Idaho Working So Support Northwest Food Processing Plants

In August, the University of Idaho secured a $2.1 million grant to work with food processors to help reduce their energy, water and waste foot prints.  The projects is part of the new Idaho Global Entrepreneurial mission.  U of I Professor Karen Humes says they will demonstrate and transfer technologies that will help processors and producers reduce water and nutrient use, as well as recycle valuable byproducts.  Humes said when the project is up and running, precision agriculture will be a key part of the research.

“We’re going to use imagery from satellites and drones to assist producers in being as thrifty as possible with the application of nutrients, just the optimal amount to get the yields that you want, because the more of those nutrients we can keep out of the system in the first place the less concentration we have to deal with on the waste end.”

While the research will focus on processors in SE Idaho, Humes said the work will help facilities across the Northwest.  Erik Coats, Professor of Environmental Engineering at the U of I said the long-term goal is about creating  commodities of value.

“Recovering value from the waste stream that can be re-purposed out as fertilizer, maybe as energy through biogas, and I work in the bio plastics field as well, there’s a variety of potential products that can be recovered or produced from commingled waste streams.”

Says those products could be of interest to other member of the farming community, or municipalities.  Coats noted the research will be multiple disciplines at Idaho, as well as Idaho State and Boise State.

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