Agriculture going green?

Let's face it we live in a time where we are expanding and in turn our fossil fuels are depleting coupled with some harmful after math to our planet like green house gasses. To counter act these damages many innovations and steps have been taken. For example, the innovation of hybrid cars and even fully electric cars. It seems as if everything made is HF (high efficiency) and an energy star. These list from refrigerators, televisions, to light bulbs. Even some cities, like my own (malden), make it a point to recycle and only accept the city trash bags which you have to pay for from them in attempt to cut back on excess waste. The point is people are taking it seriously and have even taken another step in the fight to go green.

A Rural Economy and Land program have been research Anaerobic digestion to help agriculture go green. This is beneficial for farmers and it has a positive effect on green house gas emissions. According the the researchers a typical dairy farm could supply most of the electricity needed to milk the cows by simply converting their manure into energy with these digesters. The Anaerobic digester is a plant that can be fed animal slurry, energy crop, or imported waste. After the process is complete a fertilizer is a by-product and can be used to save farmers money while cutting back on carbon dioxide emissions.

"Digesting the slurry produced b y one dairy cow has the potential to reduce methane emission by 25 kg and generate 1000 kWh for electricity per year. This is the equivalent of three months electricity consumption in an average household."

There seems to be no negative issue with this technology. It is bio degradable and environment friendly. Furthermore, cost efficient and would considerably help the "green" movement. There isn't really much to say except for wow what is next.

posted by Louis Dumas (1)