Local Food & Energy production commingle via ecology
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Massachusetts officials brought their “Food Waste Ban Full Harvest Tour” to Hadley on Friday with a visit to Barstow’s Longview Farm, the site of an innovative waste-to-energy project.
The farm’s anaerobic digester takes manure and food waste and converts it into methane gas, which in turn powers a 300-kilowatt on-site generator. Most of the electricity produced is sold to the grid, and the rest powers the dairy farm operation. The by-product of the fermentation process is used as fertilizer.
The new policy affects approximately 1,700 businesses and institutions, including supermarkets, colleges and universities, hotels, convention centers, hospitals and nursing homes, large restaurants and food service and processing companies. It does not affect residences.
Jed Davis, Director of Sustainability for Agrimark-Cabot, said the waste ban should not be seen as a burdensome regulation, but as an opportunity.
“It’s now open season for innovation in repurposing waste.”