Yeah, yeah, we can see your eyes rolling! You’ve heard it all before! The anaerobic digester on Barstow’s Longview Farm creates green electricity for 250 homes, yawn. It sources free heat to the dairy barns and local homes, cool, whatever. And yes, you know that the farm uses the fluid feedstock from the digester as a chemical free fertilizer on our land, booooooringggggg.
But in addition to that, here are some things you may not know or haven’t quite considered, about our anaerobic digester.
- The digester lowers manure methane emissions and mitigates groundwater nutrient loads
- It provides a recycling solution for local organics
- It decreases the amount of organic waste in landfills
- The anaerobic digester creates a natural fertilizer that replaces chemical fertilizer use
- That in turn improves crop yields and soil health
- The digester supports resource optimization – the concept of the highest and best use of all resources by fully utilizing all inputs and outputs from the system
- It allows the farm to move away from fossil fuels for heat and electricity
- And it increases the sustainability of the food processing and selling industry in the Commonwealth
We know what you’re thinking now – WOW!