On-farm income
On-farm efficiency
What is natural capitalism?
What is the Pesek Colloquium?
Read Hunter Lovins' paper,
Energy and Sustainable Agriculture [PDF]
![Town meeting in Centerville](images/lovins.jpg) |
Farmer John Sellers
comments during a town meeting at the
Centerville campus of Indian Hills Community
College. Hunter
Lovins (seated in front) had receptive audiences
throughout
her two-day visit. |
Iowa State University can play a key role in
helping agriculture prepare for a certain future of high
energy costs, said international energy analyst L. Hunter
Lovins.
"Iowa State University research needs to prepare farmers for
this reality in terms of efficiency, how to use resources
more productively, and alternatives that will help them do
it in a sustainable way," said Lovins, who was the keynote
speaker for the John Pesek Colloquium on Sustainable
Agriculture in Ames and Centerville March 9-10 . "Everything
this university can do to talk about sustainable energy is
critically important."
Lovins directs Natural Capitalism, a Colorado-based
consulting company that focuses on renewable energy and
energy conservation. She said that when oil prices go from
the current $50-$60 a barrel to $90 a barrel -- the level
that some analysts in the airline industry are predicting
within two years -- "many energy alternatives will begin to
make economic sense." The $90 level equals the price of oil
during the 1973 energy crisis when adjusted for inflation,
she said.
Lovins said that higher energy costs will mean an end to
"business as usual" for industrialized agriculture, which
typically relies on energy in the form of electricity,
diesel, pesticides and fertilizers.
"If a farming operation continues to view energy as simply a
fixed operating cost, it will gradually lose competitive
advantage, and will be seriously hurt when energy supplies
become limited or prices jump," she said. "Energy price
increases in 2000 cost U.S. farmers approximately $3 billion
in lost income. Energy increases in the future will make a
good bit of farming done now simply not economical."
So what's the solution?
Lovins offered a number of ways that Iowa farmers can take a
leadership role in making their operations and communities
more sustainable.
On-farm income
"A typical community spends 20 percent of its gross annual
income on energy and 80 percent of that leaves the
community," Lovins explained. "If you're looking for ways to
ways to revitalize your community, look no further than your
light switch."
Farms can provide both alternative means of power -- wind,
solar, biomass fuel -- and become a source of on-farm
income, all within the local economy. Lovins added that wind
energy is growing rapidly in the Midwest "for very good
economic reasons."
"Around the world, wind power is the fast growing electric
supply, delivering over 5 gigawatts of new energy every
year," she said. "Wind is one of the cheapest sources of new
electricity -- very competitive with natural gas turbines."
She noted that although Iowa leads the nation in the
production of ethanol at a million gallons annually, there's
still room for growth. Germany produces 750 million gallons
of ethanol each year, she said.
"What's going on in Iowa with the production of ethanol and
other bio-based fuels for the production of energy and other
products is really exciting but we need to do it sustainably,"
she warned. "If not, we can easily substitute one problem
for another." [See note]
She also said that advances in photovoltaic technology make
solar power one of the best choices for remote applications
and agricultural settings. In the future, farms also may
generate income based on their ability to sequester carbon:
perennial grasses tie up 40 times more carbon on a landscape
than do trees .
On-farm efficiency
Lovins said U.S. farmers reduced their energy use by 41
percent during the 1980s and 1990s, and that there are a
variety of ways to further increase energy efficiency in
farming operations. She noted that in California, dairy
farmers can save up to 30 percent of their energy costs
through variable-speed motors and vacuum pumping systems,
while vegetable farmers can save 25 percent of their water
pumping, fertilizer and herbicide costs with subsurface drip
irrigation technologies.
In livestock housing, the use of compact fluorescent instead
of incandescent light bulbs, and big, slow fans instead of
small, fast ones improves energy efficiency and may keep
animals more comfortable, thus improving production. The
same benefit applies to weather stripping, better insulation
and orientation of farm building to take advantage of solar
heat or shade.
Lovins said her favorite example is a 2,500-acre farm in
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania that produces both milk and energy.
The farm's 2,200 cows produce 80,000 quarts of milk daily
and a biodigester, installed in 1978, turns the cows' manure
into electricity that is sold to a local utility.
"The bottom line is that sustainability pays," she said.
"The principles of natural capitalism are the basis of how
you do business in this new century -- profitable farms,
sustainable agriculture and renewable energy."
What is natural capitalism?
Natural capitalism is an approach to business that enables
its practitioners to make more money while implementing more
sustainable practices throughout their operations. The
principles are outlined in a 1999 book by the same name,
co-authored by energy analyst L. Hunter Lovins, entrepreneur
Paul Hawken and physicist Amory Lovins. The principles
include:
Radically efficient use of energy, water and material
resources,
Incorporating sustainability into design of a business or
operation that uses innovative processes such as biomimicry
(based on models in nature), and
Management for prosperity and sustainability to achieve no
net loss of natural and human capital.
What is the Pesek Colloquium?
Now in its fifth year, the
John Pesek Colloquium on Sustainable Agriculture honors Iowa State
University agronomy professor emeritus John Pesek, who
served terms as president of both the American Society of
Agronomy and the Soil Science Society of America. His
research led to a better understanding of the effects of
farming practices on the environment.
In the late 1980s, Pesek chaired a National Research Council
committee that produced "Alternative Agriculture," a
groundbreaking report that documented how farming systems
that use less pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics and fuel
can be productive and profitable.
The colloquium includes a presentation on the Iowa State
University campus about a critical issue in agriculture and
its impact on Iowans, followed by a town meeting the next
day in a selected community. The featured speaker also
prepares a written paper on the selected topic.
The 2005 colloquium focused on energy and sustainable
agriculture. The town meeting was held on the Centerville
campus of Indian Hills Community College, home of a new
sustainable agriculture program, Land-Based Business and
Entrepreneurship.
Primary sponsor of the Pesek Colloquium is the Henry A.
Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa
State University. To get a copy of Lovins' paper, contact
the Wallace Chair at (515) 294-6161, by e-mail: wallacechair@iastate.edu,
or read about the event on the Leopold Center web site at:
www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/pastevents/lovins/lovins.htm.
* News reports since this presentation show that ethanol
prices have dropped due to an over-supply.
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