Food Waste + Poop = Electricity

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2020

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Some dairy farmers in Massachusetts are using food waste and manure to create renewable energy. Each farm produces enough to power about 1,500 homes. Not only does this process create electricity, NPR Science Correspondent Allison Aubrey tells us it also prevents the release of methane, a greenhouse gas. Follow Short Wave's Emily Kwong on Twitter @emilykwong1234. Email the show at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody, Emily Kwong here, filling in for Maddie who's out training for a thumb
0:10.2	more competition.
0:11.2	Today our story comes from NPR correspondent Allison Oprie.
0:14.0	Hey there Emily, hey Allison, so what you got for us?
0:17.2	Well, why don't we start with a pop quiz?
0:19.4	What do you say?
0:20.4	I thrive in quiz pressure.
0:21.4	Go on.
0:22.4	Do you know how much of the food supply in the US never makes it to our mouths?
0:27.2	10%?
0:28.2	30% to 40%.
0:30.2	30% to 40% that is the estimate.
0:34.1	In fact, folks at the USDA, the US Department of Agriculture estimate that you could fill
0:38.8	the Willis Tower in Chicago, big skyscraper, every year 44 times with the amount of food
0:44.6	that goes to waste.
0:45.9	That is staggering.
0:46.9	You know, food waste is this huge problem and on top of being a massive waste when
0:52.3	food ends up in a landfill, it rots and a lot of methane is released.
0:57.6	And methane is a greenhouse gas, which is a huge contributor to climate change.
1:01.0	That's right.
1:02.0	It traps heat in the atmosphere and methane is over 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide
1:08.4	in terms of its warming impact.
	...

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