American Dream And Anaerobic Digesters

The author states that cows are responsible of at least 18% of methane that is in our atmosphere. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is odorless and colorless. The author also states that carbon dioxide is cleaner than methane. Methane released right into the atmosphere will be a thing of the past, because the National Institute For Agricultural Technology of Argentina has created a backpack that can be placed on cows. That bag has tubes that go into the digestive tract of the cow and collects 300 liters of methane. That is enough energy to be used to power a car for 24 hours instead of being released into the atmosphere. While each bag collects only 300 liters, one adult cow will produce 1000 liters of methane in one day. One day of methane collection can power a car for more than 72 hours or 3 cars for more than 24 hours. Methane can also be used for generating electricity by burning it to produce heat. While methane is harmful, there are still ways to reduce the output of it in the atmosphere by putting it to good

Manure contains bacteria and is very high in nitrogen. The excess nitrogen can also cause nutrient-related problems in the area.

In the article America’s Food Crisis and how to fix it by Bryan Walsh it talks about how people are packing in animals into confined pens with a bunch of other animals of its kind. All the animals are dosed with antibiotics to keep from getting sick. The article explains that the waste that the animals produce on the factory farms gets disposed into open air lagoons and how it can contaminate nearby streams and creeks.

What naïve people cease to comprehend is that manure can also have serious consequences for humans that come into contact with contaminated water. Manure contains a wide array of pathogens from E.coli to Campylobacter that causes very serious harm, if not be fatal in certain cases. When manure is washed off a farm by rain into a body of water, the bacteria stay with it, and the more runoff that is flowing into a single lake or river, the stronger and more dangerous these bacteria can be. If the concentration reaches a high enough level, the bacteria can be unsafe for people to swim in the water or merely come in contact with the water, because they can be given the disease. Before anyone decides that these bacteria are no big deal and chose to go swimming anyway, they must realize that the symptoms of E.coli include, severe abdominal cramping as well as bloody diarrhea for a duration between 7-14 days. In severe cases, E.coli can be lethal and is responsible for almost 100 deaths annually in the United States alone. In Lake Winnebago, a warning sign is posted whenever there is greater than 235 colonies of E.coli in a sample of

In the news, we always hear about the catastrophic accidents such as oil spills or chemicals polluting an area from a factory. Such stories show things that might harm the earth or us. Yet, have folks ever suspected the friendly farmer down the road as a threat to your life? Well, Kelly Hunter Burch and Robert T. Connery share their viewpoints on whether animal manure is as deadly as these other chemicals.

Hog farms are plentiful in North Carolina, but the 40 million gallons of untreated hog waste created everyday creates more than just a foul smell. Hog waste creates huge environmental, health, and economic issues, such as excessive nitrates in groundwater, the disruption of the thyroid, and the decrease of land value. Due to the number of hogs and how inefficiently the waste is being disposed of, this is becoming an increasing problem in North Carolina. The threat to the environment, our health, and the economy could be significantly reduced by using cleaner and more efficient ways to dispose of the waste, such as anaerobic digesters.

By eating more foods from community based farms, will reduce pollution and improve the air quality (A) resulting from semi-trucks delivering fewer shipments. Having less polluted air will tremendously improve the environment by reducing the greenhouse gases that are emitted. Although those who oppose this change, claim that consuming home-grown products still can utilize the same amount of fuel (C). For example, a local farmer who sells fifty apples at a stall fifty miles from his farm uses the same “amount of fuel per apple” as a foreign company shipping two-thousand apples over two-thousand miles to a store (C). While this debate is compelling, in the long run, purchasing and consuming regionally-produced foods will have a greater impact in reducing pollution rather than solely buying imported foods. This is because companies will not have to import the same amount of food as often, if everyone joins the campaign by eating locally. Therefore, by switching to this lifestyle, the environment will notably

In this first articles explains how a farmer from a large dairy farm that is called Brookside Dairy in Indiana County is adopting new technology that will save money and help the environment by managing manure from 550 dairy cows. The Brookside Dairy farm has been owned by the George family since 1781owning about 1,200 acres and with that much land the bills were high and with 550 cattle they had about 10,000 gallons of waste to spar. In the article Mr. George said"economics, odor control and the resulting better quality fertilizer for considering a digester on their dairy operation.” So then the Georges sought help from there friendly business partner Jim Resh, of the Indiana County Conservation District, to find out if there was a way to install an on-farm digester.

It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that Americans like their meat. In fact, America produced 93 billion pounds of meat and poultry in 2012, which included some 32 million cattle. As many of us already know, agriculture has a significant impact on our environment in a variety of ways. In order to successfully rear livestock, slaughterhouses require large quantities of water, and emit plenty of greenhouse gases – methane and CO2 specially – during production.

The excess of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere have led to a dramatic rise in the climate and the hottest recorded years the Earth has seen. To be specific, “the 25 warmest years on record have come since 1980 [and] the 10 warmest since global recordkeeping began in 1880 have come since 1996, (p 56)” which is nothing to boast about, seeing as this is also the largest population and most technology the Earth has ever seen. Moreover, in lecture, we went over the amount of greenhouse gases created solely by livestock and how being a society dependent of livestock for food is very negative. Livestock emit about 68% of all agriculturally produced methane(lecture) and methane counts for approximately 18% of greenhouse gases (p 57). That is not to say that livestock do not create a large amount; in fact, human-caused methane emissions are almost solely from agriculture. To combat this, Dr. Wailes proposed that instead of basing our diet on water-heavy crops and methane-emitting animals, we switch to much more sustainable foods. One example of this would be to eat bugs. Bugs contain much more protein by the pound and do not eat alfalfa, which is what causes cows and other livestock to emit greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. Dr. Wailes also displayed a chart with three different “meals” which

Before we can talk about how animal agriculture waste shapes our environment, we must first know exactly what it is and how much of it there is.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (2008), industrial livestock operations produce over 300 million tons of wastewater per year. Although there are

Have you ever asked yourself why is sustainable agriculture is so much better than industrial agriculture? Or what 's in the milk i drink or the meat that i eat? Every time you sit down for a meal containing meat or dairy you’re dining with unknown carcinogens, bacteria, and other contaminants that can accumulate in your body and remain there for years. A carcinogen is a substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis which is the formation of cancer. commercial/industrial farming products are loaded with bacteria,

The everyday American on average wastes an astonishing twenty pounds of food each month (Gunders). Food waste is defined, as food that was intended for human consumption but was never eaten. Food waste in America is a massive problem; perfectly edible food is spoiled and discarded at every section of the food supply chain, which causes severe consequences for the environment and the economy. If Americans wasted 5% less food, the country as a whole would save fifty million dollars yearly (Hall). Not only would reducing food waste help save money but also it would immensely help climate change, as decomposing food in landfills creates methane gas. CO2 is known as the main culprit of climate change however; although methane gas is less talked

There are countless issues that pose danger to the environmental health of the Earth, but one of the most often overlooked problems is food waste. Food waste contributes to droughts as well as other serious economic and climate ramifications. However, there are many things that can be done to resolve this pressing issue.