Video: Danny Kluthe: From Hog Manure to Free Energy
This is one of those stories that make you think - the potential is MASSIVE. The meat industry is a fact of life for now, even if it needs to be seriously amended. But the chemicals and pollution produced within this industry don't need to be - in fact, the waste products from meat production may actually help us move away from oil and nuclear power. When RR arrived at Danny Kluthe's “Bacon Hill" hog farm outside Dodge, NE two things struck us immediately: the clean and odorless operation and Danny's endearing smile. Danny has reasons to smile indeed. He's completely creating his own energy - enough to power his farm, his tractor, his truck...and 53 of his neighbors' homes!! (He sells the excess to the grid). Danny is quite proud of his achievement: all the waste from his 7,500 piglets are neatly collected and directed into a giant bio-digester - basically a big bladder that collects the methane and turns it into electricity and compressed natural gas. But wait! There's more! Besides free energy, Danny is then left with clean fertilizer that doesn’t smell and that he uses on his fields instead of toxic chemicals. All we’re left with wondering is why all farmers and ranchers in the world aren’t doing the very same thing. Then we'd all be smiling.