Free Republic

RUTLAND— If everything works as well as projected, the Jordan Dairy Farm may one day make money from its manure as well as from its milk. A three-month feasibility study at the farm concluded that an on-site anaerobic digester and generator would produce sufficient energy to cover the farm’s monthly electric bill of $2,400. Carbon credits and green energy credits, which are required by state law for Massachusetts electric utilities, may make the digester profitable for the farm, if enough energy is generated to sell to the power company. As a result of the study, the Massachusetts Dairy Energy group,...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German farmer angry with police for trying to confiscate his tractor wrecked three patrol cars and evaded capture for seven hours before an elite unit managed to arrest him, a police spokesman said Wednesday. The farmer, 53, was pulled over by police for driving his tractor without a license, despite several previous warnings. The officers called in three patrol cars for help before asking the farmer to get out of his vehicle. He refused, and proceeded to ram the cars with his tractor, making full use of its attached muck spreader and hydraulic fork. Officers were...

Norridgewock - Everywhere Richard White looked Monday there were big clumps of dried, smelly chicken manure. It was hanging from his mailbox, sloshed all over his snowmobile, lying next to his well and dried on his garage door more than 30 feet across the yard. Two vehicles parked nearby looked like they had been through a very sloppy and thick mud run. "There's stuff still 20 feet up the tree," White said, pointing. "It was like a tsunami wave of hot chicken (manure)." The pungent odor of the nitrogen-concentrated chicken excrement still hung in the air at White's 441 Walker...

The spontaneous combustion of a manure pile sparked a blaze that grew to about 200 acres Sunday, fire officials said. No injuries were reported and no structures were threatened. The blaze, dubbed the Red Star Fire because of its origins at the Red Star Fertilizer Co., was 50 percent contained, said Jonathan Pangburn, a spokesman with the California Department of Forestry. The fire was expected to be fully contained by late Sunday. The blaze, which consisted of a main 175-acre fire and several smaller ones, was reported shortly before 5 a.m. It was partially burning in Prado Regional Park near...

Tainted spinach traced to California By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 43 minutes ago WASHINGTON - A California natural foods company was linked Friday to a nationwide E. coli outbreak that has killed one person and sickened nearly 100 others. Supermarkets across the country pulled spinach from shelves, and consumers tossed out the leafy green. Food and Drug Administration officials said that they had received reports of illness in 19 states. Twenty-nine people have been hospitalized, 14 of them with kidney failure. The outbreak was traced to Natural Selection Foods, a holding company based in San Juan Bautista,...

While at the Society of Environmental Journalists' annual meeting last month, I and several other writers toured northwest Vermont's dairy land, home to many family-owned and -operated farms. Some enterprises milk as few as a dozen cows. Others handle more than 50 times that many. A number of the farms specialize in organic milk and specialty cheeses. Others deliver large quantities of typical supermarket milk. f7905_1186.jpg UDDERS AT THE READY. With about 1,000 cows to milk twice a day, the Blue Spruce Farm is a mechanized operation. © 2006 J. Raloff All of these dairying operations have at least one...

As he sold investors on an improbable plan for turning Inland Empire cow manure into electricity, W. Patrick Moriarty had an answer for everything. With a folksy delivery, the Orange County businessman promised cutting-edge technology, a respected engineering firm and tax-exempt financing to extract methane gas from mountains of manure and use it to generate enough power to light a small city. "He told me categorically that we would get our money back with interest and that the project was good as gold," said Shmuel Erde, a Beverly Hills lender. What Moriarty and his business partner, Wayne Stephens, didn't tell...

When in Iowa, don't forget to duck By Dave Barry (This classic DAVE BARRY column was originally published on Aug. 20, 1995.) If you're looking for a vacation travel destination that blends excitement with huge amounts of corn, I strongly recommend Iowa. I recently spent a few days there, and I can honestly say that it was comparable to experiences I've had in sophisticated, prestige travel destinations such as Paris, in the sense that I was not once engulfed by hog manure. I was concerned about this, however. The second day I was in Iowa, the top story on the...

Environmental activists are teaming up with state attorneys general and trial lawyers to bankrupt the nation's livestock farmers -- in the name of saving the environment. If the situation wasn't so serious, it would be hilarious.     The activists -- including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and the Union of Concerned Scientists -- are trying to convince Congress the nation's farms should be treated as industrial waste sites and therefore subject to severe penalties under the federal Superfund law. Some state attorneys general, supported by trial lawyers, have filed lawsuits to the same end. Why? They argue, animal manure...

A BAVARIAN village was flooded by liquid pig manure after a tank containing 240,000 litres of it burst, German police said today. Sewage rose to 50cm in the courtyards and streets of Elsa after gushing from the tank. "The village was swamped with green-brown liquid and it was pig manure - the mother of all muck," said Rainer Prediger, a police spokesman in the nearby town of Coburg. Police estimated the pig waste had caused at least 100,000 euro ($161,590) worth of damage.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) - Researchers here are looking to horse manure to study the spread of invasive weeds. Dominican University has received a $100,000 National Park Service grant to study how to slow the spread of nonnative plants and weeds in state parks, school officials said. Horse manure might be part of the problem, according to scientists. Researchers began collecting horse manure samples from trails and pastures this summer. They want to test an assumption that seeds can pass through horses, leading to sprouts of invasive weeds. "We need to know through scientific research if horses do or do...

Last night I was pickin my banjo, drinkin a beer and enjoying a dip of Copenhagen and started thinkin bout my all time favorite C&W songs. You know, the ones you don't get tired of listening to. This is my top 5. 5. He Stopped Loving Her Today by George Jones 4. You're Not the Best by Charlie Robison 3. Rodeo by Garth Brooks 2. Amarillo by Morning by George Strait 1. Song of Wyoming by Chris LeDoux

Interest grows in digesters that turn manure into energy, fertilizer and bedding for cows Chilton - The manure management side of farming is far less smelly and far more profitable when the animal waste is converted into a power source. Such a biomass process is up and running at farms across Wisconsin and other states. Although the basic technology isn't new, it's generating attention for a local company, GHD Inc. Company owner Steve Dvorak has run a farm implement dealership for 27 years. The farm boy turned engineer kept hearing farmers complain about manure management, and ended up developing his...

Czech man dies in work-related accident; investigation under way PRAGUE, Czech Republic - A Czech tractor driver died under eight tons of manure in a bizarre accident that has baffled his employers, local media reported. The 34-year old man, identified only as Martin T., suffocated after the load fell on him while he was dumping it in a field near the western Czech city of Karlovy Vary, news Web Site www.novinky.cz reported on Sunday. “It absolutely beats me how this could happen,” said Vladimir Erps, chief of the company employing the victim. “

POCATELLO - National Public Radio's award-winning talk show host, Terry Gross, took a break from interviewing political leaders and cultural icons for a speaking tour, including a stop-off at Idaho State University Wednesday. Some conservatives have tagged NPR as one of the cornerstones of the "liberal media," but Gross said that isn't completely true. The word liberal has two connotations, she said, politically left and liberal, as in the liberal arts. In the first political sense of the word, Gross said NPR has no agenda and presents unbiased, balanced coverage of national and world events. "Some people in this day...

A HARVARD professor who specialises in environmental economics was arrested on suspicion of trying to steal a load of manure from a Massachusetts farm, a police officer said today. Professor Martin Weitzman was arrested near the town of Rockport on April 1, Rockport police officer Michael Marino said. Philip Casey, who manages a horse stable at the farm, had called police after finding Prof Weitzman and his truck on the farm and stopped him from leaving, Marino said. The Harvard academic was charged with trespassing, larceny under $US250 ($326), and malicious destruction of property - because the truck left marks...

Manure Lands Harvard Professor In A Mess Apr 6, 2005 10:44 am US/EasternROCKPORT, Mass.A Harvard economics professor has been accused of neglecting the standard market practice of paying for goods and services by trying to steal a truckload of manure from a horse farmer. Stable manager Phillip Casey says Martin Weitzman, Harvard University's Ernest E. Monrad Professor of Economics, has been stealing manure from Charlie Lane's Rockport farm for years. Police said said Casey found Weitzman on the property last Friday, so he blocked in Weitzman's pickup truck and called police. Weitzman got angry, Casey said, then offered to pay...

I Saw Fire In The Sky Judy Curmi 2-11-2005 This was a very vivid dream. The dream occurred on a bright sunny day. I was walking along a black-topped road. My mother and sister Rosie were with me. We were in an upscale salt-water community, perhaps along the coast of California or Florida. Along the sides of the road were guardrails made of steel rods and thick beams of wood painted white, in keeping with a nautical theme. To our right a ramp went down steeply to wooden docks holding a number of small pleasure craft. Due to the steepness...

MILFORD, Neb. - It took nearly four months, but to the relief of neighbors miles around, a burning manure pile has been extinguished. David Dickinson, owner and manager of Midwest Feeding Co., said Wednesday that several weeks of pulling the 2,000-ton pile apart proved effective by late last week. "We got far enough through it, that it quit," Dickinson said. Dickinson's feedlot, about 20 miles west of Lincoln, takes in as many as 12,000 cows at a time from farmers and ranchers and fattens them for market. Byproducts from the massive operation resulted in a dung pile measuring 100 feet...

Northern winds have been sending a stench of manure from across the Canadian border to the town of Frenchville, and the Maine community is tired of holding its nose: FRENCHVILLE, Maine (AP) -- Frenchville Town Manager Philip Levesque calls it an international problem. Levesque says the odor comes from a chicken manure composting facility in Canada. He says it smells like acid or sulfur, it's really strong, and the last couple of weeks have been especially bad. The town is inviting politicians and government officials from both sides of the Saint John River to meet with local residents February 16th...

Burning Manure Pile Has Neighbors Fuming 2 hours, 1 minute ago Strange News - AP MILFORD, Neb. - A large pile of composting manure burning for almost two months has neighbors upset and state officials looking for a way to put it out. Concerned about emissions, the state's Department of Environmental Quality will make its recommendation by the end of the week, said spokesman Rich Webster. David Dickinson, who owns and operates Midwest Feeding Co. near this town about 20 miles west of Lincoln, said he has tried to spread the pile out and douse it with water but the...

CONWAY, Ark. - A farmer who dumped three tons of manure on the route of a gay pride parade to protest the event was found guilty Thursday of misdemeanor harassment. Wesley Bono, 35, was sentenced to 30 days in jail, but the judge suspended the sentence as long as Bono makes regular payments for restitution and court costs. Bono admitted spreading the manure along two city streets and in front of a gay couple's home. He pleaded innocent Aug. 2, claiming he was exercising his right of free speech.

DE SOTO, Kan. -- A man had to be flown by helicopter to a hospital Thursday after he was burned in a fire in a hog barn that sparked because of pig manure. KCTV5's Natahsa Ghoneim reported live on "KCTV5 News at Noon" that the 43-year-old man was cleaning out an empty hog barn when the overhead furnace kicked on. The spark of the furnace ignited a methane gas buildup from the manure, and it created a flash fire. The fire burned the man on his face, head and arms, but he was conscious. The burns were third-degree, and he...

SPECIAL REPORT: ALTERNATIVE ENERGY POWERS UP Turning Manure into Black Gold As oil prices soar, innovative ways of converting livestock waste to fuel, though still in their infancy, could be the new alchemy Albert Straus's basic philosophy has always been that when life serves you a load of manure, you turn it into something good. Like, well, electricity.

MERCED, Calif. - The deaths of two dairy workers who were asphyxiated by gases rising from a fetid stew of cow manure could have been prevented if the farmer responsible for their safety had given them the proper training and equipment, prosecutors said Monday during opening statements in a case against the farmer. Patrick Joseph Faria, from the small farming town of Gustine, has been charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2001 deaths of Enrique Araisa and Jose Alatorre. Prosecutors said Faria failed his workers in a number of ways, including failing to warn the...

"...In the obscenity case, Phillip Beard and Christine Brown, both disc jockeys at KABZ-FM of Little Rock, are accused of handing out obscene material to minors. A 16-year-old boy said Beard, dressed only in a skimpy black swimsuit during the parade, gave him a DVD of gay porn. KABZ canceled their show. "I don't feel as though I've done anything wrong," Brown said after her arraignment. She called the legal process "very overwhelming."

Copywrite prevents the posting of this article. Here is a link...Rossie: Hard to argue with the reality in 'Fahrenheit' This is one of the most disgusting articles I have ever read in support of Moore and his propaganda piece of crap.

FERNDALE -- Talk about fighting fire with fire. Crews fighting a smoky, stinky blaze in the dried crust of a 3-acre manure lagoon on a dairy farm finished smothering the flames yesterday with more of the same -- a blanket of wet cow poop. Desperate times called for desperate measures, said Assistant Fire Chief Larry Hoffman with Whatcom County Fire District No. 7. Hoffman received an earful of complaints about the smoke and odor as the fire burned for four days on the farm outside Ferndale, northwest of Bellingham. "We're not the most popular department in town," he said. "It's...

Several sources indicate that Michael Moore may be reconsidering his appearance Wednesday night in Crawford during a screening of his controversial film “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Moore announced Monday that he would be in Crawford to introduce the film and to answer questions after the screening. He issued a letter to the President Monday inviting Mr. Bush, who is spending most of the week at his Central Texas ranch, to join him for the screening. Moore’s publicist said Wednesday morning she could not confirm whether the filmmaker has changed his plans, but network television sources indicated that Moore had already made up...

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - More than a dozen dairies in California are building contraptions to turn one of their least-valued products - the gases that rise from decomposing manure - into one of the state's most sought-after commodities - energy. The state's 1.72 million dairy cows, clustered heavily in the Central Valley, have made California the country's top dairy state. Their milk and cream sell for more than $4 billion a year, and the industry brings jobs and tax revenue to counties with double-digit unemployment. But according to air officials, the state's cows also contribute about 10 percent of the...

Dan Rather will be on Larry King in a few minutes to gin up interest in his full-hour interview with former pres. Clinton (7:00 sunday, cbs) "Veteran newsman Dan Rather discusses the beheading of an American hostage, and his interview with former President Bill Clinton. Tune in at 9 p.m. ET. "

For fuel, fertilizer, and maybe even improved water quality you may need look no further thanYour manure pile By Rev. J.D. Hooker   It’s been well over a decade now since I first heard my friend Pete voice his amazement at my practice of spreading animal manure as a fertilizer. It seems that since time immemorial, well dried manure has been very highly regarded as a fuel in his homeland in the south of Thailand, with only the ashes left from burning the manure seeing regular use as a fertilizer. Now Pete readily admits that he’s never had any experience with...

LONDON (AFP) - Only nuclear energy can slow down the rapid and potentially devastating warming of the earth, a veteran British scientist and environmental campaigner argued. "Only one immediately available source does not cause global warming and that is nuclear energy," James Lovelock wrote in an opinion piece published in the Independent newspaper. The 84-year-old is best known for fathering the "Gaia Hypothesis" in the mid-1960s that states the earth is alive and maintains conditions necessary for its survival. Lovelock warned that environmentally-friendly energy sources were not being developed quickly enough to replace coal, gas and oil, whose waste gas...

A weather forecast can tell you when to take an umbrella, when to wear sunscreen, and now, when to spread manure. Ten automated weather stations are being deployed in Western Oregon as part of an effort to develop something called “a manure- spreading index,” state agriculture officials said. Information collected by the system will tell dairy farmers when the time is right to spread manure over fields. Under the wrong weather conditions, the odor of manure hangs in the air and offends neighbors. A rainy day could wash the waste into a nearby stream or river. “Under this system, operators...

URBANA, Ill. - A University of Illinois research team is working on turning pig manure into a form of crude oil that could be refined to heat homes or generate electricity. Years of research and fine-tuning are ahead before the idea could be commercially viable, but results so far indicate there might be big benefits for farmers and consumers, lead researcher Yanhui Zhang said. "This is making more sense in terms of alternative energy or renewable energy and strategically for reducing our dependency on foreign oil," said Zhang, an associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering. "Definitely, there is potential...

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - A Dixon dairy that spilled more than 1 million gallons of manure-tainted water into streams leading to the Sacramento River faces a federal lawsuit for violating the Clean Water Act, environmentalists said Tuesday.</p> <p>The Sierra Club notified Heritage Dairy owner Peter Albers last week that it intends to sue him in U.S. District Court for a November spill that began when a pump failed in a manure storage lagoon. Federal environmental lawsuits require 60 days notice before they can be filed.</p>

<p>MEADVILLE — Sebastian Trucco does not see the advantages of a biomass-to-methane gas plant, despite its innovative technology that turns manure and other wastes into an energy source.</p> <p>He sees instead nothing but potential disadvantages for his south-end Meadville neighborhood near where the plant could be built. His active opposition to the idea has made Trucco one of the leading voices against the proposed plant.</p>

New Zealand farmers post animal dung to protest taxation WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Farmers are mailing parcels of sheep and cow manure to lawmakers to protest a so-called "flatulence'' tax on greenhouse gas emissions from their flocks and herds, the New Zealand's postal service complained Tuesday. The service said about 20 reeking packages and envelopes had been sent to the nation's Parliament and that the protest - dubbed the "Raise a Stink'' campaign - was endangering the health of postal workers. Farmers are angry that the government has levied the tax to raise 8 million New Zealand dollars (US$4.7...

A thousand Muslims held prayers in a public square in Copenhagen in protest at the war in Iraq (news - web sites), despite an attempt to sabotage the event by unidentified individuals dumping manure in the square. "Democracy and the United Nations (news - web sites) have failed. So this is a prayer for peace," Tanwir Ahmed, organizer of the prayer at the town hall square in the Danish capital, told Reuters. Manure was poured on the central Raadhuspladsen ahead of the event Friday, but municipal staff cleaned it up to let the Muslims lay out their prayer mats. Police...

LEONIA, N.J. -- There's a dispute going to court in New Jersey over what can politely be called the disposal of canine waste. Rick Heckman is accused of trespassing with his dog Shiner on William Ramos' narrow strip of grass in front of his home. Shiner apparently left a calling card behind. Ramos says there is an ordinance in Leonia that a dog owner must get the property owner's permission before the dog is allowed to do what it needs to do. Heckman says the strip of grass is a public right-of-way. A prosecutor says there is some logic...

<p>California may become first state to regulate 'greenhouse gas' from cars.</p> <p>California would become the first state to regulate "greenhouse gas" emissions from passenger vehicles under legislation narrowly approved by the Assembly and sent to the governor Monday.</p> <p>AB 1493 was hailed by supporters as a first step toward easing global warming, but critics called it "feel good" legislation that would raise car prices and reduce safety.</p>

MOSSES The moment of truth had come for Mary Surles. Before her was a steaming saucepan containing a knotted white cloth and an amber brown liquid that had been boiling for a few minutes. Surles lowered a silver serving spoon through the steam and brought some of the liquid to her mouth. The next moment, her eyes brightened. Her left index finger pointed triumphantly toward the ceiling. The liquid that had just passed Surles' personal taste test was a homemade tea. It also was a home remedy, ready to be used, as Surles has used it countless times in her...

Group formerly supported Davis A nasty spat between Gov. Gray Davis' re-election campaign and a group of former law enforcement supporters erupted yesterday over the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs' endorsement of Republican nominee Bill Simon. A war of words between Davis campaign manager Garry South and COPS officials culminated in a lively late afternoon news conference in San Diego dominated by a most unlikely topic for the straight-laced Simon campaign: horse manure, or a crude synonym to that effect. Monty Holden, executive director of the group, said it's backing Simon because Davis has failed to live up to...

Horsemen arrested after Wal-Mart rideTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS Copyright © 2002 Associated Press. EL DORADO -- Frontier justice and modern retailing collided when police arrested two men they say rode horses through a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Store workers told police early Sunday that the men rode horses through the food section of the giant store. The workers then led officers to a large pile of horse manure just inside the entrance. The officers stopped John Glenn Carelock, 20, and tried to coax Clinton Evers, 23, from his horse, but he rode off with officers in pursuit. Police said Evers was swinging what...

<p>EL DORADO, Ark. - Frontier justice and modern retailing collided when police arrested two men for riding horses through the food section of a Wal-Mart Supercenter.</p> <p>Store workers told police early Sunday the men rode horses through the store, then led officers to a large pile of horse manure just inside the entrance.</p>

AT least 10,000 farmers will be forced to transport millions of tons of manure across many miles of urban and rural England because of the Government's implementation of an European Union directive on fertiliser. The Country Land and Business Association and the National Farmers' Union wrote yesterday to Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary, to warn her against extending the amount of the country protected as a nitrate-vulnerable zone - intended to reduce pollution of drinking water, rivers, streams and coastal water - from eight per cent to either 80 or 100 per cent of the total area of England. Because...