AIDG Blog [Appropriate Technology, Development, Environment]

I guess you can’t keep all of the people happy all of the time.

From Treehugger:

While this TreeHugger’s local biodiesel supplier, Piedmont Biofuels, may get its hands dirty in everything from soap making to community supported agriculture in an effort to support local resilience and resource efficiency, that does not put it above criticism from some quarters. Recently a row has broken out in the local press over Piedmont’s use of poultry fat as a feedstock. On the one side stand the vegan-purists, who claim that any purchase of waste animal fats is inexcusable, due to the support it gives to the factory farming industry.

Sigh. One of the commenters did well by quoting Voltaire: “The perfect is the enemy of the good”.

On a separate note, our friend and colleague, Matt Rudolf, is the Executive Director of Piedmont Biofuels. We first met in Guatemala when he was a principal on a biodiesel project, for Comunidad Nueva Alianza.

Here is a piece from Fresh Cup [Green Power to the People] about his work at the finca.

HURRICANE FORCE: Matthew Rudolf (left) and Javier Echando start up the generator, running biodiesel for the first time, in the wake of Hurricane Stan. (Source: Matthew Rudolf)

…Rudolf then led a team of university students who worked in exchange for room, board and valuable experience to supply Nueva Alianza with a biodiesel reactor. When Hurricane Stan hit in October 2005, the system immediately was put to the test.

“The reactor made 20 gallons at a time, one little generator for the community,” says Rudolf. “This was the first time biodiesel was used to power this community.”

Related Posts:
Treehugger Interviews Lyle Estill of Piedmont Biofuels
12 Days of Xmas - 8 fuels combusting

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