Sustainable Beef Facility Planned For Indiana
Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc., a New York-based developer of advanced livestock waste treatment technology, has announced plans to build a beef production facility near Fair Oaks, Ind., in the next phase of development of a sustainable grain-finished beef product line, consisting of both conventional and organic beef products.
Bion said the facility will include its first third-generation waste treatment technology (3G Tech) platform at commercial scale. The platform will provide resource recovery and verified waste treatment that reduces carbon and nutrient/water footprints, as well as pathogens linked to foodborne illnesses and antibiotic resistance.
“We believe that today there exists substantial unmet demand – potentially very large – for ‘real’ beef and pork products that offer the sustainability consumers seek, but with the quality of taste and texture they have come to expect from grain-finished American beef and pork,” said Craig Scott, Bion’s director of communications. “We think there is a similar unmet demand for organic grain-finished beef and pork products with that same level of verified sustainability. We look forward to demonstrating that we can produce the environmentally sustainable products the consumer clearly wants, while also ensuring economic sustainability and expanded opportunities for the producer.”
The company said its patented 3G Tech platform will provide resource recovery and verified waste treatment, including dramatic reductions in carbon and nutrient/water footprints, as well as pathogens linked to foodborne illnesses and antibiotic resistance.
The facility will be designed to feed approximately 300 head in barns that can be re-configured for swine when appropriate.
“Bion’s 3G-Tech system will be sized with the capacity to treat the waste from approximately 1,500 head – large enough to demonstrate engineering commercial scale, but small enough that it can be constructed and commissioned quickly,” the company said in a statement. Bion anticipates startup sometime in the Spring of 2022.
Mike McCloskey, Chairman of Fair Oaks Farms, said, “Innovation in environmental sustainability is a concept we take very seriously at Fair Oaks Farms. The consumer understands, and we wholeheartedly agree, that sustainability is not a passing trend. In addition to our own efforts, we have worked with like-minded producers in the dairy and pork industries to develop sustainable production. It only makes sense to support Bion’s sustainable beef demonstration project, which will be our new neighbor. This is a significant effort designed to shrink beef production’s environmental footprint, while simultaneously improving production economics.”
