On-Farm Energy Consumption

According to a USDA report in 2006, 15% of the cost of agricultural production in the United States was energy related.  As fuel prices skyrocket, that percentage is rising as well.  There are a number of great resources available on the web that can help analyze a farm's energy consumption and provide information on reduction of energy consumption. Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) has useful information,  as well as the ATTRA (Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas) project. The ATTRA site is particularly good, featuring a farm energy calculator, discussions on irrigation efficiency, food miles and more.

GAPRI is focused on the energy issues effecting small-scale, local and sustainable production methods- in particular, the petroleum-related energy costs and environmental issues involved in small/local versus large-scale food and energy production.

Food Miles

"Food-miles" or the distance that food travels from field to table is one major factor in the sustainability of food systems. However, as the Leopold Center reports points out, the efficiency of the vehicle traveling those miles is a major factor. In the GAPRI models, we will look at powering food delivery vehicles with locally made, recycled and low carbon fuels.

What can we do?

As a consumer, you have the ability to make food choices that support the local economy as well as reduce our reliance on imported oil. In Iowa, we have a lot of great resources for buying local. The Grinnell Farmers Market runs from May to October, on Thursday afternoon and Saturday morning.  Other resources for finding out more about local food include:

Iowa Network for Community Agriculture's Local Food Locator

The Grinnell Area Local Food Alliance  GALFA website

Leopold Center Marketing Website

Local Harvest Website

As Farmers and drivers, we can look at how to reduce our use of petroleum by driving less, combining trips, using more efficient vehicles and equipment, and producing fuel from local, renewable sources.  GAPRI is currently looking at small-scale, individual and cooperative on-farm energy production through

homebrew biodiesel, methane micro-digesters, Small-scale Ethanol production and bio-products.

Home Brew Biodiesel

Our first project is an on-farm biodiesel operation - you will find a photo gallery of our work here...

The Yoderville Biodiesel Collective and Greenworld Biofuels have provided these documents for use by the GAPRI Project.

12 steps to Collecting Grease  (word doc)

Sample Oil Collection Letter  (word doc)

Titration Manual (word doc)

Titration Scale (excel spreadsheet)

Brew Log (excel spreadsheet)

Quality Tests (word doc)

Coming Soon:

Small digesters

Small-scale Ethanol