Producer’s Innovative Harvest Cuts Costs, Harnesses Renewable Energy

Beltsville, MD – “The concept of being self-sufficient is pretty exciting,” says Roger Rainville, a Vermont Dairy producer who has been working for four years to achieve energy independence on his farm.

Working with UVM Extension Specialist Heather Darby on a SARE funded grant, Rainville conducted three years of trials to identify top producing varieties of canola in northern Vermont. The easy-to-grow canola fit well into his existing corn-alfalfa rotation—and by the third year, after realizing that he could eliminate swathing, Rainville harvested directly from the field, achieving yields of 1.5 tons per acre, leaving him very optimistic about future production.

Clean Energy Farming, a free 16-page bulletin published by SARE Outreach, features Rainville and other innovative SARE-funded farmers who are increasing profits by implementing energy efficient farming practices and producing and using renewable energy. The bulletin is filled with stories of producers and researchers working together to demonstrate how clean energy practices are quickly becoming core to the operations of farmers and ranchers across America.

Cutting fuel costs was just one of Rainville’s incentives. With nearly 10,000 cows in a 20 mile radius of his operation, he quickly grasped the benefits of growing canola oilseed to produce his own fuel and using the by-product for cattle feed.

“Farmers can do this themselves,” says Rainville. “Years ago, farmers used ten percent of their land to fuel the farm — the feed went to the horses. This is the same idea.”

Clean Energy Farming is the latest of a series of publications that feature the most creative research funded by SARE. Preview or download the entire publication at http://www.sare.org/publications/energy.htm. To order print copies, visit www.sare.org/Webstore, call 301/504-5411 or email tech@sare.org. Agricultural educators may place orders for print copies in quantity at no cost.

Distributed by SARE Outreach for the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program and based upon work supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), USDA. SARE’s mission is to advance – to the whole of American agriculture – innovations that improve profitability, stewardship and quality of life by investing in groundbreaking research and education. SARE Outreach operates under cooperative agreements with the University of Maryland and the University of Vermont to develop and disseminate information about sustainable agriculture. For more information visit www.sare.org.

Know Your Farmer! Local Food Systems are Most Sustainable

We can’t emphasize enough how important it is that we become familiar with our local food systems.  We want to encourage everyone to get to know their land, their farmers and producers, and build sustainable networks for communities’ food supply.

In an effort to aid in the process, we will be collecting data from across the nation in an effort to connect the farmer to the consumer.  There are many tremendous resources out there that are doing this, we want to promote those.  There are also many  places that desperately need additional information and education, we want to get that information out to the public.A great resource for Local Food Information and Resources is: Local Harvest.

If you are a farmer, a producer, or a consumer, and are interested in becoming part of our network and helping us to build this system in our communities, please visit: www.goodamericanpost.com and click on the Farm-to-Fork Button.  Or, email us at: goodamericanpost@gmail.com.

Knowledge Vs. Presumptions

Reading through Thomas Sowell’s book, Basic Economics, it is easy to see that letting the market work is essential to having a sustainable and productive economy.

The reason “the market” works so well is that there are millions of people with specialized knowledge making decision about what to buy and what to sell.  These people – the 300+million consumers in the United States of America – each have their own individualized knowledge that helps them to make decisions

Knowledge, in itself, is a scarce resource.

When government officials start making decisions that affect the market, they are doing this based on PRESUMPTIONS.  Presumptions about what is best ARE NOT the same as specialized knowledge coming from the market, of the 300+ million people that make up our economy.

Presumptions are what get people in trouble – it is KNOWLEDGE that we need.  And thus, less government intervention, red tape, and bureaucracy in our free market would allow for more efficient and more specialized decisions from WE THE PEOPLE.  That’s the whole idea of a FREE MARKET!

-Tisha Casida