The biggest buzzword in agriculture today is sustainability. It’s a goal with pursuing, for sure, but it can also feel very daunting when it demands huge and wholesale changes to your business model.
I’m an advocate for achievable sustainability — making changes that move the needle on how we treat our land, water and air, but also work within a real-world agriculture context. Here’s an achievable sustainability example worth considering: E-fresh air storage product applicators.
Traditional stored potato fog application units combust gas (usually propane but sometimes diesel) to produce the heat required to distribute a sprout control or storage enhancement product effectively. Though this technology works well, it’s got a notable downside: off-gas.
Propane applicators’ off-gas, when released into the storage bin area, can negatively impact fry colour. That risk is highest late in the season when a resting crop is especially vulnerable. To get around the problem of fry colour change, some newer propane units and all diesel heat exchangers push the off-gas (and, in the case of diesel applicators, the excess heat) outside the storage by way of an exhaust pipe.
While that solves one issue — the challenge of colour change — it leaves another: the exhaust is very negative for the larger environment.
Enter the E-Fresh fresh air applicator, a relative newcomer to the marketplace. E-fresh relies on electrical rather than propane or diesel heat, which means it produces an entirely clean heat with no off-gas. The technology is just as effective as propane/diesel-powered machines at fogging a conventional chemistry (ie: CIPC), modern products (1,4SIGHT, 1,4SEED, 1,4ZAP) or alternatives (Smart Block, clove oil – registered in the US only, etc.). Some custom applicators also use E-Fresh units to fog on disinfectants like OxiDate. E-Fresh applicators are comparable to propane units in terms of purchase price and significantly less expensive than diesel exchange units.
E-Fresh has been available in North America since 2013 and has really grown in popularity in the last handful of years. Part of that is driven by custom applicators’ own increasing commitment to sustainability, part is due to support from processors: some chipper and French fry companies now require processing spuds from certain provinces to have been exclusively treated with fresh air machines instead of conventional application technology.
As for us, we’re walking our talk: all of our company’s Canadian distributors now exclusively use E-Fresh units. If you’re a grower, ask your custom applicator for E-fresh. If you’re a custom applicator, check E-fresh out: it’s practical sustainability at its best.
