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AERO on the Air

Fueling a Sustainable Energy Future

February 3, 2012

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In the summer of 1974, a small group of Eastern Montanans sat on a porch discussing the North Central Power Study. This study by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation proposed 42 coal burning power plants across the Great Plains, 21 of which were destined to dot the landscape of eastern Montana. Sacrifice. That is what the study proposed for eastern Montana – that it could be sacrificed for energy development and all the impacts that came along with it. In their discussion this group of Eastern Montanans asked – was it necessary? To scar the landscape, to pollute their air and water, to sacrifice the quality of their communities? Or were there alternatives?

Indeed there were alternative solutions, and this is how AERO – the Alternative Energy Resources Organization- was formed, with a group of people deciding that sometimes there is a responsibility when saying ‘no’ to one thing to say ‘yes’ to something else. Yes to aggressive energy efficiency and conservation! Yes to dispersed wind, small hydro, solar power systems! Yes to biofuels!

For the last few years many communities have had to face similar questions in regard to the Keystone XL Pipeline, an oil pipeline transporting crude oil from Alberta to the Gulf Coast through hundreds of communities. What risks does this pose to my health and safety, the land and water, the community I love?  Is this the energy economy we want for our nation? And – is there an alternative?

A couple of weeks ago President Obama rejected TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline application. However, it is clear that the President’s recent action represents only a delay at this point—not a final rejection.  This delay provides time for review of the concerns of the people and communities living on the proposed pipeline route. What do the people of Circle, Nashua, Fort Peck, or Baker Montana want? What will they sacrifice?

The President’s announcement came at the same time as an announcement from ExxonMobil stating that July’s disastrous Silvertip pipeline spill into the Yellowstone River was actually worse than they had projected – 50% more oil than their original estimate had spilled. Only 1% of that spilled oil has been recovered. In the meantime Keystone I pipeline, which currently transports crude oil from the tar sands through the Dakotas, leaked 14 times in the past eighteen months.

So with this in mind, what is the sacrifice being asked of Eastern Montanans? What is the emergency response plan for Keystone XL? Is the thickness of the pipe consistent, or is it thinner in rural areas? What is the lifespan of the pipeline considering the abrasive oil it will transport? Is it true it will be abandoned in place at the end of that lifespan? These are the questions being asked by citizens along the pipeline that need to be explored before the next TransCanada application.

The U.S. has decreased our oil consumption in the last few years. With new fuel efficiency standards, transition to flex-fuel and hybrid vehicles as well as investment in biofuel research and development this could continue. Americans can do more to conserve fuel and reduce pollution, but stopping the Keystone XL won’t accomplish either goal. Driving less and using vehicles with better fuel efficiency will do much more to protect our environment and would save Americans money, too. Producing our own fuel in our own communities will spur local growth, as well as give communities a stake in the energy economy. A system such as this encourages local decision-making that can mitigate sacrifice of land or quality of life.

In Montana there are alternatives to a centralized energy system that benefits the bottom lines of large corporations at the expense of small communities. There are projects around the state that benefit local communities and provide fuel in a sustainable way. At MSU-Northern’s Bioenergy Center in Havre researchers are creating bio-based jetfuel for the Air Force. Recently they received a grant to assist in biofuel research so companies can test their products at their facilities. The project will pair the university with local investors, as well as local farmers, to grow oilseed crops and process them into biofuel. In Chester, Earl Fisher is producing and selling biofuel made from oilseed crops grown in Montana. In Big Sandy, Bob Quinn runs his tractor on biodiesel he makes using oilseeds he grows himself. Projects such as these are working towards a sustainable future for Montana communities and are an alternative to sacrificing safety and health.

AERO believes that the best way to affect change is by empowering people in their own communities to work towards sustainable solutions. However community is one of the first things to go when energy is centralized, concentrated, and wastefully used. The further removed we are as a people from the resources we use; the less likely we are to use them wisely. As we plan the future of energy let us consider alternatives to our consumption of oil and alternatives to community sacrifice.

In Helena, I’m Sarah Lesnar for the Alternative Energy Resources Organization.  AERO has been building sustainable agriculture and energy solutions since 1974. Visit us online at aeromt.org.

This commentary aired on February 2nd, 2012 on Montana Public Radio.

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A Cleaner, More Affordable Energy Future For Montana

January 6, 2012

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We’ve all been aware for a long time that renewable sources of energy like the sun and wind are better for our health and our planet than fossil fuels like oil and coal.  But many have also assumed—and fossil fuel industries have certainly claimed—that renewable sources are more expensive.  Fortunately, this is NOT true, and we now have an excellent resource to prove it.

Northern Plains Resource Council joined the Civil Society Institute this month in releasing a major new report that outlines a realistic and affordable path to a cleaner and less expensive energy future. Yes, you heard that right: A clean energy future can be a more affordable energy future for Montana and the rest of the United States.

We see the economic and environmental benefits of this approach every day in the Northern Plains offices on South 27th Street in Billings.  The combination of energy efficiency and renewable energy from solar panels has resulted in 79% lower utility bills to heat, cool, and light the building compared to current energy codes.  And the renovation of the 1940s building was achieved with a construction budget that was 20% lower than constructing a new building to current energy standards.  We KNOW it works!

While fossil fuel industries would have us believe that renewable energy costs consumers more, the claim has never been based on any kind of comprehensive study of future energy resources.  The Synapse report, recently published by the Civil Society Institute and available to the public at www.civilsocietyinstitute.org, is a first in examining the whole lay of the energy landscape.  And it persuasively makes the case for phasing out all coal-fired power by 2050 and replacing it with aggressive energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar.

 The United States always has been less than focused on market-driven principles with respect to its energy policy. All levels of government have sought, for instance, to shift financial and operational risks of coal plants from private industry to the ratepayer and taxpayer. This also goes for oil and natural gas drilling. Although renewable energy companies and energy efficiency technology have received some taxpayer and ratepayer largesse, they pale in comparison to the historic bias toward fossil fuels.

How do we get beyond this unproductive pattern? Rather than shift the risks—and very real costs—from private business to the public in order to force construction of older and dying technologies (such as coal-fired power plants), we should be looking at which energy resources offer the least design, construction, and operational risks to both the public and private investors and that also can meet electric energy demand reliably.

The report compares status quo trends—the Business as Usual Scenario—with a “Transition Scenario” that maps out a much cleaner energy future by 2050. The Transition Scenario is superior to Business As Usual in terms of cost, public health, water usage, and carbon dioxide emission reductions.  And it also creates jobs.

The greatest savings achieved in the study is in the cost of generating electricity. Significant savings are achieved by not building new coal or nuclear plants and systematically phasing out all coal and a portion of the nuclear fleet. This is done with off-the-shelf technologies and efficiency, and makes no assumptions about as-yet-unreleased innovations currently in research and development.

The Transition Scenario also harbors other benefits that would reduce cost and health risks to private investors and the public. If implemented, the Transition Scenario would reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the electric sector by 81 percent. Under the Business As Usual Scenario, they would rise 28 percent. There is also far less water use in the Transition Scenario.

Finally, the study estimates the creation of 310,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the first decade of the transition to a more sustainable energy sector. The manufacturing base would receive a much-needed near-term boost with investment in energy efficiency.

There is something for everyone in this approach. Some people will like the fact that net savings over 40 years are projected to be a whopping $83 billion. That’s great news for consumers! Others will embrace the notion that eliminating pollution from dirty coal-fired power plants by 2050 will mean roughly 55,000 fewer premature deaths over the next several decades. 

The bottom line for Montana is clear: the public interest as well as the private sector is best served by investing our limited financial resources in energy efficiency and renewable sources of energy that will never run out rather than in dirty, finite fossil fuels.  This is the cleaner—and more affordable—approach.

In Billings, this is Ed Gulick for the Alternative Energy Resources Organization and its allies, Northern Plains Resource Council and Civil Society Institute.  AERO has been building sustainable agriculture and energy solutions since 1974.  Visit AERO online at www.aeromt.org.

This commentary aired on January 5th, 2012 on Montana Public Radio.

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Montana FoodCorps Plants Seeds in Rosebud…and Beyond

December 9, 2011

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This piece was written by Anina Estrem, who is a  Communities In Action VISTA, serving as part of the Montana FoodCorps team.

First there were seven, then eighteen, then thirty-six, now forty-one! Tucked away in the Rosebud school greenhouse, five tiny tomato plants have emerged from the tray planted by the 8th graders to join those of their peers. The 8th graders had been getting annoyed that their plants were slow to sprout while those of the 7th graders’ were flourishing, and even I was beginning to worry about what we might have done wrong. But now almost all of the students who planted seeds have a little speck of green growing in their pot, which collectively represent Rosebud’s new school garden! Winter’s a strange time to be starting a garden, but rather than let our enthusiasm stagnate, students installed heaters in the greenhouse so our plants will stay cozy even when it’s bitterly cold outside. As we plan for spring planting, the school has already started composting its food scraps and those of a nearby restaurant which will be used to fertilize the raised beds we anticipate building. What began as a simple class project is growing into a community-based effort to reduce waste, save money and live more sustainably in this tiny town.

Rosebud lies ten miles west of Forsyth, where I serve as a Montana FoodCorps volunteer with the Rosebud-Treasure County Extension Office. My service area encompasses Rosebud and Treasure Counties, which have a combined population of almost 9,000 people and includes an enormous stretch of land. While most of this land is agricultural, the majority of crops are commodity-scale grains, so finding enough local, fresh food to feed even this sparse population is a truly ambitious endeavor. As AmeriCorps VISTAs, I and 8 other FoodCorps members are spending a year in small towns across the state working to start or expand Farm to School programs, build school gardens and provide nutrition education to students.

Montana FoodCorps originated in 2006 from a partnership between Montana Campus Compact and Grow Montana – which is a statewide coalition of organizations working on food and agricultural issues. One of Grow Montana’s founding members is the Alternative Energy Resources Organization – or AERO -  which has been working on developing renewable energy as well as sustainable food system solutions in Montana for over 37 years. AERO – as well as the other organizations in Grow Montana – saw a need for on the ground volunteers to help Montana’s communities start local food projects.  In doing that, Montana’s FoodCorps has become a model for a National FoodCorps program, and in the last five years Montana FoodCorps volunteers have successfully steered over $2.5 million to local farmers and producers while helping get their communities excited about the possibilities of local food.

My work also takes me thirty miles west of Forsyth to the town of Hysham, where finding food (local or not) is an even bigger challenge. Hysham has been without a grocery store for three years, and residents must drive to Forsyth or the seventy miles to Billings for their shopping. To change this, a group of residents and I are exploring the idea of starting a cooperative grocery store, an enormous—and at times overwhelming—project. Still, it may make all the difference for a town where the average age is increasing while the population numbers are decreasing. We hope that a cooperative store which depends upon the support and labor of the community will not only provide better access to high-quality food, but also increase economic opportunities so that we can keep both dollars and residents in the area.

The biggest challenge for both of these projects is that Eastern Montana is a tough place to make a living, and for many residents, local food is not the top concern: there is barely enough time to do the shopping as it is. Local food will present an opportunity for these towns to reinvigorate their local economies while boosting regional pride and indirectly encouraging local, more sustainable methods of farming. My hope is to offer the model of local food as a way not only to improve the health of individuals, but also entire communities.

Proving that this is possible may be the hardest part of the process, but it is also the most rewarding. In my time here the Rosebud garden may only provide the cafeteria with a meal’s worth of vegetables, and the Hysham grocery store may take years to get off the ground. Still, in a region with approximately 2 people per square mile, I’ve already learned that every effort counts for double. The key is to start small, like Rosebud’s tomato sprouts, and with patience and cultivation, I’m confident we’ll see fruit.

In Forsyth, I’m Anina Estrem for the Alternative Energy Resources Organization. AERO has been building sustainable agriculture and energy solutions since 1974. Visit us online at www.aeromt.org.

This commentary aired on Thursday, December 8th on Montana Public Radio.

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The Bread We Eat

November 11, 2011

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Last year my wife and I decided to include a plot of winter wheat in our little homestead garden outside of Bigfork.  We devoted about two thousand square feet to getting an authentic taste of what goes into the bread our family eats. Mild weather last October was perfect for the planting, and a carpet of brilliant green emerged with great promise from beneath the receding snow in spring.  With the larger tasks of cultivating and planting done the year before, the spring and summer required only a bit of weeding now and then.  This pleasant task allowed for plenty of contemplative time immersed in the ocean of grass as it patiently transformed the abundant sunlight first into bright green leaves, and then to energy packed seeds.

What for us was a novel experiment had been commonplace for much of mankind since wheat’s selection from wild grasses more than ten thousand years ago. Until quite recently, the basic technology for harvesting and processing wheat had changed very little since Neolithic times.  Mastery of metalsmithing eventually replaced the ancient stone sickles with blades forged of bronze and then iron, but the task of reaping the grain remained one involving many people using simple tools.  Before the late eighteenth century invention of the drum threshing machine by the Scotsman Andrew Meikle, separation of the grain from the head and husk was done by some form of flailing, that is, beating of the harvested stalks on the ground or floor of the barn.   Meikle’s machine was followed in 1838 by the American development of the combine harvester, which both mows and threshes in one operation, thus eliminating both scythe and flail. Together these machines eventually transformed grain agriculture from an art practiced by many on small plots, to a process where now a single individual can “farm” thousands of acres with the help of several tons of complex machinery, modern strains of wheat, an arsenal of herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers, and of course, plenty of cheap fossil fuels.

We rarely question the mechanical foundations on which the productivity of modern agriculture is so absolutely dependent, but it was not always the case.  Meikle’s machine, in combination with the changing land use laws in England led to violent resistance that rivaled that of the Luddites.  Mechanization’s costs were immediate to the uncounted agricultural workers who were rendered superfluous by them.  Throngs of peasants were forced to move to the rapidly industrializing cities where they survived on rations of flour that they no longer had any role in producing.  Today, at some distance from the early social upheaval associated with mechanization, we more often measure the costs of industrialized farming in decreased soil fertility, widespread erosion, pollution of freshwater supplies, and health risks from agricultural chemicals.  But the systematic elimination of most people from the production of food has fostered a disturbing detachment from what sustains us both as individuals and collectively.

On a cool August morning I forged a new blade for an old world scythe from a handy scrap of tool steel.  Barely cool from its recent birth in fire, I secured the fresh blade to an antique steam bent handle gleaned from my grandfather’s nearly forgotten tool collection and began the long anticipated job of mowing the wheat by hand.  Even in the hot afternoon sun the rhythm of the cutting motion came with surprising ease, and I delighted in the hissing sound of the razor sharp blade slicing almost without effort through the dry amber stalks.  It took only a few hours to cut and load the entire crop onto a waiting hay wagon.

But I soon learned that beating the grain from the straw without threshing machinery was another matter entirely.  I was sorely tempted to see if I could enlist some nearby farmer to run our little wagon load  through his combine. The romance of growing our own wheat wore pretty thin about halfway through what now loomed as a mountain of wheat stalks on our wagon. We did finish by hand, and the harvest of nearly three bushels was more than I had initially hoped for. But it was obvious that the value of the grain would have to be measured in unconventional terms, for commodity wheat was selling for about eight dollars a bushel.

Although challenging work, the harvesting and threshing of this crop required the very thing that machines are first to eliminate: cooperation.  My wife and I spent many more hours working together than we would have otherwise, and we welcomed a neighbor’s help as well.  We were introduced to a new lexicon of terms that had gone the way of the traditional reapers:  stook and sheave, scythe and snath, flail, glume, awn, and shatter.  And both the mowing and threshing demanded a virtual poetry of motion to make the tools work well and the work go fast.   I wish I could tell you that the flavor of the fresh baked loaves from this effort is unrivaled: They are delicious, but not yet spectacular. It will take many more years of careful growing to reach that mark. However richness is not measured by the tongue alone, and recollections of the year’s labor accompany each kneading of the dough, and the devouring of every slice.

 I am Jeffrey Funk for AERO, the Alternative Energy Resources Organization, fostering connections between people: the energy we use, and the food we eat.  Please visit us online at AEROmt.org.

This commentary aired on November 10, 2011 on Montana Public Radio.

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Community Supported Innovation

October 21, 2011

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Three and a half years ago, my husband and I did something that still sort of shocks me.

We packed up our little house in Missoula, left our jobs and career opportunities and moved home – to rural north-central Montana — to start Prairie Heritage Farm (www.prairieheritagefarm.com).

We grow organic vegetables, ancient and heritage grains and pastured turkeys, all of which we sell via farm share programs, or what’s often called community supported agriculture.

If you’re not familiar with the concept, it’s a little like a subscription and a little like a shareholder situation. Customers pay up front and get a “share” of the harvest – whether that be a weekly box of produce, a Thanksgiving turkey or 100 pounds of ancient grains like Prairie Farro or Kamut and barley, lentils and chickpeas.

The idea is that by becoming shareholders, customers share in both the bounty and in the risk of farming. They also get to know their farmers and most importantly, they get an intimate view of where their food comes from.

But the whole thing is more than that. It’s more than a way of marketing produce or a way to connect eater with farmer. Writ large, community supported agriculture is about rethinking the way we support farmers and rethinking innovation and resiliency in our communities.

By now, I likely don’t need to tell you about the benefits of local food.

And, I may not need to tell you either how important farming, on any scale, is to the future of Montana, or how few young farmers there are these days, especially out here in rural Montana.

The message by now should be pretty well spread: We need more food and we need more farmers in our communities.

We’re often asked then, about how we might get others to do what Jacob and I did. That is to ask: What makes it possible for young people like us move to a small town and start a farm?

The good news is there is starting to be a lot of support for beginning farmers like us. We’ve had help on the financial side from federal farm programs. We’ve had help from the Montana Department of Agriculture. We’ve had help on the policy side from organizations working on behalf of beginning farmers – organizations like AERO, the Montana Farmer’s Union and the Center for Rural Affairs. We’ve had help from the University of Montana and Montana State University on research and education and we’ve had support from the economic development sector on the marketing and business side of things.

But, in looking back, what really got us to finally make the leap and what keeps us doing what we’re doing – even through long, hard days, tight bottom lines, hail and flooding and even bouts with turkey-hungry coyotes is that concept I started to explain in the beginning of this piece – this idea of community supported agriculture.

I admit, readily, that farming was a bit of a preposterous idea when my husband first broached it with me more than five years ago now. I grew up on family farm that weathered the 80s farm crisis, only to falter in the early 2000s – my parents finally selling once my brother and I had left for college.

This farming thing was a no-win situation in my mind. But then Jacob brought me into the community that gave him the inspiration in the first place. I attended my first AERO meeting and met all these smart, passionate people who reminded me that farming was important, who told me that farming was inspiring, that farming was innovative and farming was interesting and finally, that farming didn’t have to create the kind of heartbreak that my family farm did.

That’s really what finally opened me up to the idea. It’s what brought me back to my roots – what made me see all the good in where and how I grew up.

It’s those smart, passionate people who are now our investors, our mentors, the people we call when we need a combine header that will pick up something like black chickpeas and the people we have on speed dial for those long, hard, hail, coyote-ridden days when we feel like giving up and moving back to the city to find comfortable jobs and steady paychecks.

Everywhere, people are talking about how to jump start economies, how to foster innovation, how to encourage small business and how to increase social entrepreneurship.

And while policy work and fund-raising and institutional support are all great avenues to grow these things, the most important thing any small business owner, any entrepreneur, any innovator or any farmer can have is one that’s kind of hard to explain.

It’s community and connection — no matter if that community is the old-fashioned geographically-based community, or a far-flung, value-based community like the one we got when we entered the sustainable agriculture world via AERO.

Anyone going out on a limb needs someone, preferably more than one someone, telling them their work is possible, it’s important and most of all, it’s worth it.

Let’s call it community supported innovation.

In Conrad, I am Courtney Lowery Cowgill, a board member of the Alternative Energy Resources Organization. AERO has been building sustainable agriculture and energy solutions since 1974. Visit online at aeromt.org or meet the community yourself at AERO’s upcoming annual meeting, Oct. 28 through the 30 at the Glacier Camp and Conference Center near Lakeside, Montana.

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