)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

“Just the thought of tomato blight sends fear into the heart of every farmer.”

Those are the words of organic farmer Charlie Reid, who operates two small farms in southeastern New Hampshire. “We’ve been lucky this year … so far,” says Reid. “Lots of farmers have had to pull (dig up and destroy) their entire tomato crops. But with all this rain and so little sun my luck could change (for the worse) overnight.”

Blight is a highly contagious fungus that hits both tomatoes and potatoes. The Potato Famine in Ireland in the late 19^th century was caused by blight. And now blight is killing both tomato and potato crops in New England and in some mid-Atlantic states. It’s not yet an epidemic, but cause for concern for both farmers and consumers, as well as home garden growers who unwittingly used infected seedlings.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture’s “Agriview” has this alert for farmers:

“It (blight) appears on potato or tomato leaves as pale green, water-soaked spots, often beginning at leaf tips or edges. The circular or irregular leaf lesions are often surrounded by a pale yellowish-green border that merges with healthy tissue. Lesions enlarge rapidly and turn dark brown to purplish-black. During periods of high humidity and leaf wetness, a cottony, white mold growth is usually visible on lower leaf surfaces at the edges of lesions.”

There are two culprits in this year’s late blight: too much rain and consumer nurseries selling starter plants, which unwittingly spread the ailment.

Tomatoes Need Sun To Shake Blight

Rainfall has varied across the country at seemingly excessive rates: for example, too little in Texas and too much in the Northeast. While early blight in lesser amounts  is normal each year, this season’s heavy rains have soaked many farms and there hasn’t been enough sun to dry the fields.

Add wind to the rain and the situation worsens: Late blight spores are carried by wind from one plant to another. And while one plant might be infected and the one next to it untouched, eventually the entire crop in a field or backyard garden will be affected and die.

Although nothing can save your tomatoes once they become blight-infected there are a wide variety of preemptive organic and natural ways to prepare your crop. Go to Garden Web to start your search.

Organic farmers and organic home gardeners can also find natural and organic compounds at most feed and hardware stores.  Conventional farmers try to prevent blight by spraying with herbicides, fungicides and pesticides but even they don’t guaranteed success.

A second blight culprit this summer was the mass marketing of tomato plants sold at big-box stores like Wal-Mart, Lowe’s and Home Depot. An unknown number of plants were distributed by these stores via Bonnie Plants, a wholesale gardening company in Alabama that buys many of its plants from growers in other parts of the country.

Bonnie Plants has recalled seedlings that remained on store shelves but it was too late for others that had been bought and planted earlier.

Bonnie’s General Manager Dennis Thomas told the New York Times that only five of the recalled plants had blight. “This pathogen did not come from our plants,” he said. “This is something that has been around forever.”

Bonnie explains on its website that this year’s blight was worse than in previous years because of cool, wet conditions and refers home growers to the Texas A & M horticulture website, Aggie Horticulture, and its section on tomato problems. The notes on late blight help gardeners identify diseased plants; other tomato diseases are covered in the tomato guide at well.

An article in Growing Produce by a Cornell professor of plant website about this issue reports its discovery in commercial fields in Long Island in June, followed by reports on plants in retail stores.
The article notes that the problem could spread, depending on the weather: “All tomato and potato crops are at high risk of developing late blight this season, especially if the rainy weather continues. All growers should assume their crops eventually will be affected and thus should be on a weekly schedule to both thoroughly inspect their potato and tomato plantings…,” writes Margaret Tuttle McGrath.

Home Growers Should Dispose of Affected Plants

“We are urging home gardeners, especially those who may have recently planted tomato seedlings from a big box store, to check for this disease,” said Jim Dwyer, University of Maine Potato Specialist. “Because the tomato fruits will be ruined by this fungus and the threat of late blight spreading to potatoes, home gardeners that find late blight on their plants should pull, bag and throw out these plants. They should not put them on the compost pile.”

According to Jon Turmel, Vermont State Plant Regulator, “The stores across the state have been more than helpful at removing plants from their shelves.”

This summer in New Hampshire field tomatoes are selling for around $2.45 a pound but continued rain there and in Maine and Vermont hold the key to late blight and New England’s tomato crop. In the Hudson Valley agricultural region of New York late blight has been described as “explosive” and “never seen … on such a widespread basis.”

Late blight has not been common in New England but when it does occur it is very destructive. In Colchester, Vt., Laurie Mazza is still selling her greenhouse tomatoes for $2.99 a pound. “We’re a week or so away from our field tomatoes and while they look good now, especially the cherry tomatoes, something could happen.”

(Photos of healthy tomatoes and plants by Green Right Now.com; late blight tomato, photo credit: Texas A&M University)

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

President Barack Obama today ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to review its previous refusal to allow California and more than a dozen other states to raise emissions standards above and beyond the national standard. The Bush administration had denied the requests.

“Instead of serving as a partner, Washington stood in their way,” President Obama said. “The days of Washington dragging its heels are over.”

And in what he called “a down payment on a broader and sustained effort to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” President Obama directed the Department of Transportation to establish higher fuel efficiency standards for carmakers’ 2011 model year. The standard, known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE), was established in 1975 in the wake of the Arab Oil Embargo.

Here are states that are seeking to regulate auto emission standards, according to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and the National Resources Defense Council:

California – On July 22, 2002, former Governor Gray Davis signed AB 1493, a pioneering measure to protect California’s health and environment by reducing global warming pollution from all new cars and trucks sold in the state, America’s largest automobile market.

New Jersey – On January 14, 2004, Governor James E. McGreevey signed legislation that adopted California’s vehicle emissions standards to automobiles sold in New Jersey.

Connecticut – On May 4, 2004, Governor John G. Rowland signed the Clean Car Act, PA 04-84, requiring the Department of Environmental Protection to adopt regulations implementing California’s vehicle emissions standards, and to keep the Connecticut regulations current with changes California makes.

Oregon – In December 2005, the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission (EQC) adopted temporary rules requiring Oregon to meet California’s vehicle emissions standards. On June 22, 2006, the EQC permanently adopted rules requiring all new motor vehicles sold in Oregon to meet California’s vehicle emissions standards.

Washington – On May 6, 2005, Governor Christine Gregoire signed HB 1397, adopting California’s vehicle emissions standards for Washington, conditional on Oregon’s adoption of the standard.

Rhode Island – On October 13, 2005, Governor Don Carcieri announced Rhode Island’s intention to adopt California’s vehicle emissions standards. The standards were officially adopted on December 22, 2005 with approval of Air Pollution Control Regulation no.37, Rhode Island’s Low Emission Vehicle Program.

Vermont – On November 7, 2005, the Vermont Air Pollution Control Division adopted a rule amending its low emission vehicles regulation to be identical to that of California’s vehicle emissions standards.

New York – On November 9, 2005, the New York State Environmental Board approved State regulations that require significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles by adhering to California’s vehicle emissions standards.

Maine – In December 2005, the Board of Environmental Protection adopted amendments to Chapter 127, New Motor Vehicle Emission Standards, which incorporated California’s vehicle emissions standards for new motor vehicles sold in Maine.

Massachusetts – On January 9, 2006, Secretary of Environmental Affairs, Stephen R. Pritchard announced the state’s adoption of California’s vehicle emissions standards, designed to produce cleaner air and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts. The standards take effect in Massachusetts starting with 2009 model year vehicles.

Arizona – On September 8, 2006, Governor Janet Napolitano signed Executive Order 2006-13, which directs the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to coordinate with the Arizona Department of Transportation to adopt and implement California’s vehicle emissions standards.

Pennsylvania – On September 19, 2006, Pennsylvania’s Environmental Quality Board approved the Clean Vehicles Program, a plan to meet California’s vehicle emissions standards. On November 2, 2006, the state’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission approved the implementation of the plan. Despite support from Governor Edward G. Rendell, in late 2006, the Pennsylvania General Assembly debated SB 1025, a rollback bill threatening to block the state from implementing the Clean Cars Law. On November 22, 2006, however, Pennsylvania concluded its ‘lame duck’ session without having voted on the SB 1025.

New Mexico – On December 28, 2006, Governor Bill Richardson issued executive order 2006-69, establishing goals and timetables for steps the state can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including adopting California’s vehicle emissions standards. The New Mexico Environment Department is charged with submitting a proposal to the Environmental Improvement Board no later than January 1, 2008 to implement a state clean car standard consistent with California’s. In November 2007, the Albuquerque-Bernalillio Air Quality Control Board and the Environmental Improvement Board adopted the vehicle standards

New Jersey – On January 14, 2004, Governor James E. McGreevey signed legislation that adopted California’s vehicle emissions standards to automobiles sold in New Jersey

Utah – In May 2007, Utah joined the Western Climate Initiative, a joint effort to reduce regional greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change. Other members include Arizona, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Manitoba. By agreeing to the Initiative’s regional goal, members commit to adopt California’s GHG standards for vehicles.

Florida – On July 13, 2007, Governor Charlie Crist signed Executive Order 07-127, requiring the Florida Secretary of Environmental Protection to develop rules adopting California’s vehicle emissions standards.

Colorado – On November 7, 2007, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter released Colorado’s Climate Action Plan, under which the Governor will issue an executive order directing Colorado’s Air Quality Control Division to propose clean car standards.

Sources: Pew Center on Global Climate Change and the National Resources Defense Council

Here’s an excerpt from my new book, Saving The World At Work:

Every day at work, you are surrounded by waste that could be easily converted into social nutrition for your community. Have you ever counted all the broken or outdated computers, monitors, printers, phones, desks, and chairs gathering dust?

Many innovators are turning their trash into food by partnering with nonprofit groups with expertise in preparing used items for community distribution. Electro-Motive, a LaGrange, Illinois–based manufacturer of electric-diesel locomotives, took a novel approach to a recent company-wide upgrade of its computers. Instead of throwing out 700 old computer workstations, the company donated them to Chicago’s Computers for Schools, a nonprofit that refurbishes computers for local school systems. And when executives discovered that the recycling program was popular with employees, they organized a three-day recycling drive. Employee enthusiasm was so high that organizers created a follow-up event for the general public at Chicago’s United Center. Between the two events, more than 80,000 pounds of computer and office equipment were collected.

Don’t stop at computers. In Lynchburg, Virginia, the local nonprofit Crayons to Computers works with dozens of local businesses to redistribute unused or discarded office supplies, equipment, and furniture to community area schools. Similarly, Maryland farmer Rod Parker lets the Washington Area Gleaning Network, a local nonprofit that feeds the needy, pick over his farm after the annual harvest.  As a farmer, he’s committed to feeding people, and he derives satisfaction from knowing his unpicked items are being put to good use.  Larry’s Markets in Seattle donates expired or dented canned goods to local food banks. Fletcher Allen Healthcare, a medical center in Vermont, donates unused produce from its cafeteria to local nonprofits that feed the homeless.

Your company meetings and events may provide you with an opportunity to give back to your local community as well. I’ve attended hundreds of them over the last few years as a public speaker, and I’m always amazed how much food is wasted. In the fall of 2007, the socially minded rock band Phish, along with event vendors, donated all the edible leftover food from its concert in Limestone, Maine, to Catholic Charities Maine. The results were not trivial: Volunteers collected more than $5,000 worth of frozen, dry, and canned food.

Read more from Tim at SandersSays.

This week, for the first time in the United States, an auction was held allowing power plants to bid against each other for the right to spew carbon dioxide into the air.

The goal, of course, is to reduce atmospheric carbon by finding the best way of putting a price tag on it for polluters. Ten Eastern states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont — have formed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (or RGGI, pronounced “Reggie”) to coordinate their efforts by placing mandatory overall caps on emissions levels, then auctioning off allowances for CO2 emissions that can be traded between companies. As a result, companies will have a financial incentive to clean up their own act as quickly as possible.

Other regions of the country, from the state of Florida to a Western Climate Initiative, are either studying or actively planning similar cap-and-trade programs; this one is the result of five years of research and planning and is partly inspired by earlier efforts to tackle acid rain. According to Thursday’s press release, “Under RGGI, the ten participating states will stabilize power sector carbon emissions at their capped level, and then reduce the cap by 10 percent at a rate of 2.5 percent each year between 2015 and 2018.”

A ten percent reduction over ten years, of course, is a far cry from what most activists would like to see. But it’s a more substantial measure than any being taken on a nation-wide level, and the states promise to invest the funds raised in “energy efficiency programs, renewable energy stimulus efforts and other programs to benefit consumers. As a result, RGGI will deliver economic and environmental benefits and improve energy security through reduced use of fossil fuels.”

Six of the participating states offered allowances yesterday, selling credits for over 12 million tons of carbon emissions. Other states will sell their credits in future auctions, the next of which takes place in December.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media