CHICKEN FARMING

Indoor broilers

Meat chickens, commonly called broilers, are floor-raised on litter such as wood shavings or rice hulls, indoors in climate-controlled housing. Under modern farming methods, meat chickens reared indoors reach slaughter weight at 5 to 6 weeks of age.

Broilers are not raised in cages. They are raised in large, open structures known as growout houses. These houses are equipped with mechanical systems to deliver feed and water to the birds. They have ventilation systems and heaters that function as needed. The floor of the house is covered with bedding material consisting of wood chips, rice hulls, or peanut shells. Because dry bedding helps maintain flock health, most growout houses have enclosed watering systems (“nipple drinkers”) which reduce spillage.

Keeping birds inside a house protects them from predators such as hawks and foxes. Some houses are equipped with curtain walls, which can be rolled up in good weather to admit natural light and fresh air. Most growout houses built in recent years feature “tunnel ventilation,” in which a bank of fans draws fresh air through the house.

Traditionally, a flock of broilers consist of about 20,000 birds in a growout house that measures 400 feet long and 40 feet wide, thus providing about eight-tenths of a square foot per bird. The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) states that the minimum space is one-half square foot per bird. More modern houses are often larger and contain more birds, but the floor space allotment still meets the needs of the birds.

Because broilers are relatively young and have not reached sexual maturity, they exhibit very little aggressive conduct.

Chicken feed consists primarily of corn and soybean meal with the addition of essential vitamins and minerals. No hormones or steroids are allowed in raising chickens.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poultry_farming

COMMENTARY:

There is no reason why The Bahamas can not be self sufficient in chicken meat and chicken eggs. It is said that Bahamians consume more chicken per capita than any other place in the world. In the past many chicken farms have closed because we have not used modern scientific and business practices.

RENEWABLE ENERGY

Renewable Energy Sources

Renewable energy is the process of using natural resources to create energy that can be turned into electricity.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First Generation Biofuels

These consisted of mainly of food crops like corn, soybean  wheat, sugar cane etc. They were used to create ethanol to be use in motor vehicles. The negative effect of this is that the cost of food went up as a result of using too many food crops. Also the amount of economic resources required did not produce a net reduction of imported fossil fuels. The US government now discourages the use of food crops to produce ethanol. Brazil is one of the few countries that still use food crops.

Second Generation Biofuels

This is mainly the use of non-food crops to produce all types of fuels.  The most popular one used now is switchgrass. This process is very complicated because this crops do not produce enough sugar which is necessary to produce fuels.

Harvesting Switchgrass

Third Generation of Biofuels

ALGAE (See blog on The Future of Algae)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

In United State hydro dams are responsible for 10% of total electricity and 61.12% in Canada.

The perfect place for this is Eleuthera. Water from the sea can come in from the rough side and go out through the calm side and in between produce energy for electricity. This would significantly reduce the cost of electricity throughout Eleuthera.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WIND ENERGY

Wind farms are not recommended by me because they are very expensive, unreliable and produce small amounts of electricity. 

However, there is a company that is willing to invest its own money to create a wind farm on New Providence if BEC would buy the energy from them. They are doing it successfully in California and the Dominican Republic currently.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SOLAR ENERGY

Commercial:

Residential:

Water heating accounts for about 30% of the average home electricity bill.

Solar Thermal

This is the fastest growing renewable energy throughout the world. Germany is the world leader in converting solar energy into electricity. In The Bahamas we have 265 solar days therefore this method is highly feasible. In Germany, the electricity that is produced by solar panels are feed into the national grid and is sold to the electricity company. The building is wired with a meter that records both the amount of electricity produced and consumed. The electricity company sends the consumer either a credit or a reduced bill at the end of the month. That is called net metering. The net amount is mainly an accounting procedure. In The Bahamas we should be moving towards this method with great haste.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commentary:

The Bahamas is well positioned to be the world leader in renewable energy. We have the ability to be the leader and not the follower in this field. In order for this to happen we must create a national development plan and take politics out of the mix. 

One of the biggest questions over the next few years is going to be, what to do with BEC. As it stands now BEC is the regulator, the creator and distributor of electricity in The Bahamas. Here are some points to consider:

1. Electricity and Water in The Bahamas must be placed under URCA. URCA will provide an independent review of prices and processes.

2. Even though the consultants suggest that BEC not be privatized. WTO and other international organizations will insist that the government get out of the business of utilities.

3. The government need to pass The Clean Air Act. This would force everyone to burn clean fuels or seek renewable energies. This would also reduce our carbon emissions and give us high marks in international ratings.

4. BEC must outsource the supply of clean fuels and renewable energy.

5. The government must privatize the city dump and allow the garbage to be converted into fuel. 

6. Net Metering laws should be passed by end of the year and custom duties should be lowered on solar panels.

7. The building code need to be updated to include provisions for renewable energy.

MODERN AGRICULTURE

HYDROPONIC AGRICULTURE

Hydroponic agriculture is the process of growing crop in water filled with nutrients without soil.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AEROPONIC AGRICULTURE

Aeroponic agriculture does not use water or soil but uses a mist filled with nutrients to feed the roots.

Click on the image for demonstration

 ADVANTAGES:

1. Higher crop yield. 

2. Better quality crops - The crops are bigger and more nutritious.

3. Faster crop yield - Crops maturity is quicker.

4. Greater profitability - Overhead cost is low with high output.

5. Reduction in food import bill - The Bahamas import $400 million in food product every year.

6. Could be built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. 

Hurricane damaged banana farm

DISADVANTAGES:

1. Costly to set up.

COMMENTARY

After the last food crisis, everyone should now realize that 

FOOD SECURITY = NATIONAL SECURITY.

Every year The Bahamas is under the threat of hurricane. Therefore our agriculture industry is always under threat. We can overcome this if the government was to encourage all farmer to use modern techniques. With careful planning the agriculture industry could become a major pillar of national development. This requires access to capital, retraining, marketing and proper distribution. 

The next step in the process is the creation of food products through processing, canning and distribution.We must now push hard to become self sufficient in certain food products.

FISH FARMING

The Bahamas should become the fish farming capital of the world.

October 23, 2012.

THE FUTURE OF ALGAE

THE FUTURE OF ALGAE

Algae Biofuel

Algae are an attractive way to harvest solar energy because they reproduce themselves, they can live in areas not useful for producing food and they do not need clean or even fresh water. In addition, they use far less space to grow than traditional biofuel crops.

“Algae consumes carbon dioxide and sunlight in the presence of water, to make a kind of oil that has similar molecular structures to petroleum products we produce today,” said Emil Jacobs, vice president of research and development at ExxonMobil.

“That means it could be possible to convert it into gasoline and diesel in existing refineries, transport it through existing pipelines, and sell it to consumers from existing service stations.”

http://www.4us2be.com/cars-transport/algae-biofuel/

Algaculture (Algae Farming)

High oil prices, competing demands between foods and other biofuel sources, and the world food crisis, have ignited interest in algaculture (farming algae) for making vegetable oil, biodiesel, bioethanol, biogasoline, biomethanol, biobutanol and other biofuels, using land that is not suitable for agriculture. Among algal fuels' attractive characteristics: they can be grown with minimal impact on fresh water resources, can be produced using ocean and wastewater, and are biodegradable and relatively harmless to the environment if spilled. Algae cost more per unit mass (as of 2010, food grade algae costs ~$5000/tonne), due to high capital and operating costs, yet are claimed to yield between 10 and 100 times more fuel per unit area than other second-generation biofuel crops. The United States Department of Energy estimates that if algae fuel replaced all the petroleum fuel in the United States, it would require 15,000 square miles (39,000 km²) which is only 0.42% of the U.S. map, or about half of the land area of Maine. This is less than ¹⁄₇ the area of corn harvested in the United States in 2000. However, these claims remain unrealized, commercially. According to the head of the Algal Biomass Organization algae fuel can reach price parity with oil in 2018 if granted production tax credits.

Algae Cultivation
Algae can produce up to 300 times more oil per acre than conventional crops. As algae have a harvesting cycle of 1–10 days, their cultivation permits several harvests in a very short time-frame, a strategy differing from that associated with yearly crops (Chisti 2007).

Algae can grow on land unsuitable for other established crops, for instance: arid land, land with excessively saline soil, and drought-stricken land.

This minimizes the issue of taking away pieces of land from the cultivation of food crops (Schenk et al. 2008). Algae can grow 20 to 30 times faster than food crops.
Wikipedia

Other Uses of Algae

Commercial and industrial algae cultivation has numerous uses, including production of food ingredients such as omega-3 fatty acids or natural food colorants and dyes, food, fertilizer, bioplastics, chemical feedstock, pharmaceuticals, and can also be used as a means of pollution control.