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the need for fossil fuel based energy<br />
and the associated costs of procuring<br />
it, and above all, greatly reducing the<br />
environmental impact of the operation.<br />
This project resulted in Dixon Ridge<br />
Farms being honored with the prestigious<br />
Governor’s Environmental and<br />
Economic Leadership Award (GEELA).<br />
Second Unit<br />
In 2012, Dixon Ridge Farms<br />
upgraded to the BioMax® 100 Gen1<br />
unit. All in all, it produces 643,000<br />
kWh, enough to provide some $102,000<br />
worth of electricity and off set $24,000<br />
worth of propane used for drying<br />
walnuts. This was followed by the installation<br />
of a second unit, the BioMax®<br />
Gen2, in 2014 (see photo 1). Further,<br />
biochar, a byproduct of the energy generation,<br />
can be incorporated into soil as<br />
a nutrient and moisture retention and<br />
release media. The biochar effectively<br />
binds fertilizers and irrigation water<br />
and releases them slowly and evenly<br />
rather than all at once, thereby preventing<br />
loss of nutrients and water. This, in<br />
turn, would help avoid air and water<br />
quality issues caused by aerosolization<br />
(Nitrous oxide) and leaching (Nitrate).<br />
Biochar also provides food and shelter<br />
to beneficial organisms residing in the<br />
soil, thereby boosting soil health.<br />
Regulatory Changes<br />
Russ invited UC Davis researchers to<br />
look at his operations, and they found<br />
that Dixon Ridge Farms was, in fact,<br />
carbon negative, i.e. it was removing<br />
more carbon dioxide than adding to it.<br />
While most businesses are still striving<br />
to be carbon neutral, Dixon Ridge<br />
Farms was ahead of the curve. This<br />
partnership with SynTech has brought<br />
a second GEELA award for Dixon<br />
Ridge Farms in 2018. In addition, Russ<br />
has received numerous other awards<br />
such as EPA Sustainable Agriculture<br />
Champion Award (2012) and IPM<br />
Innovator Award (2011) among others.<br />
But he is far from being done. He wants<br />
to continue fine tuning his operation<br />
so they can utilize all byproducts<br />
generated on the farm. He also wants<br />
to continue advocating for regulatory<br />
changes so renewable sources like agricultural<br />
byproduct get the same respect<br />
and level playing field as solar and<br />
wind does. He would like to see more<br />
common sense regulations governing<br />
on-farm renewable energy generation<br />
so farms like his willing to invest in<br />
bioenergy projects are not hamstrung<br />
by policies and politics involving utility<br />
companies. But above all, he would like<br />
everyone to remember one very important<br />
thing….it is farmers who feed the<br />
society.<br />
(Sources: Dixon Ridge Farms: http://<br />
www.dixonridgefarms.com/home.html;<br />
SynTech Bioenergy LLC: https://www.<br />
syntechbioenergy.com/)<br />
Comments about this article? We want<br />
to hear from you. Feel free to email us at<br />
article@jcsmarketinginc.com<br />
Russ Lester (R) and Wayne McFarland (L) in front of<br />
the BioMax® Gen2 unit at Dixon Ridge Farms<br />
<strong>September</strong> <strong>2019</strong><br />
www.wcngg.com<br />
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