Ward Middleton -- an organic farmer located north of Edmonton -- mixes a row of compost with manure. He says any additional feedstock for composting or fertilizing is welcome.

Digestate can now be stored and applied as an organic fertilizer

Offers a lower-cost nutrient feedstock for organic producers, says Alberta Agriculture

Reading Time: 3 minutes Amendments to Alberta’s Agricultural Operation Practices Act (AOPA) now permit digestate and “select organic material” from non-agricultural businesses to be stored or composted in manure storage facilities before being applied to land.

Finding a valuable use for pea and lentil hulls will increase the value of those crops for farmers, said Michael Riedijk, CEO of Lucent BioSciences.

Pitch pays off for startup organic fertilizer maker

Fertilizer made from pea and lentil hulls wins supercluster funding and praise from environment minister

Reading Time: 2 minutes Apitch at an ag innovation forum a year ago has paid dividends for a Vancouver company that wants to make fertilizer out of waste material from pulse processing. Lucent Plant BioSciences and its partners — including pulse trader and processor AGT Foods — is receiving $1.3 million from the protein supercluster to help develop a […] Read more


Nick Savidov (left) and Marc Legault used a bioreactor to convert poultry manure to fertilizer in three weeks.

Alberta project turns manure into liquid gold

Researcher says liquid composting of manure is a viable on-farm process whose time has come

Reading Time: 2 minutes Nick Savidov doesn’t mince words when he talks about relying solely on synthetic fertilizer to feed the planet. “The fact is that if we don’t learn how to recycle nutrients and water, we are doomed,” said the senior research scientist at the Bio-industrial Opportunities Branch of Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. “We will start dying off […] Read more

Mylar- and Kevlar-reinforced tanks house the micro-algae used to clean up GHG emissions. Liquefied poultry manure helps the micro-algae grow.

Call it a win-win: Curbing pollution with chicken manure

Scientists have found a type of micro-algae that gobbles up greenhouse 
gas emissions — and it has a taste for nutrient-rich chicken manure, too

Reading Time: 3 minutes Poultry manure and that annoying green slime which grows in our lakes each summer could hold the key to helping the province’s oilsands mining companies and coal-fired power plants clean up their act, while producing a valuable commodity in the process. Researchers have discovered a strain of naturally occurring micro-algae that can scrub 100 per […] Read more


bioenergy plant

Southern Alberta farm leading the way in green energy

Chris and Harold Perry have added anaerobic digesters to 
thermal and solar power generation on their Chin-area farm

Reading Time: 3 minutes Chris and Harold Perry take the power of science and sustainable farm practices very seriously. The southern Alberta farmers call it their “2020 vision” — reduce farm inputs such as water, fuel, electricity, and synthetic fertilizer by 20 per cent while increasing net yields by 20 per cent. And they don’t think small. In November, […] Read more