BioTown Ag: Moving Sustainability Forward
A closed-loop system that works for corporations, farmers, and consumers.
All things in the world begin with a single link. Not a link to a website, but a link between one organism and another, or one process and another. In sustainable farming, BioTown Ag is developing links that build a sustainable community.
The result is a closed-loop system that requires fewer natural resources, improves the farming process, and gives farming benefits to society that are beyond just food production. BioTown Ag takes in waste from corporations and adds it to biowaste from farms to produce benefits to business, society, and farmers.
There are a few other biorecyclers nationally. Those facilities do not accept waste from outside systems. BioTown Ag is the only waste recycler that takes organic biowaste from corporations and turns it into renewable energy. Municipalities benefit because that waste does not find its way to landfills or sewer treatment plants. Instead, it becomes a contributing factor for renewable energy that powers farms and households throughout the community. BioTown Ag creates 5 megawatts of green energy each year.
What BioTown Ag is building are the links that turn waste into usable, green, sustainable products that help farmers lower costs, produce better products, and improve their land. Organic fertilizer means healthier plants that produce better feed. Better feed means cattle and swine producers grow better stock in potentially less time. A healthier end product is also a plus for consumers.
By collecting biowaste from stock and organic waste from corporations, BioTown Ag produces 5 megawatts of electricity that comes from methane. The key to the project is the BioTown Ag digester, which uses natural processes to produce methane with a result of rich organic fertilizer. The conventional system requires new resources for field regeneration, with little recovery of end waste products from farms or municipalities, so its return is limited.
It costs farmers more to buy non-organic fertilizers, and livestock producers pay more for higher quality feeds. Municipalities and corporations pay more to process waste from production, and that cost passes to consumers. BioTown Ag closes the system and recovers the waste, which is then recycled into green energy and better fertilizer. That boosts return on all fronts, making it a win for everyone involved, including consumers.