The anaerobic digester at Goodrich Farm turns cow manure and food waste into carbon-negative, renewable natural gas that benefits much more than the farm. And the family’s journey is highly replicable.
Brother-and-sister farmers Chase and Danielle Goodrich are committed to
sustainability and land stewardship. Their dairy farm in Salisbury, Vt.,
practices
no-till
cover cropping and corn planning to enhance soil health and protect the
sensitive watershed area around the farm. Their 900 cows live in large, airy
barns with comfortable bedding and high-quality feed. They also seek to be good
neighbors and involved members of their community, as that community evolves
away from farming.
Chase and Danielle Goodrich and their happy cows | Image courtesy of Vanguard Renewables
The highlight of the sustainability efforts at Goodrich Family Farm is an anaerobic digester – a facility that converts cow manure and food waste into renewable natural gas and low-carbon digestate fertilizer used by the farm.
Adding to that, the Farm
Powered
process features the first phosphorus-removal system in Vermont — extracting
the phosphorus from the digestate byproduct of the process to protect the
Lake Champlain watershed, soil health and the community.
It’s all part of the regenerative agriculture
movement,
with the ambitious goal of actually mitigating climate
change.
The Goodrich family’s journey also provides lessons for organizations seeking to
combine sustainability with community acceptance and economic viability, as well
as for anyone seeking to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds.
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Goodrich Farm’s latest achievement has been recognized with the 2021
Outstanding Dairy Farm Sustainability Award by the Innovation Center for US
Dairy. It is one of just three farms in the nation to win the award — which
honors dairy farms, businesses and partnerships whose practices improve the
wellbeing of people, animals and the planet.
Over a decade in the making
The original impulse behind the project dates back to 2009, when Chase and
Danielle came home to work on the farm after attending college, taking up
management of the herd their grandfather began in 1956.
“At the time, we saw two major challenges to our viability: The dairy business
was getting more volatile, and the environmental impact of dairy farms was under
greater scrutiny,” Chase says. “Hosting the anaerobic digester diversifies
our
income
and improves our carbon footprint while protecting water quality, and makes us
better neighbors, farmers and animal owners.”
Goodrich Farm | Image courtesy of Vanguard Renewables
The Farm Powered anaerobic digester at Goodrich Farm, one of the largest in the
nation, holds 1.32 million gallons of manure and organic waste. Besides
processing manure from the 2,000-acre farm, it also accepts food waste from food
and beverage manufacturers, Vermont businesses and the local community —
diverting it out of the waste stream to create high-value renewable energy. The
project produces 180,000 Mcf of renewable natural
gas
(RNG) annually, which is enough gas to heat about 5,000 homes. Along with
carbon-negative RNG, the digester produces low-carbon fertilizer and animal
bedding.
“It's nice to be able to bed the cows as often as necessary,” says Danielle,
noting that the cows’ contentment translates into lower bacteria counts in their
milk. “They love having fresh bedding. They're happy. They're comfortable.”
But the journey toward the digester project was not without obstacles and
delays, the Goodriches share: “We almost had to shape our business not around
market conditions, but more geared towards the long picture of trying to get
this project here,” Chase adds. “And sometimes those goals didn't always line
up, and we would kind of have to make a decision one way or the other. That was
challenging.”
A unique, innovative partnership
Bringing the digester to Salisbury required putting together a team that crosses
industry and geographic lines, looking outside ordinary channels for ways to
create win-win opportunities.
For instance, a majority of the RNG produced by the Goodrich Farm anaerobic
digester will be sent via pipeline to nearby Middlebury College, where it
will offset fossil fuel thermal load at the college and enable Middlebury to get
closer to its Energy2028
goals. As a side benefit, Middlebury students have opportunities for research
and teaching at the farm.
The partnership between Middlebury, Vanguard
Renewables (which owns and operates the Farm
Powered anaerobic digester) and Vermont Gas Systems helped realize the Vermont
anaerobic digester project alongside the Goodrich family. The farm also received
support from the Agri-Mark Cabot Creamery
Cooperative, an organization of 750 dairy farm
families to which they belong.
“The Goodrich family is invested in the future. They have created a path of
sustainability focused on innovation,” said Anson Tebbetts, Secretary for
Vermont’s Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets, who provided a letter of
endorsement in support of their application for the award.
“We were super excited to head down this path,” Chase Goodrich explains. “It
checked off some of our major goals to keep the farm viable as we transition to
the third generation — providing an income outside of the milk check, as well as
the environmental impacts.”
The farmers ultimately credit cooperation and persistence for getting the
project done. “It brought a dairy farm family together with a prestigious
educational institution with a public utility, and then an innovative group of
entrepreneurs, and got them all together in the same room to come up with a with
a great project with all these wonderful benefits,” Chase says.
Taking care of the community
“All through the process, Chase and his family knew it would create a positive
path for their multi-generational family farm,” Tebbetts wrote. “But the project
is also about their neighbors and the community, including a major college
institution.”
And in advocating for a project that has helped to reduce Vermont’s carbon
footprint as well as the farm’s, Chase and Danielle are living examples of being
good neighbors to the broader community and environment.
Lessons learned
In facing daunting challenges such as the global climate crisis, Goodrich Farm
offers some useful starting points for action.
-
Start locally and look for opportunities to help solve your neighbors’
problems, as well as your own.
-
Reach out beyond your own industry or sector; and be open to outside-the-box
connections and ideas.
-
And lastly, keep your eyes on your long-term goal — even as you manage the
issues of today.
Vanguard Renewables is thrilled for this recognition for the Goodrich family and
for the Farm Powered anaerobic digester on the farm. Even better, Chase and
Danielle’s sustainability journey is highly replicable. Dairy farms can
incorporate regenerative agricultural practices such as no-till farming and
cover crops, and pursue hosting an anaerobic digester to diversify revenue and
sustain their farm for future generations.
For those of you without a dairy farm, I hope that you can all apply a little of
their wisdom to benefit your own sustainability journey.
Learn more about recycling food waste and building regenerative supply chains at our upcoming webinar Farm to Plate: How Companies and Consumers are Catalyzing a More Regenerative Food System.
Published Jun 18, 2021 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST
John Hanselman is Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Vanguard Renewables — the U.S. leader in farm-based organics to renewable energy. John launched Vanguard Renewables in 2014 to connect farm-based anaerobic digestion to agricultural resilience and produce renewable energy. His work includes finding a decarbonization pathway for the food and beverage industry by enabling the repurposing of unavoidable manufacturing and supply chain waste into renewable natural gas. John’s strength is bringing together partners in the decarbonization journey and Vanguard has strategic partnerships with Dairy Farmers of America and Dominion Energy, among others. (Read more ...)
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