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The maple syrup industry is no exception to the general shift towards sustainable farming practices. Efficiencies in energy and time save resources and costs.
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As the agriculture industry continues to adapt to climate change, farmers, researchers, and governments are looking for ways to expand upon and extend sustainable practices to maple syrup production.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), via the Acer and Development Program (Acer), promotes the sustainability of maple syrup production through competitive research grants of up to $500,000 for individual US states, tribal governments, and research institutions. Likewise, the Canadian government is investing more than CA$1 million through its Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP) to support 77 maple syrup producers upgrade their equipment such as reverse osmosis systems and management activities such as tree marking and forest planning.
There are two unique qualities of the maple syrup industry that are important to understand before diving into how funds like the ones outlined above can help maple syrup production be more sustainable.
The first is that practically all maple syrup is produced in Canada and the US. The former produces roughly 71% of the world’s maple syrup, of which 91% comes from Quebec. The US produces the remaining, mainly the Northeast and northern Midwest. The market size of the syrup in 2023 was estimated at $1.46 billion.
The second aspect is that maple syrup producers have a deep-rooted culture of “stewardship” for their sugarbushes – the name for a group of sugar maple trees – that make production inherently sustainable for future generations of farmers. This includes tapping trees according to their age and giving proper time between harvests for regeneration; older trees can sustain more taps than younger trees. Maple syrup tapping also occurs seasonally, typically in late winter to early spring, which makes adapting to climate change and preserving the health of the trees especially important.
For answers, we can turn to one of the many institutes conducting research on the sustainability of maple syrup production. In the fall of 2022, a team of researchers at the University of Michigan’s School of Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) received a grant of $500,000 from Acer to conduct a life cycle analysis (LCA) on maple syrup production in the US over the span of three years.
In an interview with Earth.Org, one of the graduate student researchers on the team, Spencer Checkoway, offered some key insights from his team’s research into ways that this unique industry is adapting to climate change.
Checkoway identified areas of improvement and created models for carbon reduction in the collecting and processing stages of the maple syrup production life-cycle. His team divided maple syrup production into four stages:
Using surveys and going to on-site locations, Checkoway and the rest of the team found that collection methods varied greatly depending on the size of the sugarbush and whether the producer was a hobbyist or a large-scale producer. His team classified large-scale producers as having roughly 10,000 trees or more in their sugarbush while hobbyists have a wide variety of acreage and trees in their sugarbush. He also mentioned that producers weighed their processing methods based on costs, mainly in time and energy, and the available technology.
The majority of carbon emissions are released in the processing & boiling and distribution stages. Checkoway explained that “the boiling point of syrup gets higher as you concentrate it because it is a sugar solution, not just water, so the thermodynamic characteristics of the solution change at each concentration level.”
The general rule of thumb is that it takes about 400,000 BTUs (British Thermal Units) or 117 kilowatt-hours (kWh) to produce one gallon of maple syrup. The concentrate is then boiled to a regulated density of no less than 66 °Bx (Brix), in which the concentrate has a 66% sugar content and goes through the Maillard reaction, creating maple syrup’s amber colour. According to the Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences, it takes about 43 gallons of maple sap to produce one gallon of maple syrup.
In 2022, the Canadian government estimated that 17.40 million gallons (104.59 million kilograms) of maple syrup were produced. Producing them required around 2.04 billion kWh of energy. Needless to say, the process is rather complex and requires adequate skills and resources.
Furthermore, Checkoway’s research slightly modifies these rules and asserts that the energy needed for the boiling point changes due to a change in the solution’s concentration. This consideration is important because it directly affects “the cost of fuel per gallon of syrup for all fuel types.” Cutting down on these costs is important for the sustainable development of the maple syrup industry.
One specific technology that came up in Earth.Org’s conversation with Checkoway was an electric evaporator. Most evaporators rely on biofuels like wood or fossil fuels like propane gas or diesel. Yet, electric evaporators like CDL’s Master-E are industry innovations that have massive potential to cut emissions and fuel costs. The Master-E can produce a capacity of 2.5 barrels per hour (100 US gallons per hour) for a production cost of around US$4.12 per barrel (40 US gallons), which is based on US$0.15 per kW of energy.
There are other techniques, such as implementing a vacuum-tubing system in the collection stage and utilising reverse osmosis in the processing stage, which producers use to cut down on emissions, time, and money. Vacuum-tubing systems help producers collect a higher yield of maple sap in a shorter period of time.
Since maple syrup collection occurs seasonally, producers are looking for ways to maximise their crop yield. Due to advancements in technology, it is now estimated that 80% of a crop can be collected by 20% of operations by the University of Vermont (UVM). Likewise, reverse osmosis cuts down on boiling time and emissions, which further benefits how a producer spends their time and energy.
While the maple syrup industry, and the agricultural sector as a whole, are not the voracious energy consumers like the transportation or industry sectors, the US and Canadian governments have dedicated some focus on how to cut emissions through grants and other investments. Maple syrup farmers themselves are interested in sustainable farming practices not just for overall environmental and cost-effective reasons, but because climate change is a very real threat to production and livelihoods. The loss of suitable land due to warmer and wetter weather and a lesser quality yield are just two of the concerns producers have. Producers can only adopt what little sustainable practices there are to adapt to the impact of climate change on their own terms.
Most of the maple syrup producers Checkoway met in his study were enthusiastic about the chance to improve their farming practices. Given the culture of sustainability embedded in the industry, there is reason to be optimistic that farmers will continue to find sustainable and efficient farming practices and hopefully government research grants such as the one provided to Michigan’s SEAS can continue finding new technologies and techniques to sustain our love of maple syrup.
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