For 57 years, the New York State Fair butter sculpture has represented a beloved tradition, as fairgoers line up to catch a glimpse of the 800-pound masterpiece.
This year’s sculpture honored the 125th anniversary of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” book and was titled “Dairy For Good: Nourish. Grow. Thrive.” It depicted the nourishment dairy provides at every stage of life, and the butter was supplied by O-AT-KA Milk Products in Batavia, New York.
But after 13 days in the spotlight, the sculpture’s journey wasn’t over. In fact, it was transformed into something even more magical: Power.
After the fair rides are torn down and the last food stall is wheeled away, the butter sculpture was sent to a working dairy farm in Western New York, Noblehurst Farms.
There, the sculpture was recycled into energy.
“It goes into [an] anaerobic digester, and it sits in there for about 28 days,” Noblehurst Farms' co-owner Jack Klapper, told CNY Central. “Over that period of time it releases methane and the methane gets converted into electricity.”
It’s been this way for 10 years.
And this year was no different. On September 2, Klapper and his fellow co-owner, Chris Noble, disassembled the sculpture, breaking it down into pieces to be transported in trash bags less than 15 miles from its origin.
Once on the Noblehurst Farms property, farmers combine the butter with other food waste from local grocery stores, cafeterias, and manufacturers, along with cow manure, and process it in the farm’s digester.
As it breaks down, the material creates enough electricity to power the farm, its on-site creamery, and more than 600 homes for an entire year.
“We are extremely honored to be the 'official' recycler of the New York State Fair's butter sculpture,” Klapper said in a statement.
“At Noblehurst Farms we take pride in being good stewards of the land. Recycling 800 pounds of butter is just another opportunity to showcase how we are sustainable by diverting food waste from landfills and creating renewable energy.”
Powering the farm is one thing, but the fact that the electricity generated on the farm also feeds into the local power grid is when Noblehurst knew they were onto something.
The butter sculpture alone can power a home for roughly three days, but it’s part of a bigger ecosystem of food waste recycling.
“When we first started, we were recycling about 500 tons of food waste per month,” Noble said. “Now we’re recycling more than 100 tons a day. What used to power about 300 homes, now powers more than double that.”
While the butter sculpture gets people talking, it is also the catalyst for an even greater mission. Over the last decade, Noblehurst Farms has recycled four tons of butter from the State Fair and has been recognized nationally for its achievements in sustainability, especially following the inception of the food recycling program in 2015.
Not only does this growth offer renewable energy to the local community, but for Noblehurst, it represents what the future of farming could look like.
“It’s really important to focus on the whole life cycle of the cow and the products it’s making,” Noble said. “We’re not just producing milk. We’re also managing manure, recycling food waste from our communities, and generating renewable energy that’s used to power the farm and surrounding homes.”
Klapper added that this kind of food waste diversion and energy production helps “push the farm forward into the next generation of farming.”
“What we’re able to do on farms today is incredible. You know, over the last 20 years, there’s been a lot of technology introduced to the agricultural sector, and this is just one highlight of it. And we’re proud to be recyclers,” Klapper said.
“When the 57th Annual Butter Sculpture comes down after the Fair, the real transformation begins. And 10 years in, Noblehurst Farms is just getting started.”
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Header image courtesy of Pixabay
