MSU farms work to make sure the land and campus is more environmentally friendly, with notable efforts arising in the last few years.
“The obvious one is manure mixed with food waste — the anaerobic digester,” MSU Dairy Farm manager Rob West said.
West explained the south campus anaerobic digester mixes the manure from MSU farms with food waste from the cafeterias to produce methane gas, which helps produce electricity for some of the buildings on the south part of campus.
“Manure naturally produces methane gas. By mixing it with food waste and food rinds, it can be recycled to produce electricity,” West said, adding that burning the gas produces a cleaner emission.
MSU farms have also become more eco-friendly by getting MAEAP certified, said MSU Beef Center manager Tristan Foster. MAEAP, the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program, looks at how a farm manages their manure, making sure it’s stored properly and safely, and how soil and other environmental aspects are impacted by a farm, Foster said.
“(They’re) making sure we’re being environmentally responsible,” Foster said.
Although the MAEAP certification is not required and farms volunteer for the scrutiny, all of the farms, as a part of MSU, chose to be certified and they all passed, Foster said.
Aside from making sure their practices are safe, MSU farms also research to insure general agriculture practices are conducive to the environment.
Agronomy Farm manager Brian Graff said research done in his department involves running experiments to assure pesticides and other chemicals will actually help crops grow without negatively affecting the environment. He said the research also helps farmers know the right amount of a chemical to use.
Graff adds students conduct lab, greenhouse and field research to gather data and achieve results.
Though farm emissions minimally impact the environment compared to automobile emissions, the beef farm has still researched products to try to reduce methane and ammonia gases given off by the beef farm, Foster said. He added that the beef farm recycles all of their waste, including bedding and manure.
Plus, they provide food to areas all around campus, such as milk for Dairy Store cheese, and beef for some MSU cafeteria meals, West said.
Because auditors, such as MAEAP, verify that farms maintain environmental components on their land, the beef farm makes sure to fence cattle away from the wetlands as well, so the water is not contaminated.
MAEAP certified and research bound, MSU farms know the safety of agriculture production.
