Ag News
Company Helps Farmers
Tue, 13 Apr 2010 5:58:17 CDTThe
outgoing host of TV’s “Family Feud” program John O’Hurley has founded a company
that has developed a way to convert waste to energy - and they are putting this
technology to work. Energy-Inc. has signed a contract to install an advanced
thermal conversion plant at the Greenville, North Carolina, High Ridge Farm -
which raises about three-thousand hogs. style="FONT-FAMILY: arial; COLOR: #0c0c0c; FONT-SIZE: 13px">O‘Hurley
says the technology will make the farm a neighborhood-friendly business. He says
they‘re turning a liability into an asset. But National Pork Producers Council
Chief Environmental Counsel Michael Formica says the waste on hog farms is never
a liability. Formica argues there is no waste on our hog farms - rather manure
that is used as fertilizer.
style="FONT-FAMILY: arial; COLOR: #0c0c0c; FONT-SIZE: 13px">Statistics show that
less than half of one-percent of hog farms in the U.S. have any discharge during
the course of a year. And NPPC’s Formica explains the majority of those are
small - such as a hose break or similar event. While he admits O‘Hurley‘s
technology may work - Formica says the underlying premise regarding the hog
industry is "completely false."
style="FONT-FAMILY: arial; COLOR: #0c0c0c; FONT-SIZE: 13px">Energy-Inc. plants
could also be used on operations with dairy and beef cattle or chickens.
O‘Hurley says each plant costs about 3.5-million dollars and the return on
investment is between two and five years.
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