A Return to the Family Farm

  • The kids at the Turner family's Lucky Penny Farms (Photo by Julie Grant)

We’ve heard lots of stories about the
loss of family farms – about children growing
up and leaving farms. But there’s a new trend
of young professional families moving back to
the land. Julie Grant talks with three generations
of women in one of these new farm families:

Transcript

We’ve heard lots of stories about the
loss of family farms – about children growing
up and leaving farms. But there’s a new trend
of young professional families moving back to
the land. Julie Grant talks with three generations
of women in one of these new farm families:

Abbe Turner is a goat farmer.

(barn sounds)

She also has a career as chief fundraiser for Northeast
Ohio’s regional medical school. But raising goats – that’s her
passion.

“And this doe is due to kid probably tonight. You can see
she’s got the arched tail, she’s hollowed out.”

Abbe didn’t grow up learning how goats give birth.

In fact, her parents didn’t even want her to ride a horse when
she was little. Now she and her husband Anderson have
literally bought the farm.

“I joke with my parents that if they just would have bought
me that pony when I was 14 years old, they would have saved me a
heck of a lot of money.”

Today Abbe and Anderson have a pony, a full size horse, a
llama, and 51 kids – you know, baby goats. They’re starting
a boutique goat cheese business.

Oh, and they also have three young children – you know,
kids.

It was a busy life before the farm. Now, it’s up at 5 a.m. to
do chores. They bottle feed the baby goats. Then they get
the kids off to school, and go to work for the full day. Once
they’re back home, it’s more chores on the farm.

And the kids – the children – help. Abbe says she and her
husband chose this life for them.

“Anderson and I are trying to raise the children with an
understanding of food, food systems, and where it comes
from. Food comes from farms, and it comes from the
land. It doesn’t come from the store. And I think the children
understand that.”

The Turners say they chose life on the farm to give their
children better food, and a better life.

This is not necessarily the dream Abbe’s parents expected
her to realize. It’s a lot different than their hometown –
Brooklyn, New York.

“People ask me all the time, ‘how did a nice Jewish girl end
up on a goat dairy with 51 goats?’ You know maybe the
answer is just sheer luck.”

Abbe’s mother, Syma Silverman, doesn’t see it as all that
lucky. She thinks farm life is going to be a tough row to hoe
for Abbe’s family. She and her husband, Irwin, wanted their
children to have an easier life than they had.

“Abbe and Anderson both work very hard at their regular
jobs as well as with their family and with the farm. We’re all
for whatever they want.”

Abbe isn’t trying to create an easier life for her kids. But she
does think it’s a better one. They can pick apples right off
the trees. They’ve seen baby goats born and old goats die.
And they can ride a pony any time they want!

Just like Abbe’s parents, her children were surprised when
they moved to the farm. The Turner’s daughter, Madeline, is
almost nine.

“In the beginning, I didn’t want anything to do with this. I thought it was going to be some big plant where my mom
would just take our goats and make some weird stuff out of
it. I really didn’t want to do this in the beginning. And then
slowly along I came and I’m like, I thought, this could be
good.”

She says most girls her age are more into Hanna Montana
and Webkinz than milking goats.
But she’s really come to love the farm. Her mom is glad the
children are learning about the animals, the business, the
science of farming, and where their food comes from.

“We kind of joke that this is either a grand experiment or
really messing them up and it will take years of therapy
to correct. We’ll figure that out. Check back in twenty years,
how about that?”

Well, we’ll just have to do that.

For The Environment Report, I’m Julie Grant.

Related Links

Using Energy More Efficiently

  • The Sappi paper mill in Cloquet Minnesota produces most of the electricity it needs, using steam that also powers the industrial process. Sappi can even sell power when demand is high. Electric co-generation is enjoying a come-back. (Photo by Stephanie Hemphill)

More and mores states are establishing a “renewable energy standard”
for their electric utilities. So far, wind power is producing the bulk
of renewable energy. But there are other sources. Some are brand new.
Others have been around for a long time. Stephanie Hemphill reports:

Transcript

More and mores states are establishing a “renewable energy standard”
for their electric utilities. So far, wind power is producing the bulk
of renewable energy. But there are other sources. Some are brand new.
Others have been around for a long time. Stephanie Hemphill reports:


The first thing to know about electricity is that making it can be
incredibly inefficient.


In a conventional power plant, burning fuel turns water into steam.
The steam drives a turbine, which spins the generator. Only about a
third of the energy in the original fuel is converted to electricity.
Two thirds goes up the smokestack in the form of heat.


“Every time you convert energy from one form to another, you lose
something. That’s just the way it is, ’cause nothing’s perfect.”


Dwight Anderson works for Minnesota Power. He’s lived with that
inefficiency for his whole working life. Now, he’s trying to wring
more electric power out of every bit of fuel.


He’s high on something called co-generation. The basic idea is to
harness the heat or steam that normally goes up the smokestack.
There’s a good example of co-generation at the Sappi paper mill in
Cloquet, in northern Minnesota. Like many paper mills, Sappi makes
most of the electricity it needs.


Engineering Manager Rick Morgan points to a mountain of wood chips:


“We have about 20,000 tons of biomass stored.”


That’ll last less than a month. The plant uses 53,000 watts, enough to
power a small city.


Inside the sprawling buildings, there are several electric generators.
One of them is fueled by a recovery boiler, which burns the byproducts
of the paper-making process, to run steam through a turbine.


“…The actual turbine is manufactured in Czechoslovakia and the generator’s
made in Vestros, Sweden.”


Higher pressure steam spins the turbine to produce electricity. The
waste steam from the same boiler goes to the pulp dryer, the paper
machines, and other parts of the process.


Back in his office, Rick Morgan says energy is the fourth largest
expense for paper mills:


“If you can’t control energy costs in this business, you can’t be in
business.”


The main product here is paper, but sometimes Sappi sells electricity
too. That happened during a recent cold snap:


“The electric demand increases and the costs go higher and higher, to
the point that it’s financially feasible for us to generate power for
Minnesota Power.”


Opportunities to produce electricity turn up in some surprising places.
Like along natural gas pipelines. The pressure has to be boosted
periodically as the gas travels through the pipe. Compressors fueled
by the natural gas do that work, and normally they vent off waste heat.


But now in South Dakota, the waste heat is fueling small power plants.
They look like the barns and silos of a farm. The generator itself is
about the size of a truck.


Basin Electric Power Coop spokesman Daryl Hill says the plants are
owned and operated by an Israeli company, and the co-op buys the power:


“We get basically 22 megawatts of baseload for little investment.”


Other countries are leading in these approaches because their fuel
prices have been so high. As prices go up in the U.S., power producers
are finding ways to use more efficient technologies, and they’re
returning to old-fashioned ideas like combined heat and power. This is
a form of co-generation that was once common across the country.


A central electric plant uses its waste steam to heat buildings. Of
course, most people don’t want to live next to a coal-fired power
plant. But Neal Elliott, with the American Council for an Energy-
Efficient Economy, says with combined heat and power, cleaner fuels,
like natural gas, can become competitive:


“Use natural gas, but use it much more efficiently. And instead of
throwing more than half of the fuel value away, let’s do it with co-
gen.”


Elliott says combined heat and power and other forms of co-generation
could provide 20% of America’s electricity needs, and save on heating
fuel at the same time. And he says recovered energy generation like
along the natural gas pipelines could provide another 20%.


For the Environment Report, I’m Stephanie Hemphill.

Related Links

Ethanol Boom Could Threaten Fragile Land

The federal government is pushing the production of ethanol to help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Charlie Schlenker reports the expected boom in ethanol production may have a mixed environmental effect:

Transcript

The federal government is pushing the production of ethanol to help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Charlie Schlenker reports the expected boom in ethanol production may have a mixed environmental effect:


As the demand to produce more ethanol takes up more corn, agriculture experts predict prices will rise. Illinois State University Ecology Professor Roger Anderson says that will create an incentive for farmers to abandon the Conservation Reserve Program. The CRP pays farmers to keep environmentally fragile land out of production.


“They’re talking about expanding corn production for example, for ethanol by eight to ten million acres, and the only place they’re going to get it is to take this land out of CRP. And there will be a lot of pressure to do this.”


Anderson says planting corn on CRP acreage could increase erosion and reduce habitat diversity for wildlife, but an Agriculture Department Economist doubts there will be much pressure on CRP acreage.


For the Environment Report, I’m Charlie Schlenker.

Related Links

Scientist Warns of Biofuel Invasives

Some scientists are sounding a warning bell about the rush to plant new biofuel crops. Charlie Schlenker reports they worry the new crops could damage the environment:

Transcript

Some scientists are sounding a warning bell about the rush to plant new biofuel crops. Charlie Schlenker reports they worry the new crops could damage the environment:


The scientists warn many potential Biofuel crops have similarities with plants that have become invasive and damaging to crops and the environment. Ecology Professor Roger Anderson is the co-author of a recent article in the journal Science. He notes plants targeted for biofuel crops such as Miscanthus and switchgrass grow fast:


“They have very high rates of photosynthesis, so they’re gonna yield a lot of biomass. A second feature is that many of these plants also have few enemies and pests and diseases.”


Anderson says no studies have determined whether these plants are likely to get out of hand as kudzu, johnsongrass, and giant reed have. Anderson says invasive alien plants cost U-S agriculture more than $123 billion a year. He worries political pressure to plant new biofuel crops may cause damaging shortcuts.


For the Environment Report, I’m Charlie Schlenker.

Related Links

Marketing a By-Product of Ethanol

  • Ethanol plants are being built all over the corn belt. 97 plants are operating and another 34 new plants or expansions are underway, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. A by-product of the process is corn mash, or distillers grain. The distillers are hoping to sell it all to nearby livestock farms. (Photo by Lester Graham)

The federal government has called for more renewable fuels for cars and trucks over the next few years. Ethanol from corn is expected to meet much of that demand. As ethanol production increases, the distillers are looking for ways to make money on some of the by-products of the process. The GLRC’s Lester Graham reports on how the ethanol distillers might market what’s left over after turning corn into ethanol:

Transcript

The federal government has called for more renewable fuels for cars
and trucks over the next few years. Ethanol from corn is expected
to meet much of that demand. As ethanol production increases, the
distillers are looking for ways to make money on some of the by-
products of the process. The GLRC’s Lester Graham reports on
how the ethanol distillers might market what’s left over after
turning corn into ethanol:


(Sound of construction)


New ethanol plants are being built every year. 97 plants are in
operation today and the Renewable Fuels Association indicates 34 new or
expanded plants are under construction. The ethanol refinery
industry is gearing up for the expansion that the government wants.


Ethanol plants are basically giant corn alcohol stills. They produce
huge batches of – well – moonshine, but like moonshiner stills,
there’s a corn mash left over. It’s called distillers grain, and with
all the new plants coming online, there’s going to be a lot more of the
by-product in the future. Distillers grain can be used as livestock feed.
So, the agricultural industry is trying to get more cattle farmers and
others to buy it.


Tracy Jones is a farmer in northern Illinois. He says the agriculture
industry and the ethanol plants that want to get rid of the distillers
grain cheaply, have been encouraging farmers to expand their
livestock operations.


“And I know some producers that are maybe expanding. It’s a
good deal, but it’s not that good of a deal, and there’s a lot of other
issues that go into the cattle feeding business besides just getting
cheap feed.”


Jones has been feeding wet distillers grain from Wisconsin to his
cattle for about a year. Jones says the distillers grain makes sense
as long as the price doesn’t get too high.


“We need to buy it cheaply. We’re basically using it as a corn
replacer. So, when we have cheap corn, you still need to buy the
by-products cheaply also.”


Jones says his cattle are gaining weight at about five-cents a pound
cheaper using distillers grain as part of the mix of feed. Part of the
reason is the price is lower, but distillers grain has another
advantage… it’s higher in protein than plain corn. It’s got about the
same protein content as soybean meal.


That makes Jason Anderson think this stuff might be good to
export overseas as a food for people. Anderson is the Economic
Development Director for the city of Rochelle, Illinois. An ethanol
plant is being built in his city. With a couple of major railways and
a cargo container transfer station in his town, exporting dried distillers
grain would be easy. Because of the nation’s trade deficit, about
half the cargo containers go back to their original country empty.
Anderson says the by-product could be dried to a sort of high-
protein corn meal and shipped.


“Dried distillers grain could be put into intermodal containers,
which are sealed containers, put on a train and sent to the west
coast. They could also be shipped over the Pacific Ocean to starving
countries on the other side of the world.”


Corn tofu, anyone?


Exporting dried distillers grain as human food overseas hasn’t been
discussed much, but shipping it to cattle feedlots in Texas and
other cattle country has been discussed. Agriculture experts think
the ethanol plants located in the corn-belt won’t find enough
livestock in the immediate area to buy the product.


“At this point, where the livestock are and where the plants are
there’ll be a lot of them that has to be shipped.”


Jim Hilker is an agriculture marketing expert at Michigan State
University. He says he’s not sure the ethanol plants will make
much money on distillers grain, especially if they have to ship it to
cattle feedlots out west. That’s because they’ll have to dry the
product… and that adds to the cost.


“The first ones, I think, are making some money before we get
saturated on this, and I think if we put a system for handling it and
stuff in place, they’ll probably. But, if they can more than cover
the cost – remember, otherwise there’s disposal fees too. So, a
break-even here is a pretty good deal.”


So if the distillers just recover the drying and shipping costs, it
would be better than paying to dump the distillers grain in a
landfill.


But farmer Tracy Jones says he thinks the ethanol manufacturers
have already figured out the by-product will be abundant… and
they’re still counting on making some money on it.


“When they do their financials for their ethanol plant, they don’t
plan on giving this product away. So, they need to get something
for it.”


Jones says he’s noticed the ethanol producers don’t call distillers
grain a by-product of the process. They call it a co-product. He
thinks that’s a little marketing ploy that indicates the ethanol
plants definitely plan to demand a good price for the livestock feed,
regardless of the glut on the market.


For the GLRC, this is Lester Graham.

Related Links

Recycling Faces a Set-Back

This year, the Environmental Protection Agency highlighted Ann Arbor, Michigan as one of the most progressive recycling communities in the country. The city was on the forefront of recycling PVC plastics, however, recently, Ann Arbor discontinued the program and some worry that sets a negative precedent nationwide. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mary Boyle has more.