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CapitalPress.com
Friday, December 13, 2019
People & Places
In search of sustainability
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
CORVALLIS, Ore. —
For Chad Higgins, the “aha”
moment came purely by
chance.
Higgins, an associate pro-
fessor of biological and eco-
logical engineering at Ore-
gon State University, was
walking casually past a
6-acre sheep pasture near
campus in 2015 when he
observed something peculiar.
Two years earlier, the uni-
versity had installed a solar
array on the land, generat-
ing 1,435 kilowatts of renew-
able electricity. It was never
meant for research, but Hig-
gins’ scientific mind couldn’t
help but notice how much
greener and more lush the
grass was growing in the
shade beneath the panels.
“You could literally see
ecological differences as a
result of the installation,”
Higgins said.
The discovery led Higgins
and his team at the Nexus of
Energy, Water and Agricul-
ture Laboratory, or NEWAg,
to begin studying how solar
installations can make con-
ventional farms more prof-
itable and sustainable, from
powering electric tractors to
conserving water in low-rain-
fall areas.
Now Higgins has his
sights set on establishing
what he calls “the Disney-
land of sustainable agricul-
ture,” a research farm where
growers, developers and aca-
demics can put these bold
concepts to the test.
Called the Staterra Center,
the name is derived from the
Latin words “statera,” mean-
ing balance, and “terra,”
meaning Earth.
“We have an opportunity
to do good,” Higgins said.
“We have an opportunity to
provide stable and additional
revenue streams to American
family farms. We have an
opportunity to make sure we
don’t run out of food in the
future.”
Practical research
By his own admission,
Higgins is not the most likely
person to be designing farms
of the future.
Higgins grew up in rural
upstate New York before
heading to Cornell Univer-
sity, where he graduated in
2000 with a bachelor’s degree
in agricultural and biological
engineering. He later earned
his master’s degree and doc-
torate in mechanical and
environmental engineering
from Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity in Baltimore.
At that point, Higgins
was studying turbulence and
Established 1928
Capital Press Managers
Western
Innovator
CHAD HIGGINS
Age: 41
Family: Wife, Patti
George Plaven/Capital Press
Chad Higgins, associate professor of ecological and biological engineering at Ore-
gon State University and director of the Nexus of Energy, Water and Agriculture Lab-
oratory, is aiming to build a research farm called the Staterra Center to experiment
with sustainable farming technology.
fluid mechanics — interest-
ing subjects, he said, though
highly technical and their
significance was difficult to
explain.
“I wanted to do something
more practical,” Higgins
said. “I wanted the research
I did to be close enough to
an implementable reality
that I could explain it to my
grandma....”
In 2007, Higgins left the
U.S. for Europe to work at
the École Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne in
Switzerland. There he taught
classes and helped to develop
computer codes that could
track Alpine hydrology and
better predict avalanches.
After four years overseas,
Higgins said he began feel-
ing homesick. He saw OSU
was hiring an irrigation spe-
cialist, and decided to apply
despite his limited training.
“By some miracle, I was
able to make the case that
what I had learned could be
applied to irrigation,” he said.
One of Higgins’ first vis-
its in Oregon was to the
recently built Shepherds Flat
Wind Farm in rural Gilliam
and Morrow counties along
the Columbia River. Star-
ing across a maze of wind
turbines covering 30 square
miles, Higgins made his first
connection between renew-
able energy and its effects on
farmland.
“I asked the simple ques-
tion: Do the wind turbines
affect the irrigation demand
of most fields?” Higgins said.
“That’s the day I founded the
NEWAg Laboratory.”
Agrivoltaic systems
As director of the NEWAg
Lab, Higgins and five post-
graduate students examine
how food, water and energy
intersect — whether through
technology, public policy or
By GEOFF PARKS
For the Capital Press
PERRYDALE, Ore. — The Per-
rydale High School FFA chapter’s
2019 Food For All program collected
over 350,000 pounds of food for dis-
tribution to over 8,000 needy families
throughout the Willamette Valley and
the central coast.
The effort, now in its 21st year, is
sponsored by the Lower Willamette
FFA District, In addition to Perrydale,
it includes Willamina, Dayton, Sheri-
dan, Yamhill-Carlton, Central and Dal-
las. It is coordinated by Food For All
program founder and retired Perrydale
ag adviser Kirk Hutchinson and aided
by Christina Griffin, Perrydale High’s
FFA adviser.
Each year, Perrydale and the other
general farm practices.
The researchers pub-
lished their first paper on
wind energy in 2015, which
showed that turbines at Shep-
herds Flat did increase water
evaporation by about 10%.
However, Higgins said the
paper was “woefully and
totally” ignored.
After Higgins took his ser-
endipitous walk past the 35th
Street Solar Array, he knew
right away the lab needed to
pivot from studying wind to
solar.
Using a combination of
meteorological equipment
and soil moisture sensors,
the lab spent months analyz-
ing conditions in the pasture.
What they found was grass
beneath the solar panels used
water 300% more efficiently,
growing 90% more forage
for livestock grazing.
“It was a massive
improvement in water effi-
ciency and productivity,”
Higgins said.
The idea of co-developing
land for farming and solar
panels — known as agrivol-
taics — is nothing new. Ger-
man physicists were first to
propose the concept in 1981.
“You essentially treat light
as a farm resource that you
manage, and don’t just take
as it’s given,” Higgins said.
“You put light, or sun, in the
same class as you put water
and fertilizer, for exam-
ple, something you actively
manipulate for agronomic
benefit.”
Essentially, there is a
maximum amount of light
that plants can convert into
sugars, Higgins explained.
Just like people sweat in the
hot sun, plants also use more
water to cool themselves
under stress.
Rather than apply more
irrigation, Higgins said solar
panels can create the shade
that plants need to grow more
efficiently, while also pro-
ducing valuable electricity
that can be used on the farm.
Higgins has a few ideas
where the electricity can
be used for even greater
environmental benefits. It
could go toward electrify-
ing farm machinery, such
as tractors, lowering diesel
fuel emissions. Or it could
replace burning natural
gas in the process required
to make nitrogen fertilizer.
Either way, Higgins
said agrivoltaic systems
could be key to help-
ing farms go from a net
carbon producer to net
carbon-negative.
“The efficiency gains
we get from technology,
coupled with all the other
benefits of light manage-
ment, are all the ingredi-
ents we need for a sustain-
able farm,” Higgins said.
Staterra Center
The most recent study
published by NEWAg
shows that solar power has
the highest productivity
when placed on farmland.
Higgins said the results
prove that, if just 1% of
agricultural land was con-
verted to agrivoltaics, it
would be enough to offset
global energy demand.
“Energy security, food
security and water secu-
rity are all pushed in the
proper direction under that
scenario,” he said.
The
question
then
becomes how farmers
and ranchers can config-
ure the systems and inter-
pret the data to make man-
agement decisions without
interrupting normal oper-
ations. That is what Hig-
gins hopes to answer with
the Staterra Center.
“I don’t expect anyone to
Occupation: Associate
professor, Oregon State
University Department of
Biological and Ecological
Engineering; director,
Nexus of Energy, Water
and Agriculture Labora-
tory (NEWAg)
Education: Bachelor’s
degree in agricultural
and biological engineer-
ing, Cornell University,
2000; master’s degree in
mechanical engineering,
Johns Hopkins University,
2005; doctorate in envi-
ronmental engineering,
Johns Hopkins University,
2007
just take me at my word,”
Higgins said. “The proof is
in the pudding, so to speak.”
Higgins envisions the Sta-
terra Center as a 5-acre parcel
at OSU’s North Willamette
Research and Extension Cen-
ter south of Portland, with
three to five solar arrays in
various configurations and
growing as many crops as
possible.
But the Staterra Center is
far from a done deal. Hig-
gins said he will likely need
a couple million dollars to
purchase the equipment and
begin the trials. Fundrais-
ing is underway, and Higgins
said a few companies may
donate panels and other gear
for the center.
“It’s all potential at this
moment,” he said. “It’s a
glimmer in our eyes, and we
have loose commitments.
But it’s not a guaranteed
thing.”
Higgins said Oregon has a
chance to become a leader in
agricultural innovation with
the Staterra Center. Given
some worrisome trends with
climate change, a grow-
ing population and declin-
ing farmland, he said farm-
ers must figure out how to
feed the world with limited
resources.
“The agriculturists are
getting squeezed on every
side,” he said. “Something’s
gotta give. We have to think
outside the box of how to do
this.”
Lower Willamette FFA District schools
collect, package and deliver fruits and
vegetables to help provide food to fam-
ilies in need throughout the Willamette
Valley and central coast.
Hands-on activities for Food For
All participants at Perrydale High
School begin with the opening of the
school year. The chapter’s student
ambassadors reach out through letters,
emails and in-person presentations to
local farmers, packers and related busi-
nesses, soliciting donations of food.
The food is collected by the stu-
dents, teachers and adult volunteers
over two days in early December. It
is packaged into donated totes full of
family-sized food bundles of potatoes,
pears, onions, apples, oranges, pars-
nips, beets, turnips, squash and other
fresh produce. The packages are dis-
tributed through Dec. 23, said Aleyah
Mauk, 16, the chapter’s vice president.
“Kindergartners through seniors
here at the school help in this project,”
Mauk said, from packaging the indi-
vidual family bags to moving pallets
and loading trucks. Any leftover food
is donated to local food banks, she said.
Griffin said because of the limited
space at Perrydale, she didn’t think
they were going to be able to take in
much more product than the 350,000
pounds collected.
Nothing is guaranteed in terms of
food promised and food received for
distribution. Hutchinson just smiled
and said things usually work out. When
a large donation of vegetables was
scrubbed early in December, another
commodity donation was boosted by
the provider.
Food For All is becoming a well-
oiled machine, he said.
“We’re getting more organized with
more schools, being able to do more
things,” Hutchinson said. “Northwest
Farm Credit Services gave us a grant
and we got our own labeled bags for
the first time.”
The 1,000-pound-capacity card-
board totes were donated by a packing
house in Clackamas, and a forklift was
made available for moving them from
the school to a delivery truck.
“We always like volunteers,” he
said. “NW Farm Credit sent 20 staff
from their Salem office to help us pack
food for a day, and we have 20 dif-
ferent volunteers that do our trucking
and our transportation for the 15 pick-
ups and 40 deliveries of the packaged
food.”
CALENDAR
MONDAY, JAN. 6
Idaho Range Livestock Sym-
posium: 8 a.m., American Legion
Hall, Marsing, Idaho. Adapting to a
changing rangeland environment.
Registration is required. Contact:
Scott Jensen, 208-894-4104, scottj@
uidaho.edu Website: https://bit.
ly/2DMjylR
TUESDAY JAN. 7
Idaho-E. Oregon Alfalfa and
Clover Seed Growers Meeting:
8 a.m., Caldwell Elks Lodge, 1015 N.
Kimball Ave., Caldwell, Idaho. Alfalfa
and clover seed growers from East-
ern Oregon, southwest Idaho and
the Magic Valley of Idaho will have
Entire contents copyright © 2019
EO Media Group
dba Capital Press
Hometown: Scio, Ore.
FFA students spearhead effort to collect 175 tons of food for needy
Submit upcoming ag-related
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their annual meeting. Contact: Ben-
jamin Kelly, 208-888-0988, benja-
min@amgidaho.com
Idaho Range Livestock Sym-
posium: CSI Herrett Center, 315
Falls Ave., Twin Falls, Idaho. Adapt-
ing to a changing environment.
Registration required. Contact: Ben-
ton Glaze, 208-736-3638, bglaze@
uidaho.edu Website: https://bit.
ly/2DMjylR
Idaho Range Livestock Sym-
posium: 8 a.m., BYU-Idaho Ag. Sci-
ence Center, 525 S Center St., Rex-
burg, Idaho. Adapting to a changing
environment. Registration required.
Contact: Benton Glaze, 208-736-
3638, bglaze@uidaho.edu Website:
https://bit.ly/2DMjylR
WEDNESDAY
JAN. 8
THURSDAY-FRIDAY
JAN. 9-10
Idaho Range Livestock Sym-
posium: 8 a.m., Bannock County
Veterans Memorial Building, 300
N Johnson Ave., Pocatello, Idaho.
Adapting to a changing environ-
ment. Registration required. Con-
tact: Benton Glaze, 208-736-3638,
bglaze@uidaho.edu Website:
THURSDAY JAN. 9
Oregon Mint Growers Annual
Meeting: 8 a.m. Salishan Resort,
7760 North Highway 101, Gleneden
Beach, Ore. Make your plans to
attend the 71st annual meeting,
where you’ll hear the latest on the
mint industry. Contact: http://ore-
gonmint.org, 503-364-2944
TUESDAY, JAN. 14
Introduction to Food Safety
& HACCP Workshop: 8 a.m. U of
I Food Technology Center, 1902 E
Chicago St., Caldwell, Idaho. This is a
one-day overview course designed
for line workers, QC personnel, san-
itation professionals, supervisors,
and other employees of food pro-
cessing operations. Participants
will spend part of the day learning
about food safety prerequisite pro-
grams, which are used to ensure
food products are free from non-
hazardous objectionable contam-
inants. Cost: $355 Website: https://
bit.ly/2DJSOSP
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 15
Farm and Ranch Succes-
sion Planning Workshop Series:
1-4 p.m. Multnomah Grange No.
71, 30639 SE Bluff Road. Gresham,
Ore. Register now for this free series
of workshops on farm and ranch
succession. Workshops are held
every other Wednesday from Jan.
15 to Feb. 26 In addition to these
courses, no-cost, confidential, one-
on-one business counseling is pro-
vided free by an experienced Farm
and Ranch Small Business Devel-
opment Center adviser. Let us help
you identify issues and evaluate
options in passing your farm and
business on to the next generation.
A complimentary light lunch is pro-
vided at 12:30 p.m. There is room
for 50 people. Presented by: Clack-
amas Small Business Development
Center and the East Multnomah &
Clackamas Soil & Water Conserva-
tion Districts. Questions? Call Diana
Tourney at 503-594-0732.
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Index
Ag Finance ........................................... 8-9
Dairy ......................................................13
Livestock ................................................12
Markets .................................................16
Opinion ...................................................6
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