Nicole Follini
Dr. Williams
Ethics in the Environment
December 2, 2013
Poo
Poo Power: A Surprisingly Clean Way to Provide Energy
Vermont today is known for its dairy farming and how
green this state tries to be. Even though Vermont isn’t as green as the rest of
the country assumes it to be there are great projects going on to try and
sustain this state, one of these efforts being Cow Power. One of the major
farms in Vermont that is successfully using this relatively new technology is
Audet’s Blue Spruce Farm. Dairy farming causes more pollution than meets the
eye and this new and exciting technology is offering a solution to the pollution,
while also offering a new source of power.
The farm was originally purchased in 1958 by Norman and Mary-Rose and
was mainly focused on dairy farming, just like the majority of the farms in
Vermont at the time. After a devastating fire and a generation later the farm
is now a part of a new wave of dairy farms. Aduet’s Farm employee’s 30 people
and currently has one digester and a wind turbine. They also have three different
barns. One was built in 1996, but due to their success they built two more. The
others were built in 2001 and the other in 2009 to hold their 1,300 cows (Audet).
Audet’s
farm doesn’t only focus on making a profit, but also the wellbeing of their
cows. This means these cows are a little high maintenance. They require soft
bedding, scrapers to get their manure off the ground, and fans to keep them
cool and happy (Cow Power). Unfortunately, keeping the cows happy is expensive.
This is where the idea to get a digester became an even better idea. The
digester not only provides energy for the farm by collecting their poop, but the
byproduct of the digester is bedding for the cows. How the digester actually
works is the
digester is heated by a hydraulic system to replicate the temperature of a
cow's stomach which sits at 100 degrees F and remains in the digester for a twenty
one day period. Microorganisms produce methane gas from manure and the gas
collects at the top of the digester. Biogas goes through a pipe to fuel an
engine that drives the generator to produce heat, hot water, and electricity
from which the power goes directly onto the utilities, dispersing to power
lines (Cow Power). This is enough energy to power between 1,800 and 3,700 homes
on top of the farm itself, but also Green Mountain College, Killington
Resort, Long Trail Brewing Company, and Vermont Clothing Company are also proud
users of the Cow Power movement(Levine).
The
digesters have offered an opportunity to keep the manure out of the water
systems and have it be used for something positive and useful. The question is
how can we spread the news about this exciting new technology and make it available
to other farmers? Right now obtaining one of these digesters is very expensive,
roughly $250,000 (Moser). There are government funds out there to assist the
farmers, like the Renewable Development Fund, but even after that it is still
expensive (Cow Power). It seems as if the digesters are only helping the big
farms that are already doing okay. This is new technology which is why it is so
expensive, but it is only available to a small market of farmers. Supporting
the movement is easy to do because there isn’t anything that is super harmful
to the environment or the cows; it is just making it available to everyone that
wants to partake.
Our
Taker society is still focused on how the Earth is ours to conquer, but not
just the land, the organisms that live on it as well (Quinn). Farming is the
ultimate example of this idea, from manipulating the land and plants, to also
domesticating animals such as cows. The domestication of animals seems as if we
have taken away their rights to live (Hughes). We have taken over their way of
life to fit our needs; animals are no longer animals, but merely a product.
Audet’s farm is doing their best to make the animals content with their
lifestyle. The rubber mats and the bedding definitely helps, but if Cow Power
does become a main source of power the fear is, will the cows be even more exploited
for what they can offer. Takers manipulate cows enough, from what they are fed,
to how long they can stand in an area for; next the cows will be manipulated to
produce more manure than natural. Cow Power is a great idea, but throughout
this class I have noticed that Takers take a concept that seems good and
exciting and completely destroy and exploit it for everything it can offer.
Through
this class I don’t think I will look at the world the same way. It feels as if
nothing is going to change. All of these efforts to find a new sustainable way
to provide energy seem to have a huge road block from actually being
successful. Our Taker society is so comfortable and used to this fossil fueled
way of life that it is hard to feel inspired to change. In the novel Ishmael, Ishmael states, “Stopping pollution is not inspiring. Sorting your trash
is not inspiring. Cutting down on fluorocarbons is not inspiring”(Quinn). So what
is? Thinking a new way is inspiring. Cow Power is offering a new way of
thinking, of using a waste and turning it into something good and successfully.
But it seems that nothing will change on a grand scale until the entire world
feels this impending sense of doom. But then will it be too late for these
technologies to take off? For one, I certainly hope not.
Enough of being a complete Debby Downer, onto the group
part of this project. I found Audet’s Blue Spruce Farm refreshing. After
talking so long about how farms are basically destroying the world, Audet’s
offered some hope. I’m upset I didn’t have the chance to go see the farm
itself, but watching the Cow Power movie was extremely informative. The most
stressful part of this project was finding the proper way to communicate with
each other and also finding times to meet since we all have very different
lives and schedules. What frustrated me the most was probably making the poster
itself. We had so much information that we wanted to throw on there, but couldn’t
because it was too text heavy, also finding pictures and a layout that everyone
enjoyed was stressful too. Over the course of this project I definitely became
very passionate about the cows and their poop along with the opportunities for
new sources of power. If anything this project was a huge learning experience,
and I definitely enjoyed the challenge.
Works Cited
Audet, Marie. "Blue Spruce Farm
| Audet's Cow Power." Blue Spruce Farm | Audet's
Cow
Power. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
<http://www.bluesprucefarmvt.com/>.
Cow Power: The Film. Dir. Allison
Gillette. Prod. Michael G. Gray. 2013. Online.
Levine, Sany.
"Cow Power, the Vermont Brand Electricity | Conservation Law
Foundation." Conservation
Law Foundation RSS. N.p., 8 May 2013. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.
Hughes, J.
Donald. An Environmental History of the World: Humankind's Changing Role in
the Community of Life. London:
Routledge, 2001. Print.
Moser, M. A. and K.F. Roos, "AgSTAR
Program: Three Commercial-Scale Anaerobic Digesters for Animal Waste", Making a Business from Biomass,
Proceedings of the 3rd Biomass Conference
of the Americas, R.P. Overend and E. Chornet, editors, 1997, Elseveir Science Inc., Tarrytown, NY
Quinn,
Daniel. Ishmael. New York: Bantam/Turner Book, 1995. Print.
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