Solving Problems for the Earth & Our Communities
David Blume and Buckminster Fuller go way back. Bucky even wrote the foreword to Dave’s classic book, Alcohol Can Be a Gas!
His influence has informed Dave’s work across the decades, and now the nonprofit Buckminster Fuller Institute is accepting tax-deductible donations on behalf of Whiskey Hill Farms & Science Center to help Dave continue along the path Bucky laid out.
Thirty-three videos and counting on our YouTube channel. “Farmer Dave” Blume loves teaching and farming, and it shows as he takes you through little vignettes of what’s happening in the greenhouses at Whiskey Hill Farms. You can also see some interesting videos about alcohol fuel, its history, Dave’s global vision for clean fuel, and even a look at converting cars to run on alcohol with Daryl Hannah and Ed Begley.
Thirty-two appearances, so far. Check out the topics Dave talked about on this very popular show. “According to estimates by Talkers Magazine, Coast to Coast AM has a cumulative weekly audience of around 2.75 million unique listeners listening for at least five minutes, making it the most listened-to program in its time slot.”
Buckminster Fuller wrote the 1983 Foreword to the original version of my book, Alcohol Can Be a Gas! Fueling an Ethanol Revolution for the 21st Century. He has always been an inspiration and guide to me. —David Blume
Mexicans may think it’s unlucky to have seaweed wash up on their beautiful beaches, but, looked at from the natural resource perspective, the country is truly fortunate to have a surplus of Sargassum seaweed! They just need to harvest it before it would ever reach the beach….
A short introduction to some of the ways that alcohol fuel — also called ethanol — can transform people’s lives and the planet.
I attended a high-level think tank in Mexico some years ago. We were there to work on the world’s pressing problems. There I met a board member of Maersk Shipping, the owner of the largest container ship fleet in the world. I asked him what fuel he’s planning to use to replace bunker diesel since the world is ready to ban it. He told me that his company was looking at Liquefied Natural Gas or Liquefied Hydrogen….
Learn the true history of alcohol as the clean, renewable fuel in America, a story that oil companies and the media have kept hidden from you.
We are pleased to share, with permission, the article Whiskey Hill Farms’ Clean-Fuel Revolution from the Good Times newsletter, by Mark C. Anderson.
In this fascinating article in Edible Monterey Bay, Deborah Luhrman writes:
“What was once a giant packing shed now houses fermentation tanks and 12-foothigh distillation towers where Blume has been practicing what he calls “mankind’s second oldest profession”—making alcohol. The objective is to manufacture and sell distillation equipment that converts food wastes into alcohol, which can then be used for dozens of purposes from fuel to vodka….”
Now open to the public for the first time! Saturdays 10 to 2. For years, the Whiskey Hill Farms & Science Center tour has amazed, informed, and delighted students — from grade school through post-graduate, including permaculture/landscape students — and visitors from the U.S. Senate and House and public agencies such as the USDA, the DOE, and NASA; from tribal governments; from the UN and numerous foreign governments; and from a wide range of non-profit development organizations. Now open to the public, unabridged, and full of excitement!
As part of our zero waste ethos at David Blume’s Whiskey Hill Farms & Science Center, we use two fermentation processes to produce alcohol and fertilizer. Instead of the current practice of treating most agricultural byproduct from agricultural operations as waste, this process turns this “waste” biomass into fertilizer and alcohol and reduces the waste stream going to the county landfill.
April 22, 2022. “In 2021, biotech company Blume Industries and Whiskey Hill Farms became recipients of The Farmer Rancher Grant, a major grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Western Division of Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE). “The grant aims to support farmers and ranchers who are striving for sustainability; since 2009, BI…
Read More “Blume Industries & Whiskey Hill Farms Receive Another USDA / SARE Grant” »
David Blume hosted an open house at Whiskey Hill Farms to demonstrate the no-waste local-scale alcohol distillery set-up and other regenerative agriculture technologies developed and implemented by Blume.
Farmer Dave talks about how overstory plants protect and affect canopies of plants below them in Whiskey Hill Farms’ tropical exotic fruit rainforest jungle, available for the public to visit near Santa Cruz, California.
Farmer Dave explains why it’s so hard to get organic tropical fruit in America, and he shares a look at his organic tropical rainforest located at Whiskey Hill Farms near Santa Cruz, California.
Real wasabi flavor is like nothing else, so delicious and so good for you. Here are some ideas and recipes for incorporating fresh wasabi in your meals and snacks. Be sure to see further below for info on using wasabi leaves to expand your world. Grating wasabi root fresh for sushi is just the beginning.
There are lots of good suggestions in the “Get Involved” section of our alcoholcanbeagas.com website.
Sanitizers are products we use to kill or neutralize harmful bacteria, viruses, and (in some cases) fungi from our skin and surfaces. By definition they are toxic to these microbes. Our goal is to use sanitizers to stay healthy and safe. But could it be that the cure is worse than the disease? It doesn’t have to be so, but most sanitizers on the market have harmful chemicals in them. Some are astonishingly harmful, or even deadly.
David Blume describe cómo crear alcohol y coproductos valiosos utilizando desechos de alimentos y otros productos de desecho ricos en carbohidratos. Traducido al español.
David Blume’s classic book, Alcohol Can Be a Gas! is now available in digital format! At last, a version of the massive 8-pound tome we can afford to ship! Learn more about what makes Alcohol Can Be a Gas! a book that’s changing the world in big ways. You can read a large sample on the book’s Amazon page.
Whiskey Hill Farms & Science Center will make good use of your tax-deductible donation in any amount — thank you for helping us help the planet. If you’re thinking of donating $400 or more, you may be interested in these premiums we are pleased to be able to offer you.
Donations are received on our behalf by our sponsor, the nonprofit Buckminster Fuller Institute.
Here’s an aerial view of the Whiskey Hill Farms & Science Center, on 14 acres in Freedom, California, near Santa Cruz. The video also provides a quick look at some of our offices and our event spaces that may be available for rent. We also have some nice rooms in the main house and campsites available. Come stay with us!
This fascinating two-and-a-half-hour talk by David Blume provides an entertaining and thorough introduction to the topic of alcohol fuel.
In the late 1800s, getting to the “Wickedest Town in the West” was a full day’s dusty ride from Santa Cruz, California. The coastal town of Whiskey Hill was home to bars, brothels, fistfights, gunfights, and bull-versus-bear fights — until they ran out of bears and started havin’ plain old bullfights.
Dave Blume and Robert Re show us around the Whiskey Hill Farms local-scale alcohol distillery and factory for production of numerous co-products.
In this short talk, Dave Blume explains how alcohol can be used to inexpensively and ecologically create high-quality edible protein using cattail plants.
Go bananas in our tropical fruit forest at Whiskey Hill Farms.
We love the spicy kick of wasabi with our sushi, but did you know that most wasabi served in restaurants is actually fake? That’s right, the green paste that we’ve come to associate with wasabi is usually made from a mixture of horseradish, mustard, and food coloring.
In this short video, regenerative farming expert David Blume gives us a close look at a tobacco plant he grew in the tropical forest at Whiskey Hill Farms near Santa Cruz, California. He demonstrates how hummingbirds interact with its funnel-shaped flowers — and answers the question, “Why does a tobacco plant make nicotine?” — that dangerous chemical that so many people are so addicted to.
In this short video, David Blume explains how George Washington inadvertently encouraged the making of moonshine.
IEA advocates for bio-ethanol use to support clean fuel cookstoves usage that will prevent exposure for women and children to toxic emissions from wood and fossil fuel-based indoor cooking and heating, help lower carbon emissions and stop deforestation.
Consulting for a wide array of clients including governments, farmers, and food processors in turning waste into fuel, animal feed, carbon dioxide, and valuable industrial products.
I am often asked how I first learned about alcohol’s ability to run vehicles? I can still remember, as clear as a bell, talking about brewing beer (which was still illegal in 1974) with Doc Sweeney, one of my ecological biology professors at San Francisco State. He was infamous for telling students outrageous tall tales with a straight face just to see their reaction, or better yet, to see if he could get away with it.
By David Blume — The overwhelming consensus in the scientific community is that global warming is causing rapid climate change, and that the cause of global warming is the burning of fossil fuels (and, to a lesser degree, deforestation). When we burn fossil fuels, we are combining hydrocarbons with oxygen. The carbon part of the fuel becomes carbon dioxide, the commonly recognized greenhouse gas; but the hydro part becomes water vapor, a greenhouse gas 20 times as potent as carbon dioxide.