Technology changing the future of farming
Farming seems like a pure, uncomplicated proposition -- till the earth, tend to the crops, feed the animals. But for centuries, science has played a supporting role in the human agricultural experiment. From the cotton gin to the grain elevator, America's farms have been the beneficiary of, and driving force behind, some nation-changing technological improvements.
So while the pigs, cattle and fowl are still the main attractions at the annual Pennsylvania Farm Show, each year more and more exhibition space is devoted to the changing face of farming -- soybean fuel opportunities, tractors that run on ethanol, packaging improvements that allow Pennsylvania farms to ship to distant markets, GPS systems that allow plows to steer themselves.
"This is the most exciting time we have ever seen in Pennsylvania agriculture," said Rosemary McAvoy, head of the Harrisburg-based Alternative Fuels Renewable Energies Council, a forum where those in the farming business can exchange ideas about new fuels.
If oil and gas prices are a problem for the guy who commutes 15 miles to work every day, think of how the cost of oil must be affecting the agriculture community -- tractors, combines and other pieces of equipment run on diesel fuel or gasoline, not to mention the cost of trucking goods and livestock to and from the farm.
That's why so many farmers are looking to help the bottom line -- or lift the top line -- by recycling their own farm waste for fuel, or setting up separate side businesses to, say, convert soybeans into biodiesel.
They were "paying to get rid of" soybean oil, said Ms. McAvoy, until it struck farmers that the residual oil could be used as fuel. And at the farm show, several booths solicited visitors on the issue -- Keystone BioFuels promoting soy as fuel, the National Corn Growers Association pushing corn as America's best hope for energy independence, and the state's Department of Environmental Protection urging farmers to use unproductive hillside plots for windmills and turbines. Bio-digesters can convert animal manure into electricity.
