A new wealth is being unveiled on farms across the area, and its source, for many years going down the drains and into fields and landfills as a waste, is quickly becoming a gem.

From livestock manure to food waste, leftover crops to plastic containers and bale wrap, and even the sunshine and the wind, farmers and researchers across Wayne and Homes counties, as well as the state, are discovering new uses for everyday items once thought to be useless.

The highlight of the area is the push for anaerobic digesters, which produce usable biogas from animal and food waste.

The idea a car could be powered by gasses in cow manure, or a neighborhood of houses or businesses could be heated from the same, has gone from a scientific marvel to an everyday reality. At Schmack BioEnergy, the area's leader in digester research and investments, the company plans to build two of potentially 7,000 digesters across Ohio within the coming months and in Wayne County.

It's part of a move company President Mel Kurtz said "has really turned into building an industry" - an industry of farmers and business owners who will invest in digesters, local manufacturers who will build, construct and maintain the necessary parts, and local utility companies that partner with the farmers and their new energy,

But the concept behind creating the energy is nothing new, said Mark Suchan, in charge of project development with Schmack. In fact, its basic concept is as old as man, at least in theory.

"It's not new technology," Suchan insists. "It's the same concept as a human stomach - really - a cow stomach. What we're really doing is feeding the tank - the stomach."

Digestion relies on gasses created from organisms exposed to the waste inside a holding unit called a digester. The organisms "digest" the waste and as Suchan and the industry puts it, the organisms "fart," emitting methane, which is what utility companies need to produce energy.

As more farmers become providers of energy, their relationship with their utility companies and their communities will change, experts predict, moving the state from a centralized to a decentralized supply of energy.

"Our relationship with our electric utilities over the next few decades will change," Dale Arnold, director of energy services for the Ohio Farm Bureau, told attendees at a waste-to-enery conference held this spring in Wooster.

Arnold said farms will soon see digester facilities made to fit the farm, according to what kinds of waste they produce and how much.

He predicts an "influx of money into state and federal programs that have a proven track record" to produce energy over the next several years.

Grant money is being made available to farmers at the federal and state level, including federal stimulus funds. And it's already doing its job, Arnold said.

"For every dollar being awarded in a grant, we're seeing 4 - 5 dollars being rewarded in a loan guarantee," he said.

Ohio is the fifth largest user of electric in the nation, with only 18 nations in the world using more electric, said Mark Shanahan, Gov. Ted Strickland's energy advisor.

Ohio is the 26th state to adopt a renewable energy standard, which requires the state to produce a minimum of 25 percent of its electricity from advanced energy technology by 2025.

Meeting the environmental requirements of the policy are a must, Shanahan said, but so is taking advantage of the economic opportunity.

"We have enormous resources if we can begin to figure out how to bring them together and leverage those resources to help the Ohio economy," he said.

Arnold, like many of the farmers and energy experts of the movement, say there's no one-shot answer.

"There ain't no silver bullet," he said. "There is no one technology available that is going to address all of our energy needs for fuel and electricity from this point forward. However, there are several different technologies that can be used together."

Those technologies include the Skystream wind turbines installed by Wayne County businessman Bernie Caldwell, the manure separator equipment installed and maintained by Harold's Equipment of Holmes County, the commercial digester being used by Smith Dairy of Orrville and the recycling and re-use efforts coordinated by the Soil and Water Conservation District.

Those are the emerging technologies in our area - our local efforts as consumers, farmers, townships and counties - to fulfill efforts as big as the state's energy standard, and the national push for energy independence.

Getting there will take planning and foresight, said Arnold, who also is a member of the Ohio Department of Development's Wind Working Group and Biomass Task Force. But with careful planning, and support by the federal and state government, energy will change, he predicts.

"We in agriculture, and even outside of agriculture, we're going to take a look at better business management, business plans, finances, our willingness to write a personal investment . . we are still going to have to push a pencil."

The rewards will be worth it, he predicts, as renewable energy becomes a reality, and the weakened economy responds to the impact of the new investment and new hope.

"Twenty-four months ago, that (energy production) was considered a challenge and a problem," he said. "It's now considered an economic stimulus."

The stories of local entrepreneurs in our area's energy movement are told in this section. They are the pioneers of grass-roots efforts to produce affordable, clean and renewable energy from their own wastes and the resources around them.

With each success and challenge, they advance the foundation of energy development and economic growth many say is finally taking form.

Reporter Chris Kick can be reached at (330) 287-1635 or email ckick@the-daily-record.com