Tag: Agriculture

  • Dairy Farm Turning Waste Into Energy

    environmental Strategist, between the lines:  Studies have stated agriculture accounts for 80% of the worldwide fresh water consumption and contaminates 70% of our waterways.  However, each and every one of us depend upon agriculture.  Understanding that just by their very existence agricultural operations are polluters, the question becomes how can agricultural operations pollute in a way that has the least amount of impact upon human health and the environment?

    The article below highlights a growing trend in the livestock industry.  As you go through the article, I have highlighted in red the pollution insurance coverage appropriate for the various environmental exposures.

    Cows
    Cows eat at Scenic View Dairy in Fennville on Tuesday, April 19, 2016. The farm produces its own electricity with an anaerobic digester which runs on methane from manure. (Neil Blake | MLive.com)

    Dairy Farm Produces Electricity From Manure

    FENNVILLE, MI – Brian Geerlings estimates his 2,000 cows produce enough milk (milk has been classified as a pollutant so Environmental Impairment Liability (EIL) site pollution coverage for the dairy farm and transportation pollution insurance to get the milk to the producer / consumer) each day to supply each resident of Grand Rapids with an 8-ounce glass of milk.

    But that’s not all his cows produce. Thanks to three “anaerobic digesters” that process the manure on the “back end” of the farm, the Scenic View Dairy also generates enough electricity to power more than 700 homes.

    “We’re able to produce our milk with a negative carbon footprint,” says Geerlings, a 36-year-old farmer who moved his Scenic View Dairy to Allegan County from the Zeeland area in 2000 to escape the urban sprawl that inhibited expansion.

    The cows are milked three times a day (Before a cow can be milked they must be washed which produces contaminated waste water.  Washing consumes approximately 40 gallons per cow per day.  Waste water from washing cows accounts for the majority of waste in manure lagoons.  EIL coverage will address these exposures) eating from a carefully blended mix of silage designed to give them the optimal amount of protein, fiber and nutrients. “It’s calculated to produce milk,” says Geerlings, who estimates each cow eats about 110 pounds each day.

    Housed in open-air barns (Air emissions from cows methane, which makes up 10 – 15% of global methane emissions.  EIL coverage for this exposure) designed to keep them comfortable and out of the weather, each cow’s milk output is individually weighed and recorded.

    “We have records from the day she’s born until the day she dies,” said Geerlings, who said the herd produces about 18,000 gallons of milk each day – about 75 pounds per cow.

    After it leaves the cow, the milk is piped into a chiller (Many agricultural products, like milk, need to be kept cold which involves refrigerant chemicals that can release air emissions or spill fluids.  EIL coverage.) and transported within 24 hours by truck to a milk processing plant in Reed City, where it is converted into Yoplait yogurt, or Coopersville, where it dried and used in the food processing industry or sent overseas.  (Products pollution exposure.  Generally, the environmental liability insurance market does not like to offer this coverage on consumable products.)

    That’s on the front end. What makes Geerlings’ farm unusual is his handling of the cows’ manure, which has historically been treated as a smelly nuisance (EIL coverage).

    At Scenic View Dairy, the manure is treated like gold. While the cows are in the milking parlor, their manure is scraped into holding tanks and sent to one of three large green silos (EIL coverage for the storage), where it is heated over a 22-day period.

    The heating process causes the slurry to emit methane gases that are captured by the large cones. As a bonus, capturing the methane gas also eliminates much of the smell associated with the farm. (EIL coverage for air emissions)

    The captured methane is used to fuel two 12-cylinder Caterpillar motors that run round-the-clock (EIL for air emissions) to drive electrical co-generators that supply electricity for the farm and are fed back into the grid operated by Consumers Energy.

    Besides eliminating an electrical bill that could reach up to $15,000 a month, Geerlings estimates he sells about two-thirds of the electricity generated by the farm back to Consumers Energy. “We just renewed our 20-year contract with Consumers,” he said.

    The farm’s negative carbon footprint also allows Geerlings to sell “carbon credits” to companies who need to offset their carbon consumption. While the market price of carbon credits fluctuates, Geerlings estimated he pockets about $50,000 a year from their sale.

    After the methane is extracted, liquid is expelled from the manure and returned to the barns for bedding. Some of the “bio-mulch” also is sold to landscape companies for mulch or soil conditioners. (Depending upon how the bio-mulch is stored you can have a storm water runoff exposure along with the transportation pollution liability exposure to get mulch to landscape companies and consumers.  EIL and transportation pollution liability coverage.  Potential products pollution exposure.)

    The liquid from the manure is stored in lagoons (EIL coverage) and injected back into the 3,200 acres (EIL coverage) which Geerlings owns or rents (Depending upon the rental agreement this could be site pollution coverage or Contractors Pollution Liability (CPL).) in the area to raise corn, soybeans, wheat and rye (EIL coverage for the storage and application of other agricultural chemicals used in order to grow these crops.). Much of those crops are fed back to the herd.

    The digesters not only add cash to Geerlings’ bottom line, but also stabilizes his balance sheet when dairy prices fluctuate.

    “There are times in the past year when the digester has made more than the cows,” says Geerlings, who employs 35 full-time workers. “It takes dedication and it takes focus to make it pay.”

    Jim Harger covers business for Mlive Media Group. Email him at jharger@mlive.com 

    *Link To The Article and Video* 

     

  • A Rising Tide of Contaminants

    environmental Strategist, between the lines:  It may surprise you to know the vast array of contaminates our waste water treatment plants are not equipped to treat.  The untreated contaminants are then discharged into our waterways.  This article gives 40,000 foot view of what is taking place with our waterways from some of the materials / chemicals we produce along with the politics.

    By DEBORAH BLUM – SEPTEMBER 25, 2014

    Deborah Swackhamer, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Minnesota, decided last year to investigate the chemistry of the nearby Zumbro River. She and her colleagues were not surprised to find traces of pesticides in the water.

    Neither were they shocked to find prescription drugs ranging from antibiotics to the anti–convulsive carbamazepine. Researchers realized more than 15 years ago that pharmaceuticals – excreted by users, dumped down drains – were slipping through wastewater treatment systems.

    But though she is a leading expert in so-called emerging contaminants, Dr. Swackhamer was both surprised and dismayed by the sheer range and variety of what she found. Caffeine drifted through the river water, testament to local consumption of everything from coffee to energy drinks. There were relatively high levels of acetaminophen, the over-the-counter painkiller. Acetaminophen causes liver damage in humans at high doses; no one knows what it does to fish.

    “We don’t know what these background levels mean in terms of environmental or public health,” she said. “It’s definitely another thing that we’re going to be looking at.”

    Or, she might have said, one of many, many other things.

    The number of chemicals contaminating our environment is growing at exponential rate, scientists say. A team of researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey tracks them in American waterways, sediments, landfills and municipal sewage sludge, which is often converted into agricultural fertilizer. They’ve found steroid hormones and the antibacterial agent triclosan in sewage; the antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac) in fish; and compounds from both birth control pills and detergents in the thin, slimy layer that forms over stones in streams.

    “We’re looking at an increasingly diverse array of organic and inorganic chemicals that may have ecosystem health effects,” said Edward Furlong, a research chemist with the U.S.G.S. office in Denver and one of the first scientists to track the spread of pharmaceutical compounds in the nation’s waterways. “Many of them are understudied and unrecognized.”

    In an essay last week in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, titled “Re-Emergence of Emerging Contaminants,” editor-in-chief Jerald L. Schnoor called attention to both the startling growth of newly registered chemical compounds and our inadequate understanding of older ones.

    The American Chemical Society, the publisher of the journal, maintains the most comprehensive national database of commercially registered chemical compounds in the country. “The growth of the list is eye-popping, with approximately 15,000 new chemicals and biological sequences registered every day,” Dr. Schnoor wrote.

    Not all of those are currently in use, he emphasized, and the majority are unlikely to be dangerous. “But, for better or worse, our commerce is producing innovative, challenging new compounds,” he wrote.

    Dr. Schnoor, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Iowa, also noted rising concern among researchers about the way older compounds are altered in the environment, sometimes taking new and more dangerous forms.

    Some research suggests that polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, are broken down by plants into even more toxic metabolites. Equally troubling, scientists are finding that while PCBs are banned, they continue to seep into the environment in unexpected ways, such as from impurities in the caulk of old school buildings.

    PCBs have long been identified as hazardous, but not every contaminant is so risky, Dr. Schnoor emphasized.

    “Out of the millions of chemical compounds that we know about, thousands have been tested and there are very few that show important health effects,” he said in an interview.

    But, he added, the development of new compounds and the increasing discovery of unexpected contaminants in the environment means that the nation desperately needs a better system for assessing and prioritizing chemical exposures.

    That includes revisiting the country’s antiquated chemical regulation and assessment regulations. The Toxic Substances Control Act went into effect in 1976, almost 40 years ago, and has not been updated since.

    The law does require the Environmental Protection Agency to maintain an inventory of registered industrial compounds that may be toxic, but it does not require advance safety testing of those materials. Of the some 84,000 compounds registered, only a fraction have ever been fully tested for health effects on humans. The data gap includes some materials, like creosote and coal tar derivatives, which are currently manufactured at rates topping a million pounds a year.

    Not surprisingly, Dr. Schnoor and other scientists want to see the act updated and transformed into a mechanism for science-based risk assessment of suspect compounds. Indeed, everyone from researchers to environmental groups to the American chemical industry agree that the law is frustratingly inadequate.

    “Our chemical safety net is more hole than net,” said Ken Cook, president of theEnvironmental Working Group, an advocacy group. The Food and Drug Administration, for instance, doesn’t regulate the environmental spread of pharmaceuticals. And the toxic substances law ignores their presence in waterways.

    “Where does that leave us in terms of scientific understanding of what drugs to regulate?” Mr. Cook said.

    Anne Womack Kolton, vice president for communications at the American Chemistry Council, an organization representing chemical manufacturers, agreed. “Think about the world 40 years ago,” she said. “It was a vastly different place. It’s common sense to revise the law and make it consistent with what we know about chemicals today.”

    The two sides don’t agree on what standards for chemical testing are needed or what kind of protective restrictions should be put in place for chemicals deemed hazardous. And they are in deep disagreement about whether a revised federal law should preempt actions taken by tough-minded states like California.

    The council argues for federal standardization as the most efficient route; environmental groups believe that such an action would weaken public protection. Legislators have so far not been able to resolve those differences. This month yet another proposed update to the act stalled in a Senate committee.

    “Congress has not sent an environmental law to the president’s desk in 18 years,” Mr. Cook said. “And in the current environment, it’s very difficult to get something through.”

    Still, Dr. Swackhamer, who recently stepped down as chair of the E.P.A.’s science advisory board, notes that despite the lack of legislation, scientists have been working toward better ways to assess the risks posed by the increasing numbers of chemicals in our lives. Some may help whittle the inventory of T.S.C.A. compounds down to a priority list that focuses on less than a thousand products.

    That’s still a daunting number of chemical unknowns. But given the tens of thousands of materials in the inventory, it’s a start.

  • ‘New normal’: No one escapes pain in drought areas

    environmental Strategist, between the lines: Everything that exists on our planet is impacted by environmental exposures as the article below points out.  According to the report below “drought now covers about 38 percent of the lower 48 states”, so people living in drought areas are getting a real life experience just how precious a resource water is.

    We can’t control our environment but we can do a better job of utilizing the resources we need to live.  Since 99% + of species that have inhabited earth are extinct the odds say we better wake up or we won’t be smelling any roses.

    Our environment is creating demand for environmental Strategist™ much like computers created demand for IT professionals.  The big difference being one you can live without and one you can’t.  For a better life www.estrategist.com.

    Mark Koba | @MarkKobaCNBC , 5-20-14:

    The dry conditions in the western U.S. are so bad that even many of the companies that are thriving in the drought feel economic pain.

    Case in point—Limoneira, of Santa Paula, California, and one of the largest U.S. growers of lemons and avocados: It reached record revenue of $100 million this year thanks to higher prices brought on by a freeze in South America, said president and CEO Harold Edwards.

    Despite the higher sales, however, getting through the drought is costly, said Edwards, who noted that his firm constantly monitors its underground wells so as not to overuse them.

    “We have to do more water pumping, invest in sprinkler systems, and every extra irrigation costs us,” said Edwards, whose company has some 11,000 acres in agricultural production.

    eS factoid:  80% of the worlds fresh water is used for Agriculture.

    Analysts say that no matter what, farmers, businesses and consumers are going to feel the effects of the drought, and survival will mean shared pain through conditions that show no sign of letting up.

    “This is the new normal,” said Lori Anne Dolqueist, a partner at the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and an expert in California water regulations. “In terms of the drought, we can’t just expect to wait it out and pray for rain. We have to do a lot more through education on how we use water, stricter laws on water use and other means to get a handle on it,” she said. “And that means a tough conversation for everyone about water.”

    Severity of drought

    The current drought is not a new one. Various states have been in drought conditions for the last three to four years. But the severity of what’s happening now is alarming to many observers.

    For the first time in this century, the entire state of California is in a severe drought or worse, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

    Drought conditions in Oklahoma have farmers there expecting only 20 percent of their normal wheat yield this spring. States like Kansas Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado are also caught in the grasp of extremely dry conditions.

    And a dearth of rain over the past four years in Texas has climatologists saying the state is suffering the worst drought conditions of the past 500 years. Dozens of Texas communities, especially in the southern part, are said to have less than 90 days of water, putting lives at risk.

    California’s drought will deal a severe blow to Central Valley irrigated agriculture and farm communities this year, and could cost the industry $1.7 billion and cause more than 14,500 workers to lose their jobs, according to preliminary results of a new study by the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences.

    Consumers are taking a hit as well: Prices for meat, eggs, fresh fruits and vegetables and other foods are on the rise, in large part because of the drought that has seized western states.

    The drought has an economic trickle-down effect that could leave some towns and communities devastated, said Umar Sheikh, an industry sector credit analyst at insurance firm Euler Hermes.

    “Without water, there are no crops, and you have an exodus of people moving out of the areas,” argued Sheikh. “That means less kids in schools, less tax money for the towns and more dependence on government assistance.”

    With weather conditions as they are, a whole new way of thinking about water use is necessary, said Wayne Tucker, founder of BIO S.I. Technology, which makes microbial soil that helps increase water nutrients and efficiency for agriculture.

    “Instead of planting 5,000 acres of a crop that could use thousands of gallons of water, we need to reduce crop planting to something like 2,000 acres, ” argued Tucker. “We’re not getting the sufficient rainfall we need to keep doing what we have been doing.”

    Lynn Wilson, academic chair at Kaplan University and an environmental researcher said it will take more than just shorter showers to help the situation.

    “We have to look at all kinds of methods to save and produce water, like desalination as expensive as that is, and reusing waste water,” she said.

    Preparation for drought conditions is key, said Euler Hermes’ Sheikh.That means bigger reservoirs for storing water when it rains so there’s enough to go around during dry spells, he said.

    An online wine-selling outlet, NakedWines.com, said it’s helping wine growers in California with its own relief efforts. CEO Rowan Gormley explained that NakedWines, which uses crowd funding from its customers to invest in wineries, allows those wineries to switch to producing other wines that aren’t threatened by the drought.

    The online outlet has also invested in wineries that have their own water sources. But the company’s efforts don’t help everyone—Gromley noted that it’s primarily premium wines whose growers have sufficient water, whereas the drought is a bigger concern for “entry-level wines sourced out of the Central Valley of California.” NakedWines doesn’t focus on those areas.

    ‘Share the burden’

    According to the most recent outlook, drought now covers about 38 percent of the lower 48 states. Most of the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, northeastern New Mexico, and southwestern Kansas received only a few tenths of an inch of rain from mid-April to mid-May, when precipitation is usually on the increase in this region.

    And drought persistence is highly probable along the West Coast and in the mountain areas of states such as Colorado, where summer is a relatively dry time of year and both surface and subsoil moisture almost always decline.

    Experts say even if there were huge amounts of rainfall in the months ahead, the drought won’t go away, and it’s time to look for new ideas.

    “Whole civilizations in the past have disappeared because of lack of water,” said Kaplan University’s Wilson. “We’re going to be fighting over resources like water and it’s time we looked at them as having limits.”

    —By CNBC’s Mark Koba.

  • Trawling: destructive fishing method is turning sea floors to ‘deserts’

     environmental Strategist™, between the lines:  Agriculture uses 80% of the worlds fresh water supply and it accounts for 70% of the contamination in our waterways.  Should we stop agriculture?

    The fact that each ones of us eats food means we support agriculture, therefore, each an everyone of us is a polluter.  The challenge we face is how can we pollute in a way that has the least amount of impact on human health and the environment?

    We can’t begin to answer that question until we are environmentally educated.  For businesses and business professionals, www.estrategist.com is your first step as a polluter to have the least amount of impact upon human health and the environment.

    From: Morgan Erickson-Davis, MONGABAY.COM,  Published May 29, 2014 01:30 PM :  Bottom trawling is a practice used by commercial fisheries around the world in which a large, heavy net is dragged along the ocean floor to scoop up everything in its path. Previous research has linked trawling to significant environmental impacts, such as the harvest of large numbers of non-target species, collectively termed “by catch,” as well as destruction of shallow seabeds. Now, a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds this method is also resulting in long-term, far-reaching consequences in the deeper ocean and beyond.

    diagram courtesy of FRDC Australia

    Trawling dates back to the 1300s, and it became widespread in coastal areas around the world after the industrialization of commercial fishing in the late-1800s. Bottom trawling targets commercially valuable species that live near the sea floor, such as cod, rockfish, and various kinds of squid and shrimp. Gear varies depending on the fishing outfit, but nets can be nearly as large as a city block and scoop thousands of fish and other marine animals in a single drag.

    Bottom trawling has one of the highest bycatch rates of all commercial fishing practices. In the North Pacific, the practice accounts for 18 percent of annual groundfish harvests, and 82 percent of the region’s discarded by-catch. At times, bycatch accounts for upwards of 90 percent of a net’s total catch.

    In addition to directly killing many fish and other marine species, studies have shown that bottom trawling is very destructive to the seabed. It dislodges sediment, which destroys the habitat of ground-dwelling organisms, makes the water more opaque and unsuitable for many species, and releases pollutants and carbon that had been trapped below the seafloor.

    As populations of many fish species dwindle due to intensive commercial fishing effort, bottom trawling outfits are searching for new fishing grounds in ever-deeper regions of oceans around the world. However, this new study indicates that deeper ocean bottoms are also being affected by trawling, as the nets destroy delicate seafloor ecosystems at a level akin to desertification.

    “Cumulatively, the impacts of trawling on the sediment structure, the benthic biodiversity, and the most basic of all of the nutritional resources in these deep-sea sedimentary ecosystems resemble the catastrophic effects caused by man-accelerated soil erosion on land, and the general environmental deterioration of abandoned agriculture fields exposed to high levels of human impact,” write the researchers, from various institutions in Italy and Spain.

    Continue reading at ENN affiliate, MONGABAY.COM.