Leopold Center - Energy and agriculture: Making it work

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."

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.

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.