Energy use and it's availability, now and in the future, have been of increasing concern as the decade of the 1970's elapsed and the 1980's begin. This paper describes a farm energy audit project that addressed this concern of energy use by farms in Michigan. The objectives of this paper are...

Lignocellulosic portion of municipal solid waste (MSW) is considered a potential feedstock for fuel ethanol production. I review the trends in MSW generation, composition and disposal practices, and evaluate the aggregate and regional potential of MSW as a feedstock. I present an overview of the...

During the last several years there has been significant development in the energy situation. The present shortages and the resultant problems were not widely anticipated by the American public nor its elected leaders. Recognition of the current and possible future impacts of the energy shortage...

This paper outlines the economic surplus approach to economic impact assessment and how it may be applied to natural resource management (NRM) projects. Three challenges confront NRM impact assessment: measurement, attribution, and valuation of non-market impacts. While various methods for...

Rapidly expanding ethanol production in the U.S. was given further impetus with the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandating a minimum production of 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2012. The availability of the by-product feeds of ethanol production (corn gluten feed and meal...

Drought is a natural hazard that cannot be avoided significantly within the present level of scientific development. Studies and experiments to overcome drought have not yet reached the stage of development where the world can depend on the available scientific technology to avoid droughts. As a...

Pesticide contamination of groundwater has been linked to intensive agricultural activity. Several federal legislations have been applied to protect groundwater quality from on-farm pesticide contamination, but results have not been notable. The environmental protection agency has mandated that...

Tanks are man made reservoirs formed by putting crescent shaped earth embankments across the drainage flow to capture and store heavy runoff from concentrated monsoon rainfall. Tank water reaches fields by gravity flow through sluices. Tanks, which were once the largest form of irrigation in...