New
farming system will give consumers a choice of fossil fuel free food
for first time.
Agriculture's
first real solution to it's climate change problems.
Michigan,
Aug. 11, 2015—F3 Farming today announced it's plans to build a
demonstration farm in Monroe County, MI that does not rely on fossil
fuel based inputs. This is the first modern and productive farming
system to be proposed that does not contribute to climate change.
“Fuel,
fertilizer, seed, gas and electricity can all be produced on the farm
without producing greenhouse gases”, says Paul Ericson, F3 Farming
founder, “This system can also reduce costs and improve profit
margins for farmers”.
Most
farms buy in diesel, synthetic fertilizer, hybrid seed, propane and
electricity. This creates two basic problems; First, the farmer can't
control these costs which can hurt profitability when prices for
these inputs go up. Second, all these products are fossil fuel
intensive which means they produce greenhouse gases that contribute
to climate change.
Biodiesel
can be produced on the farm from winter canola seed grown when the
fields are normally idle. Yields average 120 gallons per acre.
“With
full cycle farming, canola oil is processed to food grade on the
farm, rented to local restaurants, and taken back to be further
processed into biodiesel, thus eliminating the food-fuel competition
problem”, says Paul.
Animals
can produce all the fertilizer needed to grow crops. Seed can be
saved each year to be replanted the next. Animal manure and bedding
can be anaerobically digested to produce methane. Solar panels and
micro wind turbines can charge a battery bank providing a reliable,
fossil fuel free, electrical supply.
When
all these inputs are produced on the farm, their costs are reduced to
the basic cost of capital. And greenhouse gas emissions are
eliminated. Thus the farmer can make a higher profit and not
contribute to climate change.
With
roughly 50% of consumers stating that they are concerned about
climate change, bringing a fossil fuel free (F3) food choice to the
market will finally start solving the climate change problems created
by agriculture.
“We're
in the process of raising the money we need to build the
demonstration farm. We have a Kickstarter project up right now. We
want to prove to the world that this system really does solve the
climate change problems created by agriculture and help farmers earn
a living.”, says
Paul.
F3
Farming can be found at http://f3farming.com.
