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2. Wind farms deliver economic jolt to rural middle America
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Henderson, Tim (author)
- Format:
- Online Article
- Publication Date:
- 2023-01-24
- Published:
- United States: Daily Yonder, The
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 206 Document Number: D12881
- Journal Title:
- Daily Yonder, The
- Journal Title Details:
- Online
- Notes:
- 5pgs, Wind farms boosted seven of 10 counties with nation’s largest GDP increases.
3. State, Federal Solar Incentives Help Illinois Feed Mill Slash Energy Costs
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Lydersen, Kari (author)
- Format:
- Online article
- Publication Date:
- 2022-12-05
- Published:
- United States: Daily Yonder, The
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 206 Document Number: D12882
- Journal Title:
- Daily Yonder, The
- Journal Title Details:
- Online
- Notes:
- 5pgs, At a central Illinois feed mill, electricity from its rural electric co-op was exceeding grain costs as its biggest operating expense. With a new 3-megawatt solar array, the facility expects to reduce energy costs by about 50%.
4. Not all light spectra were created equal: can we harvest light for optimum food-energy co-generation?
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Camporese, Matteo (author) and Abou Najm, Majdi (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2022-12
- Published:
- United States: Wiley Periodicals LLC
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 206 Document Number: D12886
- Journal Title:
- Earth's Future
- Journal Title Details:
- Volume 10, Issue 12
- Notes:
- 16pgs, Humanity's growing appetites for food and energy are placing unprecedented yield targets on our lands. Chasing those ever-expanding land intensification targets gave rise to monocultures and sharpened the divide between food and energy production groups. Here, we argue that this does not have to be a zero-sum game if food and energy can be co-generated in the same land. Co-generation can lead to sustainable intensification but requires a paradigm shift in the way we manage our resources, particularly light. Using an extended model of plant photosynthesis and transpiration, we demonstrate how plants react to different incident light spectra and show that manipulating light could be effective for boosting land and water efficiencies, thus potentially improving soil health. This knowledge can possibly unlock the real potential of promising modern agricultural technologies that target optimization of light allocations such as agrivoltaics. This study suggests that the blue part of the light spectrum is less efficient in terms of carbon assimilation and water use and could be more effectively used to produce solar energy, while the red part could efficiently produce biomass. A sensitivity analysis to the most important crop and environmental variables (irradiance, air temperature, humidity, and CO2 concentration) shows that plant response to different light treatments is sensitive to environmental boundary conditions and is species-specific. Therefore, further research is necessary to assess which crops and climates are more suitable to optimize the proposed food-water-energy nexus.
5. Push for electric ag equipment in oregon Is led by independent groups
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Carlson, Claire (author)
- Format:
- online article
- Publication Date:
- 2022-10-27
- Published:
- United States: The Daily Yonder
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 206 Document Number: D12786
- Journal Title:
- The Daily Yonder
- Journal Title Details:
- Online
- Notes:
- 3pgs, With volatility being an integral part of farming, electric ag equipment could bring some predictability to farmers’ energy use and consumption, say experts. Efforts to electrify transportation in urban areas have been underway for years now, but rural advocates say electric vehicle needs in rural areas have long been misunderstood and ignored.
6. Using renewable energy to meet the energy needs of smallholder farmers: are there policies to promote adoption in Ghana?
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Karbo, R. T. (author), Frewer, L. J. (author), Areal, F. (author), and Yu, E. (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2022-06-30
- Published:
- Ghana: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research of Ghana
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 205 Document Number: D12764
- Journal Title:
- Ghana Journal of Agricultural Science
- Journal Title Details:
- Vol. 57, N.1
- Notes:
- 15 pages, Integrating renewable energy (RE) technologies into agriculture can contribute to attaining sustainable production. Farmers’ adoption of RE in agriculture can lead to substantial reductions in Greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions as well as providing alternative income sources for farmers, and reliable energy supplies for farms and households. Policies can facilitate, support, or encourage farmers’ adoption of RE. However, it is not clear what policies currently exist which facilitate or promote the adoption of RE technologies in Ghanaian agriculture. This paper aims to identify policies in Ghana that can facilitate the adoption of RE in agricultural production. A policy review was conducted to identify such policies, evaluate their potential impact on RE adoption, and suggest paths to enhance RE adoption by farmers. These policies are focused on two aspects: 1) promoting solar energy and 2) the conversion of agricultural waste to energy. Noting limitations including the underdevelopment of the RE sector and the lack of a central policy to promote RE utilization in Ghanaian agriculture, the review suggests that policymakers need to fully implement provisions of the Renewable Energy Act-(832) (2011) through the application of, for example, policy levers such as subsidies, tax exemptions, financing, and training potential end-users in the agricultural community.
7. Feeding relations: applying Luhmann’s operational theory to the food system
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Guptill, Amy (author) and Peine, Emellie (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2021-01-03
- Published:
- USA: Springer
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 202 Document Number: D12039
- Journal Title:
- Agriculture and Human Values
- Notes:
- 12 pages, via Online Journal, Current, prevalent models of the food system, including complex-adaptive systems theories and commodity-as-relation thinking, have usefully analyzed the food system in terms of its elements and relationships, confronting persistent questions about a system’s identity and leverage points for change. Here, inspired by Heldke’s (Monist 101:247–260, 2018) analysis, we argue for another approach to the “system-ness” of food that carries those key questions forward. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory, we propose a model of the food system defined by the relational process of feeding itself; that is, the food system is made of feeding and only feeding, and system structures are produced by the coupling of that process to its various contexts. We argue that this approach moves us away from understandings of the food system that take structures and relations as given, and sees them instead as contingent, thereby helping to identify leverage points for food system change. The new approach we describe also prompts us as critical agrifood scholars to be constantly reflexive about how our analyses are shaped by our own assumptions and subjectivities.
8. Not Glamorous, but Needed: Teaching Energy Basics to Improve Farm Profitability
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Zoller, Chris (author) and Romich, Eric (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2020-08-01
- Published:
- United States: Extension Journal, Inc.
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 203 Document Number: D12291
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Extension
- Journal Title Details:
- Vol. 58, Num. 4
- Notes:
- 5 pages, Despite the increase in energy consumption, rising energy costs, and the overall financial strain in the agriculture sector, the Extension system has allocated limited resources to energy education in agriculture. Many energy programs focus on renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies whereas little attention is paid to developing an understanding of how farmers are billed for electricity, when electricity is used, and why. The first step in developing evidence-based solutions to improve farm profitability is clearly defining the problems that need to be solved. If not Extension, who will take on the responsibility of providing this critical education?
9. Stan cox: the green new deal and beyond: ending the climate emergency while we still can
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Miller, Jacob A. (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2020-06-29
- Published:
- USA: Springer
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 202 Document Number: D12042
- Journal Title:
- Agriculture and Human Values
- Notes:
- 2 pages, via Online Journal, Stan Cox’s The Green New Deal and Beyond argues that the realities of our climate crisis require the elimination of fossil fuels from the U.S. economy and a realignment of the unjust system that allows for their exploitation. Cox’s thesis is that the Green New Deal legislation (GND) is a good first step, but we in the U.S. must also acknowledge and adhere to the limits of economic growth and material consumption. His evidence-driven analysis builds from the IPCC report’s finding that we need to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 if we are to limit global warming to 1.5 °C.
10. Peer influence on household energy behaviours
- Collection:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center (ACDC)
- Contributers:
- Wolske, Kimberly S. (author), Gillingham, Kenneth T. (author), and Schultz, P. Wesley (author)
- Format:
- Journal article
- Publication Date:
- 2020-01-27
- Published:
- UK: Nature Portfolio
- Location:
- Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 207 Document Number: D13073
- Journal Title:
- Nature Energy
- Journal Title Details:
- V.5
- Notes:
- 11 pages, Studies across multiple disciplines demonstrate the importance of peers in shaping energy-related behaviours. Research on this process is wide ranging, from documenting spatial peer effects in the adoption of rooftop solar—when an individual’s behaviour is influenced by the behaviours of neighbours—to showing how neighbour comparisons can be used to reduce household electricity consumption. However, gaps exist in our understanding of how and why these peer effects occur. In this Review, we examine recent findings on social influence in energy behaviour and discuss pathways through which social influence can result in peer effects. We propose a conceptual framework for predicting which social influence processes will most often result in peer effects, depending on the targeted energy behaviour. We also review the limitations of social influence as well as evidence for when it is expected to be the strongest.