NY State Fair butter sculpture to be turned into biodiesel fuel

by poolparty | August 21, 2008 at 03:23 pm

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NY State Fair butter sculpture to be turned into biodiesel fuel

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The NY State Fair opened today, and after the fair ends this year's butter sculpture will be turned into biodiesel fuel for the first time.

This year's New York State Fair has brought something new to the time-honored butter sculpture. It has turned the tradition green. When the fair ends, the state university's College of Environmental Science and Forestry will convert the sculpture's 900 pounds of butter into biodiesel for the college's vehicles — enough to power five round trips to the Adirondacks.

Normal 0 The butter sculpture has always been one of my favorite things to enjoy in the Dairy building…that and the 25-cent chocolate milk!

The butter sculpture has been a popular attraction during the fair since 1969.

Since 1969, it has been the centerpiece of the Dairy Products Building, which houses the Rainbow Milk Bar, the Dairy Princess Booth, special dairy drinks, and an array of dairy products.

College scientists, in collaboration with the American Dairy Association and Dairy Council, Inc., and the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency, will make the butter into biodiesel at the production facility on the ESF campus.

"Thirty-seven percent of the college's fleet runs on some form of renewable energy, including biodiesel," said ESF President Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr. "Using the butter sculpture is a unique way to fuel the ESF fleet."
After the fair’s 12-day run ends on Labor Day, the butter will be brought to the ESF biodiesel production facility.

It takes a lot of butter to make these amazing sculptures.

He said it takes about nine pounds of butter to make a gallon of biodiesel, so this year’s 900-pound sculpture should yield around 96 gallons of biodiesel. (If left in stick form, 900 pounds of butter is enough to cover more than six football fields, according to the American Dairy Association and Dairy Council, Inc.)

The work is an extension of a project already in place at ESF, in which students collect used fryer oil from dining facilities at neighboring Syracuse University and use it to make biodiesel fuel for the college fleet.

“Dairy farmers are the original environmentalists, recycling nutrients and water on their land, so it makes sense that this annual tribute to them is itself finding new life in fuel, rather than being discarded,“ says Skip Hardie, a second-generation dairy farmer, from Lansing, N.Y. “This is a fitting way to mark the sculpture’s 40th anniversary.”

This year’s sculpture is called “Cow Jumping Over the Moon”. There aren’t any photos currently uploaded of this butter sculpture, so if you have any please upload them to the story. I have highlighted one from The Post Standard in the mean time.

Dennis Nett / The Post-StandardFor the annual butter sculpture at the New York State Fair, artist Jim Pelton created "Cow Jumping Over the Moon."
This year's butter sculpture re-enacts the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle" in 900 pounds of butter, with the cow jumping over the moon, plus the little dog, dish and spoon.

It is the third time the fair has gone with the cow jumping over the moon theme. The first butter sculpture 40 years ago featured the theme, and on the 20th anniversary, the theme was repeated. This year is the 40th anniversary

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liamssoft

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 04:05 on August 22nd, 2008

Stephanie Sobotka, I like this story. It's good stuff.

hkp7fan

at 17:18 on August 22nd, 2008

This is one of several butter sculptures made by Third Country National (TCN) employees of the U.S. Army dining facility at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait for Thanksgiving 2007.

hkp7fan has contributed a photo to this story.

bmyrum

at 18:18 on August 22nd, 2008

The story is very interesting thank you. The pig is from the Texas State Fair in Dallas. Thank you for using it on you article.

bmyrum has contributed a photo to this story.

misslava1

at 18:46 on August 22nd, 2008

taken at Toronto's Royal Winter Fair

misslava1 has contributed a photo to this story.

Nukemann

at 19:10 on August 22nd, 2008

Photo of visitors and the 2007 NY State Fair butter sculpture.

Nukemann has contributed a photo to this story.

atrahamrepol

at 19:18 on August 22nd, 2008

Martha Dolezal Taken at the Iowa State Fair

atrahamrepol has contributed a photo to this story. They are also recycling all of their butter sculptures into bio-diesel.

alida saxon

at 20:16 on August 22nd, 2008

Butter sculpture at the annual Big E West Springfield, MA

alida saxon has contributed a photo to this story.

unclejerry

at 20:48 on August 22nd, 2008

This was taken at the State Fair of Texas in 2006. each year they have a different butter sculpture.

unclejerry has contributed a photo to this story.

efdisaster

at 21:11 on August 22nd, 2008

the Photo contributed by me is from the Big E festival in Western Massachusetts

dyeing4art

at 00:12 on August 23rd, 2008

These buttery, bovine beauties were on display at the Michigan State Fair - August 2007.

dyeing4art has contributed a photo to this story.

lioninthesun101

at 04:32 on August 23rd, 2008

These photos were taken last year, 2007, at the NYS Fair in Syracuse, NY. We go to the fair every year, and thought that this year's sculpture was very good. Stay tuned for this years photo...

lioninthesun101 has contributed a photo to this story.

kimberly the girl robot

at 09:49 on August 23rd, 2008

2006 new york state fair butter sculpture. photo by kimberly eccles of dewitt, new york.

kimberly the girl robot has contributed a photo to this story.

dawnknowlton

at 16:19 on August 23rd, 2008

These little piggies went to...The State Fair of Texas.

Every year the State Fair of Texas features a butter sculpture exhibit. Created by butter artist Sharon BuMann, it was a whimsical entourage of flying pigs, farm animals in a hot air balloon, bees and butterflies. The sculpture was made from 800 pounds of unsalted butter.

dawnknowlton has contributed a photo to this story.

karen.hopple

at 19:04 on August 23rd, 2008

It's become a tradition for my family to have butter sculptures on holidays. I carved this one for Easter this year.

karen.hopple has contributed a photo to this story.

mama_meadowlark

at 08:04 on August 24th, 2008

This butter sculpture was at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, MA. They have a great butter sculpture every year, and we look forward to seeing what they choose to do!

mama_meadowlark has contributed a photo to this story.

atoosa9

at 20:35 on August 24th, 2008

My parents talked me into going on a cruise by making it my birthday present. It was fun and all, but I frankly felt I was being attacked by food the whole time I was on board. Whether it was buffets by the pool, or overly lavish meals at restuarants, everything was over the top and seemed so wasteful of food. The crowning glory of excess was the midnight buffet, which did, I must admit, feature some interesting food art. My caption for this photo of a 5 foot Statue of Liberty made of butter was:

"Give me your weary masses hungering for buttered bread..."

atoosa9 has contributed a photo to this story.