Why It Matters: Helping the Environment and Farmers

Mitigating greenhouse gases. To combat climate change, we need to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases – primarily carbon dioxide and methane, which dissipates faster but is 28 times more potent in warming the atmosphere. A major part of the solution is replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources, which emit little to no greenhouse gas.

However, not all renewable energy sources are equal. Wind and solar sources are beneficial to the environment but can have limitations in providing continuous energy. The beauty of the Ag-Grid process is that it produces a consistent amount of green energy, which is complimentary to alternative renewable sources, without adding any burden to land and other natural resources.

Smaller dairy farms are stressed. While climate change negatively affects all farms, the more urgent crisis they face is financial. It is so hard to make a profit on a small to medium-size dairy farm that 64% have closed or sold out over the past two decades. Commodity pricing of grains they feed cows and the milk cows produce make it impossible for farmers to control either critical costs or what they can charge.

The advantage to the Ag-Grid business model is that it helps to sustain dairy farms by reducing their costs and providing a new revenue stream. The anaerobic digester provides farmers with electricity, heat, and crop fertilizer, saving them money. They profit from the sale of energy because Ag-Grid Energy is the only developer of waste to energy facilities on dairy farms that offers farmers equity partnerships.