Natural Capitalism
All the good feedback on my Post on Faith and the Future stirred me to delve further into what sustainable economics might look like. I’m not the only one.
John Stuart Mill developed the idea of the steady state economy in the mid-19th century. He believed that after a period of growth, the economy would reach a stationary state, characterized by constant population and stocks of capital. Birth rates would equal death rates, and production rates would equal depreciation rates. His own words eloquently describe the positive nature of such an economic system: “It is scarcely necessary to remark that a stationary condition of capital and population implies no stationary state of human improvement. There would be as much scope as ever for all kinds of mental culture, and moral and social progress; as much room for improving the Art of Living and much more likelihood of its being improved, when minds cease to be engrossed by the art of getting on.”
There have been many names for this philosophy, but the one I like the best is Natural Capitalism. I’m aware that Paul Hawken has used the term, though I confess to not having read Hawken’s book
So what would capitalism look like in this steady state? First, the imbalance in our energy waste would need to be addressed. As has been demonstrated,above a certain base level, energy consumption per capita does not translate into a better quality of life (measured by infant mortality, female life expectancy,and food availability). We are currently last in the developed world in energy efficiency using 1/4 of the world’s oil with 4% of the world’s population. Second, durable goods would need to be durable. The life of an automobile ought to be 8-10 years before it is recycled. What we need is a slower flow of long lasting goods as opposed to the fast flow of short-lived goods. Our 50 year corporate romance with planned obsolescence will have to come to an end.
But as we learn to produce those high quality long lasting goods (Ford cars and GE wind turbines) we will naturally rebalance our economy away from its slavish dependence on personal consumption towards high quality production and export. And in an atmosphere where once again Brand America can hold its head up, non-durable producers like P & G and Coca Cola will still be expanding their international markets as more of the world enters the middle class. And economist Herman Daly
In a steady state economy,firms still need to invest in capital—namely,at the same rate at which capital depreciates. Publicly traded stocks provide the social benefit of liquidity to investors and offer an efficient mechanism for the acquisition of investment capital.
Finally, what will the role of the government as regulator and as investor be in this new economy?
Mainstream economists have argued that considerations for others, or sharing of resources is actually counterproductive to market solutions to environmental degradation or social inequities. Anything that interferes with market operations – limits, regulations, quotas or notions of justice or altruism – are seen as distorting the market, and thereby reducing the wealth of the community.This view of a single dominant human need is overly simplistic in terms of the complex range and interdependence of needs identified by many researchers and thinkers. It totally ignores the social component of satisfying human needs, and overlooks the personal and social benefits of ethical decisions and behaviors. It fails to recognize the non-material determinants of personal happiness, and the non-market factors which determine well-being.A great many ecosystem services upon which we depend for our survival are non-market services, and by their very nature always will be. In addition, many of the factors that determine our happiness and well-being are not part of the market, and never can be. The view of self-interest as the driver of the common good overlooks the benefits derived from a range of public goods, from a money system and sewers, to health care and education. It fails to recognize that in some circumstances individual preferences are in conflict with social goods(see Economics For Community), and that mechanisms other than the market are required to ensure personal happiness and well-being.
Beyond regulating the most anti-social and greedy members of the business society for the common good, the government will have to be like a venture capital investor in the same way that DARPA built the first Internet. We are now about to embark on an experiment in how this kind of investment in “Public Goods” can raise productivity for the private sector as well as the society as a whole. Universal Broadband, 21st Century schoolrooms, massive solar and wind farms, a smart electricity grid–these are the foundations of a Green New Deal.
I am well aware that questioning the “Growth Imperative” is heresy in America, but the huge investments we make in the next twelve months will help determine whether we are truly willing to give up our dependence on disposable products that keep people coming back to the mall (Planned Obsolescence) and invest to be the high quality innovator in durable goods that last for years.
Consider me in the choir to which you are preaching. I’ve been saying much the same
ever since I discovered this blog and the community of thinking people who congregate here. Hallelujah!
Consider me in the choir to which you are preaching. I’ve been saying much the same
ever since I discovered this blog and the community of thinking people who congregate here. Hallelujah!
The book Natural Capitalism is well worth the read. Hawken and the Lovins’ (and RMI) are brilliant thinkers and doers.
You can even read it for free online at http://natcap.org
The book Natural Capitalism is well worth the read. Hawken and the Lovins’ (and RMI) are brilliant thinkers and doers.
You can even read it for free online at http://natcap.org
Rick- You have constantly pushed me in this direction. Thanks
Rick- You have constantly pushed me in this direction. Thanks
And what’s a mall to do, wither and then become part of the history of the We’uns? Can capitalism give up its monuments to spending? Can kids, for whom the Mall is heaven on earth or at least somewhere to hangout, unlearn what the advertising gods have wrought? If this is to happen without slumming out first, I’d like to see some of that stimulus money spent on remodeling the dying mall into something much more useful like a mall village with places to live, classrooms in which to learn, stores to buy the necessities , libraries, and training facilities for the future work/play force.
And what’s a mall to do, wither and then become part of the history of the We’uns? Can capitalism give up its monuments to spending? Can kids, for whom the Mall is heaven on earth or at least somewhere to hangout, unlearn what the advertising gods have wrought? If this is to happen without slumming out first, I’d like to see some of that stimulus money spent on remodeling the dying mall into something much more useful like a mall village with places to live, classrooms in which to learn, stores to buy the necessities , libraries, and training facilities for the future work/play force.
Well said, Jon.
@rhbee: There have been many experiments in designs for neighborhoods that function as villages in the past 50 years. Part of the new creativity would be directive funding. IOW, if the banks are to be partly national property, then policies for the kinds of urban development WE invest in is part of the New America. Natural capitalism is made possible by, instead of simple self-interest, self-aware interest where it is made obvious that the investments in community ARE our best self-interest.
Community isn’t forced. It is reinforced.
Well said, Jon.
@rhbee: There have been many experiments in designs for neighborhoods that function as villages in the past 50 years. Part of the new creativity would be directive funding. IOW, if the banks are to be partly national property, then policies for the kinds of urban development WE invest in is part of the New America. Natural capitalism is made possible by, instead of simple self-interest, self-aware interest where it is made obvious that the investments in community ARE our best self-interest.
Community isn’t forced. It is reinforced.
Natural Capitalism is a great book. If I’m not mistaken that’s the tome with the anecdote about carpet manufacturing in Europe.
Environmental safety officials arrived on site to test the waste water. Initial tests showed the waste water cleaner than the water going into the factory. So they thought something must be wrong with the equipment. They trade out their equipment with the same results. Turns out the earth friendly manufacturing process actually cleaned the water used in production. Imagine that.
RhBee Big Box stores are being repurposed as communities and turned into museums, libraries, cafes, and schools. A book on the subject comes out at the end of the month: Big Box Reuse
Natural Capitalism is a great book. If I’m not mistaken that’s the tome with the anecdote about carpet manufacturing in Europe.
Environmental safety officials arrived on site to test the waste water. Initial tests showed the waste water cleaner than the water going into the factory. So they thought something must be wrong with the equipment. They trade out their equipment with the same results. Turns out the earth friendly manufacturing process actually cleaned the water used in production. Imagine that.
RhBee Big Box stores are being repurposed as communities and turned into museums, libraries, cafes, and schools. A book on the subject comes out at the end of the month: Big Box Reuse
Is this not utopian also?
I would be interested to hear how it is not…
Is this not utopian also?
I would be interested to hear how it is not…
Have you noticed that over the past two generations…well, maybe three…teenagers work less and their parents work more? And what does the money go to? A pile of shit that will be land fill in months. So the parents and the teenagers rack up more purchases on their credit cards…purchases that may not last as long as the debt. But the mall store owners were happy. And the Chinese and other makers of all the shit were happy. And Hollywood was happy to do the product placements that encouraged this. And then the whole shiteroo collapsed. The only problem was that for the most part the crap wasn’t compostable.
And that’s a funny thing I saw in the Galapagos in 1988. Pre-Spanish invasion of the “Americas”, there were not many “durable” goods other than stuff made of stone or gold or silver. Packaging was vegetable. Food was fresh. Garbage got thrown into the midden where it either composted or became the stuff of archeology theses. So now, the descendants of the Inca migrate to the Galapagos to follow the eco-tourist dollars and marks, and they still throw their waste out the kitchen window into the backyard midden. But now it’s Coke bottles and very slow to breakdown plastic blister pack. It’s aluminum cans and Styrofoam. It’s shit that doesn’t break down in a dozen or a hundred years. Technology has made our garbage almost permanently toxic, if not in an exactly health threatening way then in a certain cultural manner. Sorry, but a 200 year old Coke can doesn’t quite do it for me like pot shards.
We can do better. We must do better. Our entertainment and industrial leaders owe it to us to do better by us. Otherwise, I say bring back public humiliation in the stocks and lay in a good supply of overripe tomatoes. The first three would be the CEO’s of Ford, GM, and Chrysler. Then let’s roust Sam Walton and ask what he’s doing for America next week…or is he dead?
Have you noticed that over the past two generations…well, maybe three…teenagers work less and their parents work more? And what does the money go to? A pile of shit that will be land fill in months. So the parents and the teenagers rack up more purchases on their credit cards…purchases that may not last as long as the debt. But the mall store owners were happy. And the Chinese and other makers of all the shit were happy. And Hollywood was happy to do the product placements that encouraged this. And then the whole shiteroo collapsed. The only problem was that for the most part the crap wasn’t compostable.
And that’s a funny thing I saw in the Galapagos in 1988. Pre-Spanish invasion of the “Americas”, there were not many “durable” goods other than stuff made of stone or gold or silver. Packaging was vegetable. Food was fresh. Garbage got thrown into the midden where it either composted or became the stuff of archeology theses. So now, the descendants of the Inca migrate to the Galapagos to follow the eco-tourist dollars and marks, and they still throw their waste out the kitchen window into the backyard midden. But now it’s Coke bottles and very slow to breakdown plastic blister pack. It’s aluminum cans and Styrofoam. It’s shit that doesn’t break down in a dozen or a hundred years. Technology has made our garbage almost permanently toxic, if not in an exactly health threatening way then in a certain cultural manner. Sorry, but a 200 year old Coke can doesn’t quite do it for me like pot shards.
We can do better. We must do better. Our entertainment and industrial leaders owe it to us to do better by us. Otherwise, I say bring back public humiliation in the stocks and lay in a good supply of overripe tomatoes. The first three would be the CEO’s of Ford, GM, and Chrysler. Then let’s roust Sam Walton and ask what he’s doing for America next week…or is he dead?
Come now RHB, empty malls are great places to fight off the Zombie Armies. Geeze, didn’t you learn anything at camp last summer?
Actually it is a major question regarding how many of both the major and the strip malls will survive. The upheaval of the “mall culture” will make some budding Margaret Mead a great post grad study.
For sure, the cities will mourn as the tax streams dries, making it harder to offer additional tax breaks to try to hang on to the last of the Wooly Mallmoths.
I know that large numbers of the structures will end up marginal and decaying as each local catchment sorts out its “carrying capacity”.
It would be nice if it would be possible to turn some into very innovative residential communities (think Archologies) and homeless shelters, but bet the primary residential use will be squatter havens. If you want to speculate on what that would look like, use the post Katrina Superdome as a starting model. Mind, I mean the real version not the Fox/CNN/MSNBC drama version. (Hummm, just realized how telling it is that there hasn’t been an insider’s book out of that yet, least not that I’ve seen.
Look to the Projects in the inner cities for what happens to a super scale building that is too narrowly defined during it’s construction once it is “empty”. Though doubt we will be seeing the demolitions we’ve seen when the various Project’s buildings got absorbed into a gentrification zone making it a high incentive to reclaim the land under the building. It’s late and I am rambling, but think it is truly a topic worth some thinking about.
So, indeed RBH, what will happen to the Malls? And, what detrimental flow of consequences will come from moving the kids and employes, and shoppin momas who have centered their lives around that environment? It’s not a small question.
Come now RHB, empty malls are great places to fight off the Zombie Armies. Geeze, didn’t you learn anything at camp last summer?
Actually it is a major question regarding how many of both the major and the strip malls will survive. The upheaval of the “mall culture” will make some budding Margaret Mead a great post grad study.
For sure, the cities will mourn as the tax streams dries, making it harder to offer additional tax breaks to try to hang on to the last of the Wooly Mallmoths.
I know that large numbers of the structures will end up marginal and decaying as each local catchment sorts out its “carrying capacity”.
It would be nice if it would be possible to turn some into very innovative residential communities (think Archologies) and homeless shelters, but bet the primary residential use will be squatter havens. If you want to speculate on what that would look like, use the post Katrina Superdome as a starting model. Mind, I mean the real version not the Fox/CNN/MSNBC drama version. (Hummm, just realized how telling it is that there hasn’t been an insider’s book out of that yet, least not that I’ve seen.
Look to the Projects in the inner cities for what happens to a super scale building that is too narrowly defined during it’s construction once it is “empty”. Though doubt we will be seeing the demolitions we’ve seen when the various Project’s buildings got absorbed into a gentrification zone making it a high incentive to reclaim the land under the building. It’s late and I am rambling, but think it is truly a topic worth some thinking about.
So, indeed RBH, what will happen to the Malls? And, what detrimental flow of consequences will come from moving the kids and employes, and shoppin momas who have centered their lives around that environment? It’s not a small question.
Imagine a world where the malls would be repurposed, redesigned with community the first criteria. Open spaces with green plants; libraries; senior centers, etc. as the first concern. Once all the social structures are in place, then tack on the stores, almost as an afterthought, to service the people drawn to the “social mall”.
Imagine a world where the malls would be repurposed, redesigned with community the first criteria. Open spaces with green plants; libraries; senior centers, etc. as the first concern. Once all the social structures are in place, then tack on the stores, almost as an afterthought, to service the people drawn to the “social mall”.
Wall Mall Molls?
Wall Mall Molls?
The Wooly Mallmoths…. Wall Mall Molls… Toxic Trash….
Now those are great band names.
The Wooly Mallmoths…. Wall Mall Molls… Toxic Trash….
Now those are great band names.
Speaking of middens, it seems every few months I read about a town somewhere in the USA that has put a facility in/on their landfill that turns methane into electricity & voila ! ! Enough electricity to run the town.
Why aren’t there a hundred bazillion of these being put in everywhere? Offer manufacturers free electricity to build in the area & “Bring on the Garbage ! ! !”
Speaking of middens, it seems every few months I read about a town somewhere in the USA that has put a facility in/on their landfill that turns methane into electricity & voila ! ! Enough electricity to run the town.
Why aren’t there a hundred bazillion of these being put in everywhere? Offer manufacturers free electricity to build in the area & “Bring on the Garbage ! ! !”
Thanks to Jon Taplin for his inspiring website! At the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, we work hard every day to advance the steady state economy as a macroeconomic policy goal in the U.S. and around the world, almost entirely with volunteers. See the list of 2,000 signatories and 50+ organizations that have endorsed the CASSE position on economic growth:
http://www.steadystate.org/CASSEPositionOnEG.html .
We are pleased to have Herman Daly’s endorsement as “the foremost organization in advancing the precepts of the steady state economy to citizens and policy makers — an indispensable resource!”
Brian Czech, Ph.D., President
Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy
http://www.steadystate.org
Thanks to Jon Taplin for his inspiring website! At the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, we work hard every day to advance the steady state economy as a macroeconomic policy goal in the U.S. and around the world, almost entirely with volunteers. See the list of 2,000 signatories and 50+ organizations that have endorsed the CASSE position on economic growth:
http://www.steadystate.org/CASSEPositionOnEG.html .
We are pleased to have Herman Daly’s endorsement as “the foremost organization in advancing the precepts of the steady state economy to citizens and policy makers — an indispensable resource!”
Brian Czech, Ph.D., President
Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy
http://www.steadystate.org
The Strauss Ranch in Marin County has a methane recovery system with their cow poop pond and it generates close to enough electricity to run the place.
The Strauss Ranch in Marin County has a methane recovery system with their cow poop pond and it generates close to enough electricity to run the place.
Because the technology is so infant that you need something like a “proof of concept” grant to offset start up costs enough to get an acceptable ROI.
Here in Tillamook, which is heavily dairy, we could probably export energy, but conservatism of farmers on thin margins, and the cost of the total capture and delivery system is going to keep it from happening until some alt energy capital makes it much lower risk.
Because the technology is so infant that you need something like a “proof of concept” grant to offset start up costs enough to get an acceptable ROI.
Here in Tillamook, which is heavily dairy, we could probably export energy, but conservatism of farmers on thin margins, and the cost of the total capture and delivery system is going to keep it from happening until some alt energy capital makes it much lower risk.
“He believed that after a period of growth, the economy would reach a stationary state, characterized by constant population and stocks of capital.”
Birth quotas?
Yeah, that’s gonna go over reaaaaal nice in the free world…
“He believed that after a period of growth, the economy would reach a stationary state, characterized by constant population and stocks of capital.”
Birth quotas?
Yeah, that’s gonna go over reaaaaal nice in the free world…
Nope. Death quotas.
See Logan’s Run, a film that gave whole new meanings to making the circuit.
Nope. Death quotas.
See Logan’s Run, a film that gave whole new meanings to making the circuit.
Again, I refer you all to either Robert Nathan’s The Weans or Theodore Bikel’s Digging the Weans.
Zak, thanks for the reference, I look forward to the reading.
Len, I can’t wait to see those Wall Mall Molls dance.
And seriously kids, how do we go about changing, unless we start somewhere?
Note that in “mature post-industrial” societies, the birth rate levels off to near steady state. It’s the emerging societies, the third world, and the religious nutters who keep on breeding like there’s no tomorrow…which there won’t be for many of them.
Here’s a link to the Straus methane to electricity system: http://www.strausfamilycreamery.com/?id=44 What about that is not proof of concept? They practically run the whole place on site-produced methane. If they added some solar panels, they’d be power positive.
I can also attest to the fact that their products taste incredibly good.
This is very beautiful, Jon. Truly, lovely.
I’d like to make only two obliques.
First, the actual herd in Yosemite never has dwelt, since the drowning of dear Hetch Hetchy, in “a large park”. Rather, it continues to dwell, for the most part, in about Yosemite Valley, in about two percent of Mr. Muir’s and Mr. Roosevelt’s million-acre park.
Second, years ago when I honeymooned up in Humboldt (lay off them hemp farmers, People!) the proprietors of a certain Victorian Lodge informed me that were we to order bag lunches and hike pre-dawn toward the Coastal Range to the West, we’d stand a good chance of hearing — and then running for cover before — the last great heard of the huge Tule Elk that once ruled all Central and Northern California. Sure enough, there they were.
Before Muir had resettled, so historically, to California, an equally mad fellow named Sutter thought to petition Mexico City for a land grant in California Superior. Los Mexicanos basically said: If you can take it and hold it, you can have it. So Johann, seeing the Russians give up on the otter-killing up the coast, bought a cannon at a military surplus auction owing to the liquidation of Fort Russ, Fort Ross. The Swiss loaded the cannon, the firing mechanism of which they were quite unfamiliar, onto Sutter’s hayscow in San Francisco. With his faulty charts in hand, the now “Captain Sutter” was prepared to set out for — and, so he thought — discover the Easternmost tributaries of the Greater San Francisco Bay. Poor fool lacked a crew, so he bought, fresh-of-the-boat, a bunch of longsuffering (as always) Kanakas who’d been Shanghai’ed in Honolulu for a previous trip to SF, or “Yerba Buena”. (Are you getting the msg., DEA?)
So the crazy Swiss and his beleagured Hawaiians set sail with their unfamiliar cannon upriver past Napa, past the Sonoma of the first Bear Flag Rebellion, past the later John Muir’s Martinez, and up the Sacramento River until they got to the confluence with what is now the American River — a confluence that later would define “New Helvetia”, or The City of the Blessed Sacrament, the California Capitol and, in still later days, the Western terminus of Mr. Lincoln’s transcontinental railroad.
A couple miles up the American, the motley crew gave up their detour and alighted at last. Crazy Sutter’s first orders, upon discovering traces of Miwok Indians: Fire a shot from our Russian cannon. The shot may not have been one heard ’round the world, but almost; it was a herd that heard it. The reaction was instantaneous, and the repercussions of that percussion grew and grew.
Sutter, thinking that he’d spied smoke through his funhouse glass, thought he’d started a horrendous prairie fire. In reality, he’d set off a herd of Tule Elk which, hearing this beastly, foreign, ungodly noise, set off from Sacramento Valley clear back to the Western end of the Great Central Valley, kicking up such a stormfront of Valley dust that it took days to settle — as indeed it did finally settle, on Indian, Swiss, Hawaiian alike, and also on boneheaded Russian military equipment.
On the exact location of Sutter’s ecological antics now sits a certain “B Street Theatre”, the founder and co-proprietor of which is the actor, impresario and arts-educator Timothy Busfield who, in my estimation, is one of California’s many living treasures…
In celebration of California’s Sesquicentennial (150-year anniversary) celebration a few years ago, the State and sovereign nation of Hawai’i sent a massive oceangoing outrigger to San Francisco Bay and upriver to modern Sacramento to reclaim its ancestral role in the founding of the State and to fete the Californians with days and days of hula, luau and general merrymaking. Perhaps (perhaps) unintentionally, a growing Mainland market for Hawaiian culture and music eventually resulted. (And resulted in, among other things, the establishment of the first Grammy Award for achievement in Hawaiian music.)
Not so crazy, that guy from Switzerland…
RT-That Strauss methane-powered Dairy is so cool. We need thousands of these kind of innovations.
Rick, Agree that there is affordable tech for off the grid options, e.g. Straus, but to actually get it ubiquitous, or, better, scaled to the point where it’s able to feed the grid, requires technology that hasn’t been sexy (in the crazy money start up sense) enough to draw VC $$ before.
My assumption is that if you own a small farm and can convince some agency to kick in on your “proof of concept” start up efforts, to lower the risk of being first out of the gate in your locale, it’s more likely to see a lead dog emerge. Once you get a “show me” model “foot in the door” and, farmers could see 1) it works, 2) it doesn’t require a big maintenance commitment (cows come first, ), and 3) ROI is not in the 40 or 50 year range, then we could start seeing more general acceptance.
Many of the families running dairies in Tillamook are Swiss, who tend to adopt tech if it’s going to improve the bottom line, or cut the reliance on labor. But it has to be obvious, since their margins are comfortable (thanks to the co-op organization) but can be undermined by our Occasional Annual 100 Year Floods (five in ten years argues for redefining what constitutes a 100 year flood).
Like co-gen plants in areas where there is enough organic waste to sustain them, methane is a real logical option for here if….. and here, until someone tries, you don’t even know the “ifs”, e.g. if holding tanks are compatible with our soils and if our crazy 90 inch annual rainfall isn’t going to chill the anaerobic process, and if you can find the technicians to support it in an isolated rural setting. And a big one, if the process doesn’t take nutrients out of the muck, because that muck in slurry form, is what currently keeps the pastures humming.
Anyway, I’m with you that there are a lot of small power generation options which could cut overall demand dramatically, and potentially have surplus power left to sell. But we are going to need is for the ‘bama Boys to figure out how to stimulate ubiquitous adoption by seeding areas.
Rural with a potential alt energy source (here that would be wind, tides and more cows than people) and a PUD, like ours, to partner with, isn’t enough; there needs to be incentives and risk mitigation for early adopters, and carrots sufficient for the NIMBY crowd.
I don’t know what the Straus operation cost them to install, but these guys are in business to make money, not lose it. This is not off-grid, either; and I’ll bet they’re tied in with net metering which works pretty well here in California. They get to use the left over sludge for fertilizer, too, after the shit breaks down and releases the methane. It’s pretty much a win, win, win from the looks of it.
BTW, I’m now doing some research on solar for a new campus for the Roberto Venn School of Lutherie to be built as part of the Tempe, AZ Arts Center, and it’s amazing that Arizona does not have very good regulations re. grid-tied net metering for alternative energy producers. If you generate more electricity than you use, then at the end of the year, that becomes a gift to the utility rather than them having to buy it from you as is true in California. Weird that one of the greatest states for potential solar energy does not have the greatest incentives. Net metering with guaranteed buy back should be national policy. So much for Federalism…
Hey, it works in Minnesota…
http://www.auri.org/news/ainjul01/05page.htm
So it should work anywhere in the lower 48…
OK, the figures don’t add up, but the cost seems to have been around $280,000.00 for the Straus installation, and they’re figuring it’s saving $6,000.00 to $7,000.00 a month. So that’s a four to five year pay-off…pretty damned good if it’s a reliable and easy to maintain system. The place in Minnesota was making 30 cents a day per cow when the price of milk was at a low point at 40 cents a day per cow. Even with milk prices back up, the cow manure is going to be a significant profit center. If milk is at 90 cents a day per cow, then the manure is going to be 25% of the “income” the cow produces. That’s a hell of a return improvement.
A thoroughly enjoyable essay, Jon. Thanks.
Thank you for reminding me to pick up Natural Capitalism, Jon. I’ve read A Road Map for Natural Capitalism by Lovins and Hawken in Harvard Business Review on Green Business Strategy (also sooo well worth a gander) and have passed in on several times. Good stuff.
Jeez, you guys! Don’t you know what we do with people who can’t take a joke — or a good shaggy dog?
Thanks for the cost stuff Rick. I’m going to try to get the ear of a friend who is management at the Tillamook PUD. They are amazingly forward thinking, compared to the Creamery which is not so much. But it really would be interesting if we could get a test installation here for several reasons, the big one being that mechanical milking is a bitch when power is off for a week like it was last December. We had the joy of experiencing the first West coast sustained hurricane level winds for two days continuous last December. If you can’t milk it’s a bear to get the ladies back producing, so lots of incentives to give it a try.
If you have any contacts with the Straus farm could you send them to me?
Ken, no, I don’t have any contacts there, but they seem to be really open about this stuff. Google for “methane digester” and you’ll find a ton of stuff. This is not sexy new technology, but it sure looks like it works, and it works in a wide range of climates. That Minnesota installation is an eye opener. They can use the power and excess heat generated to help keep the temperature right in the digester, and what blew me away is the value per cow in just the methane generated every day. It’s really significant. When you do the research, you have to wonder why every dairy, chicken, and pig farm doesn’t operate this way. Seems like most farmers are throwing away 15% to 20% of the value of their herds’ production. Unless I’m missing something, that is…
If a dairy farm then built barns with predominantly south facing roofs, they could be net producers of electricity in every rural area.
Okay, so I went haring off doing research (to get in on this alt energy thing) and late into my post midnight climb into the bowels of the internets, I find the web site for the local plant.
http://www.potb.org/methane-energy.htm
Like I said the local PUD is very very hip. But that’s Good Socialism for you. Problem is I can’t figure out why they went with a central one with trucking costs, and not small locals.
Damn, back into research mode.
Ken, government and big biz types love centralization; it’s close to monopolization. It’s all about control and hierarchy and a distrust of decentralized power both in the political sense as well as the physical sense in this case. Bureaucrats love to have something to control that you don’t have and so you always owe something to them.
It does seem that this methane digesting thing can be done successfully on a pretty small scale, just like solar power, and it will be up to us, the people, to make sure that policies like net metering are universal and fair to the individual power producer/consumer.
Speaking of this sort of thing, my girlfriend in Tasmania has an “EnviroCycle” waste disposal system at her place. All the “black” and “gray” water goes into a series of chambers where it is all broken down via aerobic and anaerobic decomposition in a series of tanks, and then when the last tank is full, the water is automatically pumped out to irrigate her lawn and flower beds. It’s not recommended for vegetables, but she has it tested four times a year, and there’s never been a hint of e-coli or other harmful bacteria. Her system has been going for 18 years without a problem. It’s another way of dealing with things in the nano-local level. Many suburban and semi-rural homes could take care of their sewage right on site with the end result being irrigation water used on site. These systems can easily be powered with alternative energy generated on site. http://www.envirocycle.com.au/
Rick,
Gray water isn’t recommended for use on edible gardens due to the chemicals in the soaps, shampoos, etc. Might as well use Miracle Gro potting soil too unless one uses products that are all natural.
What’s “black” water? Sewage? If so, that seems like a super bad idea. Your friend has been very lucky thus far.
A) This is a proven technology that uses anaerobic and aerobic chambers to break it all down.
B) She’s not using any of the irrigation water on edibles
C) The outflow is tested four times a year under council (town) supervision and there’s never been a hint of a problem in 18 years.
D) Read the following which I had already posted before jumping to the conclusion that this is some hippy dippy 55 gallon drum recycling project:
http://www.envirocycle.com.au/
Easy killer.
I had assumed that the recycled sewage was being used on edibles when you mentioned vegetables and e coli in the same sentence. Thanks for the clarification.
Lovely technology in light of water issues and good news that all has gone well for so long bacteria-wise. Hell, now that I think about it, the water in my neck of the woods isn’t pure Alpine goodness by any stretch. Your friend’s water is very possibly cleaner than mine. The only thing my Brita filters out is chlorine. Lots and lots of chlorine.
55gal hippy dippy diy kit is all good too. Whatever really works and is properly applied.
The idea of natural capitalism is a good one. Unfotrunately it does not acknowledge the goals of planned obsolesence and perceived obsolesence – see http://www.storyofsuff.org
Also, even if all elements of modern production were modified to mimic natural systems (unlikely to occur) the market “price” for goods neglects actual costs that are currently externalized. See Peter Barnes’ Capitalism 3.0 for the concept of trusts, into which fees are paid for valuable resources belonging to the commons – one person, one share – globally. The increase in cost is passed on to consumers serving as an incentive to reduce consumption and make reclamation more desireable.
However, all of these ideas are just that – ideas. None of them take on the inherent problem of population growth and consumption, both of which will have dramatic effects on natural systems REGARDLESS of modifications from “green” initiatives. The idea that we can simply modify the existing systems with alternative designs and inputs is ABSURD. All we’re likely to do is delay the collapse of natural systems while we continue pursing policies of growth.