Sat, 11 Jun 2005

Taking a ride on the sheep urine express

I don't know what to think about this. On the one hand, it's an admirable use for an agricultural by-product. But how could they possibly collect the sheep pee? There are really only two ways that I can think of - either you put a "diaper" of sorts on each animal and collect them often (very time consuming, and I would venture, expensive) or you keep in the animals in a well drained barn all the time. Which means confinement "factory" farming - decidedly not healthy for humans or sheep.

I'm not sure if this would save any energy, either: if confined the sheep barn will have to be heated and cooled, and light provided. It's kind of like the ethanol problem: with "modern" farming methods, some studies have shown that it takes 29% more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than that same gallon of bio-fuel generates.

A British bus company believes it may have a secret weapon to cut pollution emissions -- sheep urine in the engine.

(link) [WebIndia123.com]

via Wired

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