Madelia Model seeks alternative crops for energy
Feedstocks would make 60 percent methane gasBy FRITZ BUSCH Journal Staff Writer
MADELIA - Pieces of the Madelia Model project that would create alternative energy from alternative crops are moving forward.
The model involves locally-grown biomass including natural and industrial feedstocks within a 25-mile radius of rural Minnesota communities.
The project creates rural jobs, improved water quality, carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas reduction, improved wildlife habitat and crop diversity.
The Madelia "fuel shed" would include Winnebago, Mankato, New Ulm, Sleepy Eye and St. James areas.
Sponsored by Rural Advantage of Fairmont - which promotes the interconnection of agriculture, rural communities and the environment - the Madelia Model is built around crop initiative.
Third crops are any non-row crops beyond corn and soybeans.
Options include buckwheat, flax, hay, hybrid hazelnuts, poplars, perennial grasses, willows and forest products.
Rural Advantage Marketing and Program Assistant Jeff Jensen said the community-based anaerobic digestion project includes feedstocks from Tony Downs Foods Co. plants in Madelia and Butterfield.
"Analysis showed we can create crude bio gas with 60 percent methane," said Jensen.
Rural Advantage President and Founder Diane Meschke said she is working with politicos on the prospect of becoming part of the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP).
Adopted in the 2008 Farm Bill, the program would help producers willing to switch part or all of their acreage to dedicated energy crops.
Producers would receive direct, annual and cost-share (delivery) payments while they establish and grow biomass crops in areas around biomass facilities.
Annual and perennial crop contracts will run 5-10 years for woody biomass.
Producers would need a contract with a biomass user facility, which has agreed to convert crops to energy.
Facilities must demonstrate sufficient equity to comply with the contract.
Commodity title crops (corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice and oilseeds) are not payment eligible under BCAP.
Producers cannot plant noxious or invasive plants under the program.
Eligible land includes agriculture and non-industrial private forest land.
"The BCAP could generate millions of dollars of us," Meschke said.
The recently-formed Madelia Area Redevelopment Corp. (MARC), directed by Dist. 21B Rep. Brad Finstad of Comfrey - is a private venture of the Madelia business community that will work with the Madelia Model.
The project recently added conservation agronomist and Truman native Jill Sackett to its staff. She recently graduated from South Dakota State University, majoring in biology and minoring in chemistry.
The next Madelia Model meeting was set for 3 p.m., Friday, Dec. 19 at Madelia City Hall.
For more information, visit www.ruraladvantage.org.
(Fritz Busch can be e-mailed at fbusch@nujournal.com).
