Down on the Farm: An Endless Cycle of Waste

The N.Y. Times has an interesting article about dairy and livestock operators' efforts to curtail pollution from animal waste, and turn it into useful fertilizer (thus stemming use of fossil fuel-produced nitrogen fertilizers).

Check out this mind-boggling number:

A typical lactating Holstein produces about 150 pounds of waste — by weight, about two-thirds wet feces, one-third urine — each day. Mr. Volleman has 3,000 lactating Holsteins and another 1,000 that are temporarily “dry.” Do the math: his Wildcat Dairy produces about 200 million pounds of manure every year.

Yuck!

The article goes on to explore various options for dealing with all this waste.  The described inefficiencies in agricultural systems just scream of opportunities to not only reduce pollution, but to cut costs, boost profits, and improve the public health.

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