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For the average american school bus, 1 gallon of gasoline, worth $2.60, can take you 7 miles. Thus, on our 28 mile round-trip journey to Pete's Farm (assuming that the Blue-bus is similar to the average american school bus) used 4 gallons of gasoline, which cost about $10.40. While the economic cost of transporting 20+ people to Pete's farm is fairly low, this doesn't factor in the environmental cost. In the combustion of 1 gallon of gasoline, 19.64 pounds of CO2 are released into the atmosphere. This means that our 28 mile mile trip, which used 4 gallons of gasoline, emitted 204.26 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere! 

However, I feel that what we learned from this trip compensates for this large amount of (harmful) gas released into the atmosphere. I thought that it was very interesting to hear Farmer Pete's view, especially on organic vs. inorganic farming. One thing i found very interesting was when he talked about monoculture-farming to be extremely efficient. From an APES course i took last year, we learned all about how monocultures WEREN'T efficient (because they generally deplete the soil much faster and much more erosion/degradation of the land occurs) and how polyculture farming was a much more sustainable option.

I thought it was very interesting to hear him talk about why he chose not to farm organically (especially when he mentioned that even organic farming includes 'chemicals' -- H2O=chemical :O!). Hearing it first hand and BEING at the farm made me realize how it is simply not feasible (or at least extremely difficult) for large farms to be organic. I visited an organic farm in Singapore, however, compared to Pete's Farm, it was tiny! So I think visiting his farm made me realize how difficult it being 'organic' is on a big farm.  

This is where I found the stats for the avg. school bus:
http://www.americanschoolbuscouncil.org/index.php?page=fuel-calculator

This is where I found the stats for CO2 emissions:  http://www.rprogress.org/energyfootprint/energy_footprint/?id=1b