Photo via GreenBiz
At a recent energy sustainability conference, Hewlett Packard (HP) presented a paper about how cow poop could be used to power the sort of data centres that big companies like Google or Internet service providers depend on. Those kind of centres are some big bedrocks of the Internet.
HP Envisions Cow-Powered Data Centers | Computing | GreenBiz.com: “By turning cow manure into energy, the research paper shows how a mid-sized dairy farm — one that numbers about 10,000 cows — can generate one megawatt of energy, enough to power a mid-sized data center, saving on energy costs and cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 6,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent.”
(Via GreenBiz.)
There is however some issues with doing that. Similar to the food-for-fuel conflict which is leading to crazy land grabs and destruction of African nations, the waste-for-energy idea can be dangerous if taken too far (isn’t anything to an extreme dangerous?). After all, all of that waste is fertilizer to grow food (preferably without huge amounts of gas made chemical poisons) and forests.
Of course factory farmed cow manure is pretty dangerous to use right on any farm field without proper composting. What you have to realize however is that cow manure, plant waste, food waste and other things people see as garbage are actually important to maintaining the earth in a way that allows you, your family and your community to have fresh and healthy food.
It’s the blood with all the vitamins and minerals for good health. If you’re not putting a good deal of that back on the earth how can your food give you that? So the point is that you have to make sure you’re putting enough of it back instead of using it all to power these data centres. Alternative energy like wind, solar, geothermal or tidal should be used as much as possible if possible.
Soil is the foundation of food which is the foundation of community which is the foundation of society.
What are you doing to rebuild the soil in your home, neighbourhood or city – wherever it is in the world? And what do you think about using manure to power the Internet?
PS. FoodCycles offers you the opportunity to learn about soil and composting while taking action to rebuild the ground upon which the future rests on.
Note: Thank you Dr. Wayne Roberts for finding this article and sharing it on Facebook! You can read more about change through food through Wayne Roberts.ca and his Facebook page for the No-Nonse Guide to World Food.
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Sunny Lam is a “change agent” consultant at sunnylam.ca who a co-founding co-coordinator and semi-city farmer (guardian) at FoodCycles city farm (http://foodcycles.org). Sunny is also a crazy coffee drinking fanatic who chooses local roasted, organic and/or fair trade whenever possible — his current record daily high is 6 cups.
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